Lee Carsley scores the winning goal during Premier League match between Everton and Liverpool in 2004.
(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
The first Merseyside derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium is here.
There’s more than just bragging rights up for grabs, as Everton aim to propel themselves towards Europe, and Liverpool look to consolidate their place in the Champions League places.
As Sunday’s game grows closer, the nerves will start to set in, but for now, I’ve looked back at some of the standout memories from Merseyside derbies gone by.
A few notes. I’ve only gone from the 2002-03 season onwards, as that’s when I first started supporting Everton. And, given this is a home match for the Toffees, I have gone with standout moments from Goodison Park derbies only.
So, here goes.
5. CALVERT-LEWIN’S HEADER
Everton did not win a home derby for over 13 years, between October 2010 and April 2024.
But when they did snap their run, they did it in style.
There was a feeling around Goodison on that spring evening. Everton had beaten Nottingham Forest a few days earlier, and they knew a win would all but ensure safety. A home victory would also derail Liverpool’s title hopes, but that was very much a secondary aim.
What followed was one of the most complete, if not the most complete, performance of Sean Dyche’s tenure. Dominic Calvert-Lewin was a force to be reckoned with up front, Everton were dominant off the ball and colossal at the back.
Jarrad Branthwaite bundled in an opener, and then Calvert-Lewin delivered an iconic derby moment, rising high at the back post to powerfully head home from Dwight McNeil’s corner and end Everton’s long wait.
4. TARKOWSKI’S LAST-GASP HEROICS
The final Goodison derby featured one of the fixture’s most memorable moments, and it came from an unlikely source.
Of all the players on the pitch for Everton at that point, one would not have lumped on James Tarkowski being the player who floated, unmarked, into the Liverpool penalty area, deep in second-half stoppage time, to lash an unstoppable, thumping volley high into the back of the net, sending the Grand Old Lady into delirium and providing arguably its last magnificent moment. To add to the special nature of the occasion, it was also the final game under the lights at the club’s home for well over 100 years.
A long VAR check added unnecessary drama, and then led to a second celebration that was almost as great in its magnitude as the first.
Tempers boiled over at full-time — Curtis Jones, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Arne Slot all saw red. But what mattered is Everton, in snatching a (deserved) 2-2 draw, had avoided defeat in their last clash with their fierce rivals at Goodison.
3. CARSLEY MAKES IT 1-0
The 2004-05 season marked the high point of Everton’s Premier League era.
While the football may have been more exhilarating in 2013-14, when Roberto Martinez’s team amassed a remarkable 72 points only to somehow miss out on the Champions League places, Everton achieved their highest Premier League finish in 2004-05, as they finished 4th.
Back then, it was not enough to secure immediate qualification for the Champions League proper. Everton were of course drawn against Villarreal — a real sliding doors moment.
But there were so many highs in that fantastic season, and certainly right up there was Lee Carsley’s winner against Liverpool.
Carsley struck home at the Gwladys Street, with the subsequent celebrations resulting in one of the iconic photos in Everton history, with Carsley ending up under a pile-on, at the top of which was Tim Cahill, fist pumping high into the air.
Everton won 1-0 — a statement result en route to Europe’s big time. If only, eh?
2. DAN GOSLING’S EXTRA-TIME WINNER
Everton had drawn away to Liverpool in the fourth round of the 2008-09 FA Cup.
Cahill scored in the 87th minute at Anfield to cancel out Steven Gerrard’s opener and force a replay, taking the tie back across Stanley Park to Goodison.
A war of attrition on an early February night followed, and Dan Gosling — only just 19 — etched his name into Everton folklore.
Leon Osman had struck the post and Lucas Leiva had seen red for Liverpool in the 90 minutes, but Everton carried the momentum into extra time.
And it was in the extra 30 minutes that Gosling made himself a hero, coolly curling beyond Pepe Reina to fire Everton into the 5th Round.
This moment is even more memorable for those who weren’t at Goodison because of the fact that they did not see it live, with the TV coverage cutting out temporarily just as the move that led to the goal played out. Everton, that.
1. EVERTON 3-0 LIVERPOOL
Not a moment, but instead an entire match.
Everton’s most dominant display over their rivals in the modern era came in September 2006. “The Andy Johnson derby”.
Fresh from signing from Crystal Palace, striker Johnson scored a double to propel Everton to a huge win.
Attacking the Gwladys Street in the first half, Everton ran riot on the counter, despite the Reds having dominated possession.
Cahill swept in their opener, before Johnson pounced on dismal defending to tuck in a second before the interval.
When Gerrard hit the woodwork from close range, with Tony Hibbert then surviving a penalty appeal for handball, the luck was clearly on Everton’s side.
And so it proved in second-half stoppage time, as this brilliant day was capped off in gloriously hilarious fashion.
Reina parried up Carsley’s shot from range, and in a desperate attempt to keep it from crossing his line, simply fumbled it straight out to the onrushing Johnson, who headed it simply into the net.
Liverpool were dismantled and Everton basked in the late summer sunshine.
Now, it’s time to make some new memories.
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Posted
17/04/2026 at
14:19:34
Gosling’s was obviously very memorable.
I remember, with a minute of normal time left, we had a chance to put the ball into the box from either a corner or a free kick, and I was shouting how I’d never seen us score a last-minute winner against those bastards.
The chance went, this was something I was never destined to see… but then, half an hour later, just before Goodison Park erupted, I remember shouting “It’s in!” Then, after all the celebrations, everyone around me was smiling and telling me, “You fuckin’ have now!”
My favourite though was the first time I ever saw us beat Liverpool on a day that has lived with me forever because it was on this day that I realised just how special Everton and the Evertonians could be when that dirty red-nosed copper (he fuckin’ had to be) chased Andy King off the pitch!
Posted
17/04/2026 at
14:38:41
Was that the Gosling goal that came off a cross by a certain “Shandy Andy”?
Posted
17/04/2026 at
15:00:04
I know this was “home” derby moments but my all time favorite was Jagielka’s rocket at Anfield. The Andy Johnson derby mentioned last is my favorite home memory.
But Jagielka’s shot, I still go back and watch it from time to time.
In fact, I think I’ll go watch it again right now:
Posted
17/04/2026 at
15:41:00
It has to be Alan Balls winner in the cup in front of 105000 spectators for me.
Posted
17/04/2026 at
15:41:01
Posted
17/04/2026 at
15:43:09
That was my first derby win as well Tony. I was right behind the flight of Kings shot and knew it was in from the moment he hit it.
Bedlam!
IF reincarnation was actually a possibility I’d reboot right at that moment.
Posted
17/04/2026 at
16:11:58
Pickfords 50-50
Posted
17/04/2026 at
16:21:50
Gosling “coolly curled” his goal? Hah. It was an off-balance stab that deflected off a defender just enough. And yes, Eric #2, it was VDM’s inch-perfect cross that made it happen. Gosling was lucky to get it out of his feet.
Tarks’ goal will always be special, but I’m with Bill Hawker #3. The greatest Derby goal in my life was, and will always be, Jags’ blast at Anfield. I leapt the couch in one bound, screaming.
Posted
17/04/2026 at
16:22:53
Because as a kid wins were so few and far between I have to say the Andy King one (my first too) and the Imre Varadi FA Cup tie. Pie in the face and all.
Posted
17/04/2026 at
16:32:38
Dave Watson. second replay.
We’d come from behind five times in the two previous games despite being outclassed for long periods. Our players simply would not lie down. It felt as if we had been chasing the tie for weeks. Then all of a sudden we were ahead.
Not the best goal we have ever scored, but Goodison shook to it’s foundations.
Posted
17/04/2026 at
17:06:35
Made me smile that Mike G. Shandy delivered an inch perfect cross and yet Gosling, who controlled the ball and shifted his body, to get it out of his feet, and get his shot away, got lucky with his off balance stab.
We all see a different game (most definitely) and my memory from about 100 yards away was that Gosling, might have got lucky with the deflection (something I never knew until I saw the goal on TV) but he showed tremendous composure in the most difficult area of the pitch to get his shot away. Im gonna have to watch it again!
Funny, Ive watched it again and the only thing Id forgotten that didnt surprise me was that the Liverpool players were surrounding the referee because they were unhappy about something!
Watch it again Mike, you might stick to your opinion about Shandys cross, but Im sure you will give the kid a lot more credit if you do.
I remember bumping into Gosling in Dubia, and my kids thought I was gonna give him some stick for the way he left Everton (as if kenwrightts amatuer Everton!) but how could I after he had given me such a beautiful memory!
Posted
17/04/2026 at
17:20:14
You have got me thinking about the 4-4 game Darren, when I watched John Ebbrell, jogging back into midfield after taking a bang in the last minute of extra time, with the game seemingly gone.
I was thinking we had given our all but had just fallen short and then in the next instant Tony Cottee, had equalised. Absolute pandemonium, and because I watched the game in exactly the same place as when Billy Kenny, got the motm, it has now taken me back to the only time I have ever seen Everton come from behind to beat them, when Morris Johnson, and Peter Beardsley, both scored.
How could I ever forget that one? Id love to come from behind and beat the bastards again on Sunday🤞
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