Harry Catterick: The Untold Story of a Football Great

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He showed little interest in interaction with the fans, they were an inconvenience and almost an irrelevance, but by way of contrast, he always promoted the team before himself. There are few photos if any of him celebrating trophies – the focus was on the players’ efforts not his. Top left: Gerry Murphy gives a rendition of The Ballad of Dixie Dean; Top right: John Hurst, recipient of the Dixie Dean Memorial Award A year earlier Manchester United duo Alex Buttner and Darren Fletcher were handed medals despite playing only three times. The first stop was California: “We went to Los Angeles Wolves but that collapsed after one year, it was a shame as we enjoyed it there and were doing well. It is a shame that people always look at the entertainers (or fools depending on your approach to the player in question) in the game, people like Mario Balotelli, Joey Barton, Steven Gerrard and Ravel Morrison to name a few recent players. Whilst their foolish behaviour is craved by journalists looking for a story and pundits looking to fill air time, there is always players who never get any attention, many of which im sure dont wish to be in the spotlight anyway, especially for the wrong reasons.

Watson nearly led Liverpool to the Double in 1899, but the team lost an FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United, then spectacularly bottled the league: needing only a draw at Aston Villa to secure the title, they conceded five goals in the first half. Villa won the championship instead. But Liverpool didn't have to wait too long for their first title, which came two seasons later, thanks in no small part to an end-of-season run that saw them let in only two goals in their last 10 games. The highlight of the evening followed Dave Prentice asking his wife Melanie, grand-daughter of William Ralph Dean, to present the Dixie Team Memorial Trophy for Sportsmanship and Respect. It went to John Hurst, who was correctly labelled “an impeccable role model of class and consistency”. At 37 years old, Potts was the youngest boss in the First Division, but Lord's punt proved to be a wise one. The new manager inherited a squad of extremely good players – playmaker Jimmy McIlroy, captain and engine room Jimmy Adamson, winger John Connelly, young striking partnership Jimmy Robson and Ray Pointer – and moulded them into an attractive passing side. Potts possessed a gentle and avuncular manner, much loved by his players, and was shrewd enough to make the meddling Lord think he was getting his own way whenever he tried to interfere in football matters. Centre half and captain Brian Labone was among the Everton players of the era to suggest that some of the performances delivered by the developing side between 1967 and ’69 were as good as any in the Championship season. By the late 1960s, the vision of producing an entertaining team based on a fluid 4-3-3 formation was coming to fruition. No less than six players developed through the Club’s youth system were regulars in the starting 11.

MENTION the names of the great managers of the 1960s, such as Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Bill Nicholson, and a wave of tributes and fondly remembered anecdotes inevitably follow.

The Catt – as he was known by Evertonians – was too wise and pragmatic to rise to the bait and preferred his team to do his talking on the pitch; something they accomplished with terrific results. Ross Barkley’s dive in the same game was a full-on deception, but Tomkins took gamesmanship to a new level and, though it scarcely matters given the wealth of these people, it would be nice to think that as well as a dressing-down from Sam Allardyce his club might have considered it worthy of some form of disciplinary measure.

'I played with great players... I just wish it had lasted longer'

The veteran took his steps first on the managerial ladder at Crewe Alexandra (as a player-manager). From there he moved to Rochdale and did well enough to earn a tilt at the manager’s job at Sheffield Wednesday in 1958. His impact in South Yorkshire was dramatic. The Owls were promoted to the topflight at the first attempt, reached the FA Cup semi-final the following season and then pushed a great Tottenham Hotspur side all the way in the race for the 1960/61 League Championship. I played a little bit of football poker. I let it be known that I did not think Ball was a great player and that I wasn’t terribly interested. He justified this on the basis that he had the best years of Bally and had doubled his money to boot – that’s as maybe and he didn’t shirk from the fallout, but it signaled the end of his and the Blues’ influence at the top table and the decline had set in. No doubt the people behind the latest stunt will get their laughs from the “lolz” generation and Spurs, with a hefty fine on the cards, will be accused of not getting the joke.

However, seven seasons that would have counted among the prime years of his playing career were lost.The question of why the 69/70 team did not go on to further success remains a mystery to even some of those who played in it. When I’m asked which is the finest buy of my career, I would answer without a doubt Tony Kay,” he said. “It was a tremendous tragedy to football, to the boy and particularly to Everton that his career was cut short for he had a quality which very few players had. He would have done an awful lot of good for this club. Due to unforeseen circumstances I couldn’t make it to Harry’s centenary, Imwould have loved to hear and enjoy football people who knew and worked alongside Harry and tell how he operated. The Everton connection would always come in useful: “It put me in good stead wherever I went – people would say, ‘Oh, you played for Everton’ as they were one of the top sides – Everton were the glory side in Liverpool.” Like Shankly and Busby, he won two league titles in the 1960s and the FA Cup once. Nicholson won the FA Cup three times in a decade with Spurs but the title only once.

I was brought up an Evertonian and my father, Ken, would eulogise about some of the great Everton players he watched from the 1930s through to the 1960s,” explained Rob. Until Evertonian author Rob Sawyer heard of Veall’s frustration and made representations to the Football League. I keep my eye on Everton; English football does not get a lot of attention here as you have to get up at midnight to watch. But some people do still remember me over here. I had forgotten all about it after Rob said he’d applied,” said Veall. “I thought they were not going to do it, which was fair enough, so when it did arrive I was very surprised and elated.This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. I quite liked Brian Clough’s approach to the pitch invader. Not the time when he clipped those Nottingham Forest fans for celebrating a cup win on his beloved turf. No, there was another occasion when someone dressed in a full clown costume, including bow tie and hat, got on the pitch during a home game against Watford in 1982. Buttner’s been great because he’s travelled to every away game with us. He’s been involved in every single training session, he’s played three times and been a substitute another 10 times, something like that. So I think that’s a contribution.”