Complete with their “May the fourth be with you” slogan it’s not only Star Wars fans who can pick out this date on their calendars as being special, it also has particular significance for Evertonians as well. Today in 1987, Howard Kendall’s Goodison Park Empire was able to strike back and secure their second League championship in three seasons although some 35 years on – the longest such drought in the club’s history – it remains their last.
A generation on and Everton – who have added just one major trophy since in the shape of the 1995 FA Cup – currently find themselves fighting just to remain in the Premier League. Despite David Moyes’ observations when travelling through Liverpool en route to being unveiled as manager in 2002, prompting his iconic “People’s Club” observation, human nature being what it is, many a young fan will have been lured over to what Blues supporters would consider to be “The Dark Side” over the intervening decades.
Yet still at a time when their neighbours are challenging for what would be an unprecedented ‘quadruple’, there remain many thousands of loyal but long-suffering match-going patrons across the region devoted to the city’s senior club. Outsiders, particularly those not from this area, might be ignorant to Everton’s rich heritage and unique position within the game but as the club that enjoyed the highest average attendances over the Football League’s first decade, they can justifiably claim the title as being this country’s oldest major fanbase.
