While the countdown continues to the farewell match of Goodison Park this Sunday, when Everton faces Southampton, Mail Sport speaks to some of the old club stars for their memories of the great old lady. Here, one of the club’s most emblematic scorers, Bob Latchford, remembers his days like Everton’s No. 9.
“I guess Andy Gray should say thank you,” said Bob Latchford. “It could have been so different, I could have been part of this glorious side of the 80s, but I had spent my time there.
Latchford shares the little -known history of how Howard Kendall asked him to return to Goodison Park to raise his team in difficulty. It was in October 1983, and Kendall needed experience alongside Graeme Sharp.
“Howard called me. We had become friends earlier when I was transferred to Everton from Birmingham City and he went in the other direction in the agreement.
“I moved into the same road on which he lived in shape and that summer, I found myself in his garden because we put the world in the rights of football and politics. Howard was a very intelligent and adorable guy.
“But I left Everton in 1981 and I was in Swansea City. Howard called, however and said he would like me to come back. However, I wanted to wait impatiently. I did not know how much I would play, and I knew that Sharpy was going to be a decent player.
Bob Latchford won the golden boot when he scored 30 goals for Everton in the 1977-78 season

The former Everton striker, 74, lives south of Nuremberg in Germany with his wife Andrea

Howard Kendall, here with the Trophy Manager of the Year 1987, tried to bring Latchford back
A few weeks later, Kendall turned to Gray and therefore began a rebirth of Everton who would lead to the most successful fate in the history of the club.
One might think that Latchford, now 74 years old, would be struggling with regret, but this is not the moment that strikes him the most difficult reflection on his association with Everton.
“It’s emotional who thinks about it today. It should have been so different, I’m sorry, ”says Latchford slightly tearful.
By asking him to locate an out-of-competition period of his goodison career, many expected Latchford, the fans of the man Everton, “ walked on the water ”, delight with anecdotes from his famous goal season of 1977-78. After all, what attacker wouldn’t want to boast about 30 goals in a season?
But for Latchford, his primordial memory is a disappointment. Being part of an Everton team which allowed the League to slip through their fingers three years earlier.
“If I could never go back in time, it would then be this season 1974-1975. We were at the top of the league, the title was within our reach, but we threw it. Derby won it, four points ahead of us and we had lost fewer games.
“We lost at home and far against Carlisle, who was relegated, but we have drawn 18 times. Billy Bingham The Manager had set us up so as not to lose. We were too cautious and these prints finally cost us, not so losing against Carlisle.
“I remember that we drew with Leeds United in Elland Road in March, and they were one of the best teams in the world. In the players’ bar afterwards, all their guys came to us saying that this title is yours, it is in the bag ”.

Andy Gray benefited from Latchford’s decision not to return to Goodison for a second spell

Latchford was a favorite of goodison fans with singing supporters that he was walking on the water ”

For all his achievements, Latchford cannot help regreting throwing the title in 1975
Latchford had sent Everton to the top of the table with two goals against his former Birmingham City club during a 3-0 victory on its birthday on January 18. Everton rarely fell below first place until April 9, when they lost to another team dedicated to relegation, Luton Town. They would win only one match after that and opened the door to Derby.
“I was asked for years later if Gordon Lee, who followed Bingham, had been director this season, I thought we would have won the League, and I think the answer would have been” yes “. Gordon was more attack. People shine in the 1970s with Everton because we were almost a team but we shouldn’t have been. We had talent; We had the players. But we have never restored this year.
“Whether tactics or sign Peter Shilton when Bingham said he was going … we are failed. But I have always done my best.
Isn’t he fair.
Latchford had joined Everton the previous season in a British record contract worth £ 400,000 with Goodison Idol Kendall and Archie Styles in the other direction.
“I always felt comfortable in Goodison, but there was a strong pressure on me to deliver, especially when Howard had gone in the other direction, he was a” fans favorite “.
Latchford quickly dried up at the crowd, however, marking twice in Goodison against his former city of Birmingham which had Dave Latchford, his older brother, in order.
“We had a telephone conversation during the week, and I had slowly warned it to pay attention to a elbow or two. It was a prerequisite that I always give my brothers a little excavation. I remember having run in order to score and kick him on the way. Fraternal love. It was nothing unusual at the time.

Latchford rejoices while he scored his 30th goal of the season in the 6-0 victory against Chelsea in 1978

Latchford has entered the match, needing two goals to reach 30 but said he knew it would happen

It’s been 50 years since Latchford (right) has signed for Everton from Birmingham, with Archie Styles and Howard Kendall going in the other
“I remember that in the 1960s in Birmingham, we used to put the first corner under the bar and I would jump to hit the goalkeeper. It was always to test how brave he was. It was a tactic. If he didn’t want to, we swept all the crosses closer to him to put some challenges.
The faithful of Goodison kissed their new before and he rarely dropped them. Later, under Gordon Lee, and with a cross supply of the flying winger Dave Thomas, he was even more prolific. The banners adorned rue Gwladys, next to the church of St Luke: “Jesus saves. Latchford obtains the rebound.
For many supporters of a certain age in Everton this Sunday, Latchford is the reason why they followed the club for the first time. Much hooked by his success in a gloriously hot day at the end of April 1978. The last match of the season when Everton beat Chelsea 6-0 in Goodison and Latchford scored twice to become the first man to reach 30 championship goals in a season since Francis Lee in 1972. He received an £ 10,000 prize from Daily Express.
“As soon as I woke up that day, I had the feeling that I would score the two goals I needed,” recalls Latchford. “I have never had a feeling like that. Everything was just set up. It was the club’s centenary season. It took almost 50 years for the day since Dixie Dean had established his record of 60 goals in one season, and he was in the stands.
“I crossed the same routine: I had a massage, I left my shorts until the last minute, then I caught a ball, I missed my warm -up and tied it in the goal of Gwladys Street.
“The ground was sworn absolutely that day, a sea of blue and the level of noise … It was very difficult to block it. I had played Wembley and for England, but this day was something else. The hair on my neck even stands now thinking of the roar while I was getting out of the tunnel.
Everton ran in an advance of 3-0, but Latchford was still to mark. “You could feel the tension and the shouting crowd” give it to Bob “.
It was until the 72nd minute when Latchford marked in a corner Thomas and the ground broke out. Mike Lyons scored the fifth of Everton to the Dam of Latchford. “I was moving. But Lyon made amends a few minutes later by obtaining a soft penalty. “Fortunately, this very pretty Chelsea goalkeeper, Peter Bonetti, plunged on my shot,” explains Latchford, “and the roof came out of the place”.

Latchford had the honor of being congratulated for his feat by the hero of 60 goals Dixie Dean

The legend of Everton, who died in 1980, has a statue surrounded by railings containing 60 circles, to represent the record of eighteen 60 goals in the league
In the celebrations that followed, Latchford arranged to meet his family in a restaurant in Formmy. A bottle of champagne later, it was slightly worse for wear and tear and wanted to sail when leaving the stadium without alerting the press. He took a shortcut in the salons where he came across Dixie Dean.
“He shakes my hand,” congratulations. Then lift your finger and said with a smile: “Remember my son, you are only half as good as me!”
“If I remember Everton’s fans myself half that he, I will have done very well,” explains Latchford modestly. “His 60 goals against my 30th birthday. He was the biggest.
“Perhaps in a few years”, in 2027/28, 50 years after my 30 goals, I will be seated at the new stadium of Bramley Moore watching an advantage of Everton in front reproducing my record. Now it was worth recalled.