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The 5 players who have made the most league appearances for Everton are –
1.
Neville Southall – 578
2.
Ted Sagar – 463
3.
Brian Labone – 451
4.
Dave Watson – 423
5.
Peter Farrell – 422
It is surprising that the player who comes in at number 5 is not
often listed among the all time Everton greats. But it is fair to say that from
the mid-40s to the mid-50s he was Mr Everton. He joined in 1946 from Shamrock
Rovers together with Tommy Eglington. He was Captain from 1948 to 1957 when he
left for Tranmere Rovers.
Interestingly one of his greatest Goodison moments was when
he played for Ireland. On 21st September 1949 he scored for them as they beat England 2 – 0. This was England’s first ever defeat to 'foreign'opposition.
His years at Everton were not always easy. At the end of
season 1950/1 we needed a point at Sheffield Wednesday to avoid relegation.
There was to be no Wimbledon style escape as we crashed 0 – 6 and dropped to the
old second division. Farrell remained as Captain.
In March 1953 he scored as
Everton lost 3 – 4 to Bolton in the FA Cup Semi Final. Bolton went on to lose
to Stanley Matthews’ Blackpool in one of the all-time great finals. The
following year, he famously led us back to
the top, where of course, we have stayed ever since.
On February 18th 1956 he played his 400th
game against Chelsea at Goodison in the 5th Round of the FA Cup. Appropriately,
Farrell scored the only goal to send us into the quarter finals.
Sadly he was never to see the glory days of the Catterick
years but his loyalty and dedication certainly laid the foundation for the
future.
Farrell is usually described as a right half, a right sided
central midfielder. He also played as an inside forward.
There is an interesting
feature about him in the September 1957 Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly - see the cover above with a rather scary toffee lady! This
includes the memorable line –
‘Peter has not the advantages of an athletic physique. He
stands at 5 ft 8 ins, weighs 12 st 7 lbs. so is a rather portly figure.’
They don’t write like that anymore!
The article goes on to say –
‘But he amply compensates by his wonderful agility, supreme
anticipation and an uncanny position sense that usually takes him to the right
place at the right moment.’
Never a bigger
Evertonian
The great Dave Hickson said of him –
“Peter Farrell was
the captain and there was never a bigger Evertonian than him. I think he felt
partly responsible for the relegation and he was so happy when we were promoted
again.”
Farrell himself said
of the promotion –
“We
have no star man. Our success has been due to all-round work as a team and with
such a great bunch of colleagues, my job as captain has been made easy.”
Many would say that
he was star man but not one who craved the limelight.
For the record he
played a total of 453 games scoring 17 goals.
I never had the
chance to see him play. But from his records, character and achievements we can
truly say that he is an Everton great.
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