Former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch says Steven Gerrard told him scoring against Everton would make him 'remembered forever'.
Liverpool host the Blues on Sunday afternoon with both clubs fighting at opposite ends of the table, the Reds for the Premier League title and the visitors to stay in England's top-flight. The Merseyside Derby is always a feisty affair and that looks to be the same this weekend with so much on the line.
Crouch, who spent three years at Anfield, revealed that he and the Belgian star had 'a few scraps over the years' and said that anyone who saw Liverpool vs Everton as a 'the friendly derby' had to be having a laugh. Crouch opened his Reds account against the Blues and said that under David Moyes they were very hard to beat.
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"I played when Everton had a tough side. I remember me and Fellaini had an elbow-off a few times. He’d always come and mark me from goal kicks and he was probably just as bad as me for the elbows. So me and him had a few scraps over the years," Crouch told Paddy Power.
"You’d always have a big battle with defenders like David Weir, or players like [Joleon] Lescott. They’d always be tough games and David Moyes’ Everton were a tough proposition. They had big strong players in every position, and we did struggle at times.
"I remember scoring at Goodison and I scored my first goal in the derby, which was a really special moment, we won 3-1, and I always remember on the bus on the way in Stevie [Gerrard] was saying to me that if you score in this one, you’ll be remembered forever. And I got the first goal, it was a great moment.
"Some might call it the friendly derby but I’ll have none of that – you have to be joking! There’s nothing friendly about it when it gets going. Some of the Merseyside Derby games I played in, especially the ones at Goodison, the atmosphere, you’d feel it, even on the bus. It’s intense but it’s a great game to play in and a privilege to have played in it."
