24th December

Macca the Manc
1991 - Steve McMahon was sold to Manchester City for £900,000. He had been Kenny Dalglish’s first signing, from Aston Villa for £350,000 in September 1985, and won three League titles, FA Cup and two FA Charity Shields in his six years at Anfield, netting fifty times in 277 reds games.

Treble from out wide
1898 - Scottish outside-left Tommy Robertson scored a hat-trick as we won 3-1 at Blackburn Rovers in a First Division fixture. He bagged a total of 34 goals in 141 reds games.

Fastest ever Toffee
1949 - Peter Farrell scored Everton’s fastest ever derby goal, after twelve seconds at the Kop end. The Blues led at half-time but two goals from Willie Fagan and another from Kevin Baron ensured we maintained our unbeaten home record that season as we won 3-1.

A rare win at the Bridge
1966 - Our most recent game on Christmas Eve saw a Marvin Hinton own goal and a Geoff Strong strike give us a 2-1 win at Chelsea.
1938 - We also visited Stamford Bridge on Christmas Eve, when Jack Balmer nabbed our consolation in a 4-1 defeat. Joe Payne bagged a brace, with Harry Burgess scoring the final one of his nine goals past us and Dickie Spence netting the last of his six strikes against the reds.

Signing on
1897 – Winger Jack Cox signed from Blackpool for £150, after netting twelve times in seventeen Second Division outings. He struck eighty times in 361 reds games, helping us to two League titles and the Second Division championship before returning to Bloomfield Road as Player/Manager in May 1909.
1895 – Keeper Harry Storer signed from Woolwich Arsenal for £75, taking over from the versatile Matt McQueen between our sticks. He made a total of 121 reds appearances before retiring in 1901. Unfortunately, he died in April 1908 aged just 37.

At home for a change
1927 - Our only other home game of the eleven first-class games we have had on Christmas Eve over the years saw Tom Scott score his fourth and last reds goal with Harry ‘Smiler’ Chambers also scoring to hand us a 2-0 top-flight victory over Manchester United.

Disappointment down the East Lancs
We have twice visited Manchester United on this day in history.
1921 – We held them to a goalless draw at Old Trafford.
1904 - We lost 3-1 in a Second Division meeting at their old Bank Street ground, with Jack Parkinson on target for the reds.

Births and death
1998 – Argentine midfielder Alexis Mac Aliister was born in Santa Rosa. He signed from Brighton & Hove Albion for a reported initial £35m in June 2023.
1942 - Short-lived outside-right Dave Wilson was born in Nelson. He signed from Preston North End for £20,000 in February 1967, having played in the FA Cup Final in 1964. However, he only made one senior appearance in his fifteen months at Anfield before returning to Deepdale.

1979 – Forward Tom Scott died. He arrived from Darlington in February 1925, despite Everton believing they had a deal in place to sign him. He struck four times in eighteen games before moving on to Bristol City in October 1928.

Starting the holidays with a win
1892 - A Tom Wyllie goal was enough for us to win our first ever game on Christmas Eve, a Lancashire League match at South Shore.

Overall record
Our overall record on Christmas Eve reads six wins, two draws and three defeats.
1910 – Forward Herbert Leavey made his reds bow as we drew 1-1 at Aston Villa when Jimmy Stewart was on the scoresheet and Harry Hampton netted one of his fifteen goals against us.
1932 – We lost 3-0 at Sheffield Wednesday, with Harry Burgess bagging the last of his nine strikes past us, Jack Ball scoring the final one of his four against us and Ronnie Starling also scoring.
1955 – We won 2-1 at Hull City when Eric Anderson and John Evans netted our goals late on at Boothferry Park in this Second Division match.

An international Christmas
1995 - Future red Rigobert Song played in Cameroon’s 1-0 friendly defeat of Liberia in Yaoundé, winning his first cap as a Metz player.

On the move
2014 - Emile Heskey signed for Bolton Wanderers, netting just three times in 48 appearances before being released in the summer of 2016.
2016 – Ex-reds winger Oussama Assaidi signed for Twente, netting nine times in 45 outings for the Dutch side.

Wedding bells
2013 – Future red Adam Lallana married Emily Jubb at Poole Register Office in Dorset.
1897 – Future reds forward Sam Raybould married Selima Wilkes.