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A statistic currently going around about Everton being the only club among the Football League's 92 not to have won a trophy, a title or promotion, or been relegated, since the turn of the century has contributed to a pessimism which made a gathering of the club’s faithful last Friday evening very welcome.
The occasion, at the Denbigh Castle pub, a legendary gathering place for Evertonians in central Liverpool, celebrated the former Everton captain Mike Lyons, whose life and career have been charted in a fine new book.
The aching sadness underlying an occasion in which Lyons' former team-mates took turns to relate stories of the indefatigable, generous and hugely talented team-mate they knew and loved, is that the man in question is struggling now and could not be there.
His daughter Francesca, who lives near Liverpool and calls him every day at the care home in Perth, Australia, where he is living with dementia, reminds him how cherished he is among fans. Lyons, 74, knew that the event was taking place and he knows about the book, The Man Who Bled Blue, a meticulously researched and beautifully written biography by the journalist and author Simon Hart. But his brain has frayed terribly. His family and friends have helped Hart piece together the life story.
He would certainly empathise with those 21st century fans who yearn for silverware – any silverware – and not least the League Cup, which sends the team to Preston, David Moyes’ old club, on Wednesday night. Everton were reigning English champions, four days away from contesting a European Cup quarter-final, when Lyons made his debut in March 1971.
Mick Lyons made 473 appearances for Everton in his 12 years on Merseyside, scoring 59 goals
‘He would have died for Everton,’ said his manager Gordon Lee, who declared he wanted ‘Eleven Mike Lyonses’
With Everton team-mates Martin Dobson (left) and Bob Latchford (right)
Yet his 11 years as an Everton player did not yield him a single honour. Liverpool won 15 in that time. By 1982, Lyons was on his way to Sheffield Wednesday, missing by a couple of years the start of the glorious era when Everton won the FA Cup and two titles.
Had Lyons been at Friday’s event, talk would inevitably have turned to the League Cup – and his huge role in Everton's marathon against Aston Villa in the 1977 final, won by Villa in a second replay at Old Trafford. It remains one of the greatest clashes in the tournament's history and was the closest Lyons ever came to silverware with Everton.
Evertonians still remember the intensity of his celebration when he scored an equaliser in front of the Stretford End in the second replay. ‘Michael was more animated there than at any other goal he scored,’ his brother, Joe, tells Hart in the book. (To his family, Lyons has always been ‘Michael.’) Fatefully, he was then asked to push up as a utility centre-forward as Everton chased a winner – it’s a strategy still known as ‘Doing a Mike Lyons’ among Evertonians – and a hole materialised at the back which Villa exploited to score a late winner. In the seclusion of the car on the way home, Lyons wept.
This story teaches us, among other things, that barren times can produce some of the greatest heroes, like Lyons, and that the League Cup can bring such indelible memories that Everton, who have not always fielded strong teams in recent times, should see it as an opportunity.
Hart relates how, despite the initial Wembley final not yielding a winner, the team still appeared on a planned open-bus tour of Liverpool for which vast crowds turned out. The first replay, a thrilling 1-1 draw in Sheffield rescued by a late Bob Latchford goal, would remain one of Lyons’ favourite nights of his career. He later described the noise made by Evertonians that night as ‘something I’ll always treasure. It embodied everything I’ve always felt for this club’.
The biography’s title, alongside an image of Lyons with a gashed face as he leaves the pitch after Everton’s 1980 FA Cup semi-final against West Ham – another one they lost – captures his contribution. His myriad cuts, blows and collisions form a backdrop to the book. ‘He would have died for Everton,’ said his manager Gordon Lee, who declared he wanted ‘Eleven Mike Lyonses.’
The book’s beauty also resides in its small details, capturing the boundless enthusiasm and often comic innocence which accompanied Lyons huge professionalism and work ethic.
He drove a club-issue Lada with his name emblazoned down the side. He eschewed the posh Liverpool hair salon which the players attended for their curly perms in favour of the work of team-mate Roger Kenyon’s wife Jackie, a hairdresser. Mrs Kenyon and Lyons’ wife Tricia were in such deep conversation in the Lyons’ kitchen that the perm solution was left in the Everton captain’s hair for too long. It was a catastrophe.
Shaking hands with Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes ahead of the 1977 FA Cup semi-final at Maine Road
It is now 31 years since Everton last lifted a trophy, the 1995 FA Cup
The League Cup is the only major domestic trophy that Everton have never won, and it is time they rectified that point
You could have heard a pin drop in that Liverpool pub on Friday night when Francesca Lyons told the 100 or so people gathered that her father would have been humbled by all this attention. The consequences of his repeated heading of the ball are the same that so many old pros have had to face, full on, and Francesca has been an impressive advocate for football's need to do more for them.
There is a reason why the book’s subtitle is The Triumphs and Tragedy of Mike Lyons. The Villa captain in the 1977 final was Chris Nicholl, who lived with the form of dementia caused by repeatedly heading footballs during his playing career, before he passed away in 2024.
But Friday evening was about the life-affirming qualities of a captain and player who, Francesca insisted, would not have had his life any other way. ‘He has always been so upbeat and fun,’ she said. ‘He would have probably laughed off all the attention because he’s always been so humble.’
Moyes, who also loves the bones of Everton, has a deep understanding of Lyons’ contribution. He and his long-time assistant Billy McKinlay paid him a visit during an Everton pre-season tour of Australia some time back. The League Cup remains a trophy Everton have never won. Lyons, who still watches the club’s games from Perth, would smile to see them finally lift the three-handled trophy next March, 50 years on from that legendary three-game marathon against Villa.
The Man Who Bled Blue: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Mike Lyons by Simon Hart is published by Mount Vernon Publishing.
