Former Everton FC striker Phil Jevons remembers the day he stunned Liverpool at Anfield

IT WAS the archetypal ‘dream come true’. An Everton youth product scoring a winning goal, and a sensational one at that, at Anfield against Liverpool, the club he had supported passionately as a boy.

Phil Jevons’ big moment, however, came not in a high-stakes Merseyside derby, but a third round Worthington Cup tie. And it came in the black and white of Grimsby Town, not the blue of Everton.

It is more than 10 years since Jevons’ 35-yard exocet stunned the Kop, left Reds debutant Chris Kirkland helpless, and secured Lennie Lawrence’s side perhaps the most famous victory in the club’s history.

Liverpool were the League Cup holders at the time, having beaten Birmingham City in Cardiff earlier in the year. Gerard Houllier’s side had not lost a cup tie of any type in 18 months, having also won the previous season’s FA and UEFA Cups.

They lost this one, though, and for Jevons the goal marked the start, belatedly, of his professional career.

He had joined the Mariners for £250,000 just three months earlier, walking away from Everton having tired of waiting for his first-team chance at Goodison Park.

“I can’t believe it was 10 years ago,” he admits. “I am on Twitter now (his username is @phillipjevons) and it was the 10th anniversary of the game last month (October 9). I had loads of Grimsby and Everton fans tweeting me about my goal. It was nice to remember it, to be honest, and it wasn’t a bad goal either, was it?

“Being a Liverpool fan as a kid made it even more special, but Grimsby were doing well around that time. I had started off well, scored a few goals, and we topped the league in the early weeks before falling away.

“That win will always be the game everyone remembers though.”

A prolific goalscorer at schoolboy level, Jevons was on Liverpool’s books initially, but joined Everton as a teenager, and progressed steadily through the ranks, winning the FA Youth Cup in 1998 alongside the likes of Francis Jeffers, Richard Dunne and current Blues Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman.

“It was Ray Hall (Academy manager) who gave me the chance to go to Everton,” remembers Jevons. “I actually found it more enjoyable than being at Liverpool, even though I was a Red.

“The youth system at Everton around that time was absolutely fantastic, and you can see how good it was by that the strength of 1998 Youth Cup side.”

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