I PUNCHED HIM...THEN WE WENT FOR A DRINK!
Terry McDermott lifts the lid on mayhem at Merseyside derbies
TERRY McDermott has pushed his plate of bacon and eggs to one side and is now clenching his fist.
‘ Look at this!’ he exclaims, pointing to a spot not far from the little finger on his right hand. ‘Can you see it? You see that little white dot there? That’s where I punched him and that’s where his tooth got stuck!’
It is derby week on Merseyside and over breakfast — appropriately, in the city’s Shankly Hotel — McDermott is telling the story of one of this fixture’s most notorious incidents; a tale that now has him roaring with laughter.
Here are the details: on October 20, 1979, Liverpool and Everton were drawing 2- 2 when Gary Stanley, the Everton midfielder, thundered into David Johnson, the Liverpool forward, with what McDermott now calls a ‘robust’ challenge.
It was so robust that it sparked a mass brawl and involved McDermott taking a swing at Stanley. The upshot was a red card for both players — with McDermott’s particularly significant. He was the first Liverpool player to be sent off in the derby.
‘Gary was actually a good mate of mine, we used to go drinking together,’ adds McDermott, a glint in his eye as he revisits the afternoon. ‘ He would do the circuit with us. What’s the circuit? All the clubs in Liverpool. The Continental and all those places.
‘It wasn’t just Gary. Micky Lyons, Bob Latchford, Terry Darracott — they’d all come out with us. I’d go on holiday with Micky. Now it doesn’t happen. You don’t see Liverpool and Everton players have a few pints together.
‘People thought you hated them because they played for Everton. I didn’t hate them. I just wanted to beat them. So, when we were walking down the stairs of the tunnel that day, we looked at each other and I said, “What the f*** are we doing getting sent off! The two biggest tarts on the pitch!” Then I asked him where we were going out that night!’
McDermott is enjoying telling stories from an era when Liverpool ruled at home and abroad. The midfielder, a three-time European Cup winner, is now 65 and has just published an autobiography to chronicle his rich and varied career.
No fixture meant more to McDermott than the collision between Red and Blue. Born close to Anfield, he made his Liverpool debut in a 0-0 draw at Goodison in November 1974 after returning ‘home’ from Newcastle. It was the frenzied nature of the games and the camaraderie which he loved most and he struggles to fathom that Liverpool versus Everton is now, with 21 red cards in the last 49 matches, the Premier League fixture with the worst discipline.
‘You can’t tackle,’ he stresses. ‘We used to tackle for fun. People say now the game is blood and thunder. It is not. The game is quicker but it is not blood and thunder. When it is 100mph, like it is now, you only need a little tap and you’re on the floor.’
The frenzy remains but the camaraderie is being eroded.
‘I’m not saying there is a hatred between Liverpool and Everton, but there is a terrible dislike,’ he points out. ‘There’s no need for it. It’s football and I know people care a lot about it, but there are worse things going on the world.
McDermott — who became the first player to be named Player of the Year by the PFA and FWA in the same season in 1980 — will be at Anfield tomorrow talking to fans about the glory days, such as when he scored against Borussia Monchengladbach in the 1977 European Cup final.
He thought this would be the year Liverpool reclaimed their place at the summit of the English game and it has disappointed him that the title drought, now in its 27th year, continues. Still, there is a place in the top four to secure and McDermott will take his seat for the latest chapter of this local squabble consumed by the passion he has always felt for it.
‘It’s so long ago, you forget you’ve played out there,’ he says, his voice lowering. ‘Every Liverpudlian’s dream is to play for Liverpool. I wish I was fit enough to do it again. Now I can’t walk across the road!’ Terry McDermott — Living For The Moment, £18.99, Trinity Mirror Media.