146: Paul Gerrard, Everton, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2001 Official Sticker Collection

Merry Christmas and thanks for continuing to read our various nostalgic ramblings. For this year’s festive post Mat Jolin-Beech delves into the finer details of some of the Barclay’s era’s most memorable moments. If you’re starting to run out of interesting anecdotes to share with your nearest and dearest then you are in luck. They probably need a minute or two to recover from your hot takes on the lack of top flight Boxing Day fixtures and the England cricket team’s obsession with golf and vibes. Over to Mat with his fun facts.

I saw something on the internet today. Cue old school Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear jokes… No, not that. But that it’s been 25 years since that incident with Paolo di Canio. To specify which one exactly, as the spicy little Italian had his fair share of incidents in his career, it came at his time with West Ham United.

The game was against Everton at Goodison Park and in a probable relegation battles. This came at a time when relegation battles still existed and the bottom end of the league was a competitive quagmire of dross. Last day shootouts common and big names at risk. These days we get Wolves…But I digress. Di Canio. Everton. That incident.

To those who don’t know: where the hell have you been? To those too young to remember: go away. It wasn’t that long ago was it? Right? Oh God I feel so old. Twice in one day. Earlier a colleague told me they wished they’d been alive to see in the millennium. I’ll let that one sink in for you.

Everton. West Ham. Goodison. December 2000. Relegation six-pointer. 1-1 in the final part of the game. West ham pushing for a winner. The Everton keeper came out to clear the ball, collapsed onto the floor outside his area when the ball was whipped in. Di Canio, rather than win the game by heading into an empty net, caught the ball. He won a FIFA fair play award for his actions. Everyone remembers that. But who remembers the keeper? I didn’t. It was Englishman Paul Gerrard.

He made 90 appearances in eight years at Goodison. But he was never really a mainstay there. In the 1998/99 season he went on loan to Oxford United, before other short term spells at Ipswich Town (2002), Sheffield United (2003), and Nottingham Forest (2004), before that last loan became a permanent deal. The point is that there are a huge number of incidents where players get forgotten. Those that are crucial to the event, but as they are not the focus, in this case Di Canio, they are forgotten.

For example, how many of you remember who took the throw-in Peter Enckelmann let roll under his foot, but crucially touched if you ask the match referee, in Aston Villa’s 3-0 defeat to Birmingham City in September 2002? Anyone? I’ll wait. And no Googling. Not that I had to… It was Olof Melberg. 

And another keeper related one. Roy Carroll. I don’t need to say anymore than that do i? He spilled a simple save following a long shot from the other half, about 29 feet over the line, only for the linesman and ref to miss it. No VAR or goal-line technology in those days. It was a simpler time… January 2005 that was. The other details? Against Tottenham Hotspur. And the unlucky non-goalscorer? Pedro Mendes.

And one more meme worth entrance from the premier league’s vault of footballing past to make you feel old. Delia Smith. And her drunken “Let’s be havin’ you” rant/rallying cry to those Norwich City fans. Do you remember any more from that? I didn’t. 28 February 2005. In what was possibly a relegation six-pointer with a then rubbish, pre-oil money Manchester City. I thought Norwich had been losing, hence the slur for support. No. it was 2-2. What makes it funny though is that Norwich did end up losing. 3-2. A last minute Robbie Fowler goal condemning the Canaries to defeat. What makes it even funnier is that Norwich were relegated at the end of the season. By one point. Was it worth it Delia?

There are many more incidents like this, that stick in the moment – but where to key parties than allowed it happen are forgotten. So let’s shine a light on them and remember them briefly until they return to the shadows.