Derek Mountfield: I’ll say this to anybody, there is no better feeling than being asked to play for the team you have watched from the terraces. I was still watching Everton when I was playing for Tranmere, if there was no game I’d be on the terraces. When I first joined tranmere in ’79 I still had a season ticket so if I wasn’t involved in a game I’d be at Goodison. To get the call from Brian Hamilton one Thursday afternoon, we were training in the far corner of Tranmere’s ground before going to Blackpool for our end of season jaunt, “Over yer come Derek” and I thought what have I done?…. Brian said we’ve (Tranmere) been talking to someone about you and have agreed a deal but they want to have a look at you first… its Howard Kendal and Everton! What do you do? You’re speaking to Howard Kendal, someone you watched as a kid. Just to sign for the club was a dream come true. No matter who I played for a was always an Evertonian, always have been, always will be – simple as that.

Blue Kipper: You came as a virtual unknown player (DM interrupts – “and left as an unknown player”) and became established in a great team, who was it in the squad who helped you settle in?

Derek Mountfield: Its hard to say, I became good friends with Gary Stevens and still am to this day as we lived fairly close to each other and used to take it in turns to drive into training. But for me the biggest influence on my first year at Everton was Colin Harvey, he was looking after the reserves at the time and there was myself, Gary, Kevin Richardson, we’d just brought in Alan Harper and Kevin Sheedy. We had the experienced players Howard had brought in the likes of Alan Biley, Alan Ainscow and Mick Ferguson and Colin used to make sure those players trained with us at least twice a week. Colin Harvey worked so hard on me and the other young players, you ask any players of that era and they have always got a lot to say about Colin Harvey as a coach, he helped me enormously and gave me an understanding of what I needed to work on. I never have been a complete player but Colin made me a better player and is one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with.

Blue Kipper: Presumably it was Reidy & Andy Gray who were the dressing room motivators - is this right?

Derek Mountfield: They came in with tremendous enthusiasm and will to win. I think if someone's got that will to win its bound to rub off on the people around them. They had a big part to play, but also John Bailey was a great character in the changing rooms. He couldn’t go anywhere without taking the piss out of someone or something. Anyone who was around the club in those days knows what it was like. Two years before that I was playing at the bottom of the then 4th Division in front of crowds of around 1000, then all of a sudden I’m playing in front of 50000 against Bayern Munich. Yes those two individuals had a great influence on what happened but we had great nucleus and I think it just clicked at the right time.

Blue Kipper: What dressing room motivational moments do you particularly remember?

Derek Mountfield: The one that everyone talks about was the Bayern Munich game, we’d come in at half time 1-0 down and Howard basically said “You’ve won it, get out there and play the same way”. The biggest thing about that night was the whole build up to the game, the atmosphere outside and inside the ground and then when we came out for the second half I can honestly say it’s the one and only time I shit myself because the roar was incredible. But after Howard saying “you’ve won it”, we went out with so much confidence. Other than that I can’t remember anything specific being said before a game or at half time because once we got on a roll if we went 1-0 down after 30 seconds, like against Sunderland, we always knew we’d come back and win the game as we had so much self belief and self confidence.

Blue Kipper: I have always wondered what the atmosphere at Goodison was like during the glory days of the 80's?? (Bayern) Was it different to Goodison nowadays?

Derek Mountfield: its difficult to say because if you look at the average attendance its probably higher now to what is was in the mid eighties but football has changed so much in those 15 or so years. The Bayern Munich game was exceptional and I’ve never played in a game like it. We used to go to the St George’s hotel (holiday Inn now) every mid-week home game. We’d have a meal at Goodison at lunch time then go down there for the afternoon, allegedly lying in bed relaxing although some didn’t. I remember getting back on the coach about 6 o’clock and we couldn’t get the coach down the street end because of the amount of people. It was like Moses parting the waves, there was just this sea of blue and one by one they’d move aside to let the coach through. It was phenomenal. Its different know because it’s a different type of game, more family orientated and what you haven’t got now is terraces. I’d love to stand on the terraces in the Street end again but you can’t because of the all-seater stadium and I think that has changed the atmosphere entirely. There is not as much singing and chanting as there was in the eighties. I do want to go in the Street end again as a fan but I want to stand there, not sit there.

Blue Kipper: Do you think that will ever happen?

Derek Mountfield: I hope so, for me the game is crying out for some terracing to bring some of the atmosphere back to the grounds. The all seater stadiums have given us much beater stadiums but I do think we have lost some of the atmosphere since the terraces have gone.

Blue Kipper: Going back to Peter Reid and Andy Gray and who in your opinion was the more aggressive?

Derek Mountfield: Pat van den Hauwe.

Blue Kipper: Funnily enough Sheeds said he would back the Rat against Psycho in a 50/50.

Derek Mountfield: well they were both aggressive players, who would do everything within the boundaries of the game to win. But there were some players who were nasty as well. As for Andy Gray he was just a born leader, on the pitch he was a different class and an integral part of our success. Peter was a different type of player, snappy aggressive get it and give player who blossomed at Everton. He was a has been and crock 2 years earlier who became one of the best players in the world for those 2 or 3 years.

Blue Kipper: What would you say was the biggest single reason for our success in the 1980's?

Derek Mountfield: Me… You tell me, people say it was the Oxford game that turned us around, others say it was Colin Harvey coming up from the reserves, we just seemed to click at the right time. I remember playing those 2 dreadful games over Christmas 83. Coventry at home on Boxing day, 0-0 and we were poor, then the next day we went down to Wolves and got beat 3-0. I remember speaking to Wayne Clark when he came to Everton and he said we were the worst team they played that season. After that we played Birmingham away round about New Year. We had that silver away kit and the referee said it would clash with their kit under the floodlights so we had to were their yellow and blue away kit. We won 2-0 and then went on a good run. I believe Colin Harvey had a lot to do with it and just clicking at the right time. But there is no single reason. There's a bit of luck in there, yes Andy gray had a lot to do with it as did us getting a settled side. We’d had quite a few changes early on that season but after Christmas we had a settled back four and once you get the nucleus of a team with 11 players playing regularly you get an understanding. So all these things combined to put us in a situation that we’ll talk about for years to come.

Blue Kipper: How did you get the black eye you had in the Luton semi final?

Derek Mountfield: Mick Hartford. He bust my nose and splattered my eye that day and he’s probably the nastiest centre forward I played against. He was an honest, hard committed player but wasn’t afraid to use his elbows. I can’t remember the actual incident but I remember my eye was rather big and shut by the Sunday morning.

Blue Kipper: Its unusual to get a black eye during the game.

Derek Mountfield: yes, it happened a lot as I didn’t used to cut so I’d bruise instead.

Blue Kipper: What was your funniest memory of that time?

Derek Mountfield: not really sure as there were so many. It probably involved Bails or perhaps when Ratts scored from 35 yards and then giving Bruce a tenner for doing it. (All said in jest – all lawyers need not respond). But you have so many laughs when you’re in the game its hard to pick out one and remember one. The happiest time was the FA Cup final win because we had a fantastic night the same night.

Blue Kipper: What was your proudest moment?

Derek Mountfield: again at that time there was so many things to be proud of…was it winning the league, the Cup, the Cup Winners Cup? I’m not sure, certainly one of the proudest was going round town on the Sunday after winning the FA Cup on the open top bus. My Mum and Dad had told me where they were going to be and I had the cup in my hands when we went past them. And just to see the Everton fans out in such force was fantastic. Once you’ve done one of those bus tours you just want to do it again, because you see the pride in peoples faces, its something you don’t know what to expect but to actually parade the cup you feel like you have done something special. That really was a proud day.

Blue Kipper: A Bobby's motorbike on the '84 homecoming bus route on Scotty Rd hit a fan on Scotty road. The fan was shouting your name, & you waved just as the bike hit him. He remembers you waved the same way as you celebrated scoring with your fingers splayed out wide. How do you feel about being responsible for his near death?

Derek Mountfield: I don’t remember anyone getting hit by a police motorbike, but thank god it was only a near death and not an actual death and he’s still alive to support the club. As I‘ve said it’s such a great day with so many things happening, but I don’t think it was my fault (panicking) and he should have stayed behind the police cordon anyway (laughing).

Blue Kipper: Who was the best player you have played against?

Derek Mountfield: Probably got to be Michelle Platini. We played in a testimonial game over at Leeds for John Charles and Bobby Collins and he played in midfield. What an array of skills and passing he had. It was only a ¾ paced game but he was phenomenal. Looking at week to week when you are asked who was the best center forward you played against I put it down to 3 categories. The best pairing – that had to be those 2 from across the park. The hardest man to get the ball off has got to be Mark Hughes, he had a body which seemed to be about 6 feet wide, getting round his arse was like going on a 2 mile detour. And the nastiest was Mick Harford (see question above). I was fortunate to play against all different types of players, you’ve got the likes of Gazza and Brian Robson, the likes of Terry Butcher who played with his heart, then Glenn Hoddle who had magnificent skills. For strikers I’d say those 3, but number one was Michelle Platini. When you see him close up, & he's picking players out 40 yards. He really was phenomenal. That was when he was coming to the end of his career. He must have been an awesome player. He impressed me so much. I never got his shirt either!

Blue Kipper: Who did you kick the most?

Derek Mountfield: I didn't go out to kick anyone intentionally, but I had a few spats & fights with Mick Harford, Mark Hughes. The thing is you kick them, & you new they would kick you back. You didn't go down moaning (Derek makes the sound of a dying cat) rolling over, doing a triple solco. You got up & kicked them back again. In the 1986 FA Cup final, I went right into Dalglish, right up his backside. 10 minutes later he I went for a header, & he put his studs right down my thigh. You played hard, but I never went out to kick someone.

Blue Kipper: Do you think that if we kept the young team of the mid eighties, we would have been as successful and as dominant in the late eighties?

Derek Mountfield: Well, that’s the $64 million question. I have actually got to do a piece in a book called “What If”. For example, what if we hadn’t have had the unfortunate incident at Heysel – what would we have done? One of my biggest regrets in football is winning the football league twice and never getting the chance to compete in Europe – what could we have done in Europe in the 1985/86 season? We don’t know, we’ll never know. If this incident hadn’t have happened, I’m sure we would have kept the squad together, and who knows what we could have achieved. But that’s just an opinion – we’ll never know. It would have been great to have looked back and instead of having 2 or 3 years success, maybe having 6 or 7 years of success. It will always be the greatest talking point of the mid eighties.

Blue Kipper: What was your initial reaction when the club signed Dave Watson and the start of the 86/87 season?

Derek Mountfield: If you look back at that time, we had a spate of injuries like Gary Stevens and Pat van Den Hauwe. Howard could have signed a right back, a left back, he could have signed anybody – he decided to sign Dave Watson. I hoped at the time that he wasn’t there to replace me, but when you pay nearly a million pounds for someone, you knew he was going to go straight into the team. Nowadays, you can pay a lot of money for somebody, and they are just a squad player. In the 80’s we only had a small squad. I knew it was going to be a scrap and a battle to keep my place, but unfortunately for me, Howard stuck with Dave. He was a wonderful player for club, he played over 500 games and had F.A. cup success. Unfortunately for me, that was the nail in my coffin to force me to leave the club and further my career. I have nothing but respect for Dave and don’t hold any grudges whatsoever. You could say he was a phenomenal player and captain for the club.

Blue Kipper: Do you look back at Everton at that time with a tinge of regret or do you look back at the good times?

Derek Mountfield: Oh I certainly look back at the good times. Those good times are in the record books and I have got the trophies to show it and I’ve always got the pictures and the memories. If I look back and say “should I have given it a bit longer” well Dave came in the summer of 86 and I spent two years trying to break back into the side. It didn’t matter how well I played, I was always hauled back in the reserves. I was playing in the reserves and then I was always either sub or the 13th man the following week. I was going around the country as the then 13th man. No matter how well I played I just couldn’t get back into the side. When Howard left and Colin took over, the same happened again so I decided I had to get away to get my football going again. Maybe if I had stayed for the 3rd year, I might have broke back into the side. It was difficult after playing for 2 full seasons, the next 2 seasons I only managed less than 28 games. When you’ve had the highs, been to Wembley, played in F.A. cups, been in Europe in cup finals and winning the league championships, I wasn’t playing football! So I left really to get my football going again. Looking back, it was probably the wrong thing to do, maybe I should have stuck it out for a bit longer. I had the chance to play first team football in the 1st division, and I had to take the chance.

Blue Kipper: When Dave Watson came in, we lost your contribution in goals – what are your views on this?

Derek Mountfield: Well I scored 26 goals in 2 years, you don’t expect that from a centre half, but Dave was a different player than me. Dave was aggressive and wholehearted. But as I’ve said before, when someone pays £1 million for a player, Howard gave Dave enough time to settle in and you can’t take anything away from Dave with him playing 500 games. Basically, Dave was the reason I had to leave the club. I wasn’t the only one that was in this position. Kevin Richardson left the club because he couldn’t get a game and John Bailey left the club because of being replaced by Pat van den Hauwe, Andy Gray had to leave because they brought Lineker in – but they’ll never be able to take away the memories that I’ve got playing over 150 games for the club.

Blue Kipper: Your goal tally in 84/85 proved that you had an excellent eye for an opportunity, especially from set pieces. You not only headed goals but other great strikes as well – did you ever play as a striker in your earlier days?

Derek Mountfield: Yeah, I played in my earlier days as a centre forward most of the time and scored plenty of goals and won plenty of trophies, once scoring a hat trick in a cup final. When I first went to Tranmere as a schoolboy I went there as a centre forward, but was soon put back as a centre half. Really talking about the goals I scored – when you’ve got Kevin Sheedy and Trevor Steven putting quality balls into the box, you can’t help scoring goals! There was no special knack or art to scoring, but when you get quality service like those 2 lads were putting in, any centre half would score! When I went to Villa, I got it again with Gordon Cowans – he was another one that could provide quality service. I think I got something like 19 goals, most of them from Gordon’s quality crosses.

Blue Kipper: I think you are doing yourself a bit of disservice there.

Derek Mountfield: Ah well, there was a bit of luck involved, a bit of movement – I knew where the goal was, but if I had taken every chance, I would have won the gold boot every year!! The thing was, Ratty never went up for set players, and I was always the one, so I probably had my fair share of chances. When one came along, I just tried to put it in the back of the net. I scored some great goals, and I scored some flukey goals, there is always a bit of luck involved.

Blue Kipper: Do you remember the goal you scored in the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford? What can you tell us about that?

Derek Mountfield: I remember that Olsen scored for them from an off-side position. I remember in the 2nd half, Trevor Steven got a corner in the Stretford end. As he was taking it, he got hit by a coin. He put it in, Terry Curran got a flick on and I arrived about 15 foot in the air and headed it so hard down that it should have hit the floor and then gone over the crossbar, but fortunately, it bounced in the top of the net. Yeah, I lot of people always remind me about that one!

Blue Kipper: Another everyone talks about Derek, is the goal you scored and your celebration in the semi final at Villa Park. What’s your memories?

Derek Mountfield: Well everyone’s got their own celebrations, if you look at the different celebrations over the years, you will remember Mick Channon’s windmill. People run away with one finger in the air like Alan Shearer, I used to run away like a headless chicken!! For me it was just a bonus to score for Everton. For me I’d just scored a goal for the team I supported for crying out loud. But I’ve actually got a picture of that one when Andy Gray is strangling me around the neck, pointing to the dug out saying that we’re back in it now. It’s a great black and white picture that I’ve got framed on my wall.

Blue Kipper: Okay Derek, now for the funny bits. The muzzy – why? With a moustache like yours, did anyone approach you to star in a porno movie?!! Do you think they’ll make a come back in football?!

Derek Mountfield: I don’t know why I had it! I had it for many years and when I actually took it off, people didn’t realise that I’d had a moustache in the first place!! I took it off one night, put it on the side of the couch and it stood up and crawled away! No – I’ve never been asked to do a porn movie, and no, I can’t see moustaches making a come back, I think they are, thankfully, a thing of the past! Funny thing is, people never mention Gary Steven’s moustache in the 1984 cup final. He refused to shave until we got beat in the cup so check it up by looking at all your old videos! But I don’t miss it, it’s been gone for over 10 years.

Blue Kipper: What defender inspired you in the playground and what qualities did you try and emulate?

Derek Mountfield: If I am honest, as an Everton fan and I was a big fan of Bob Latchford cos I was a centre forward when I was a kid. But Mick Lyons takes some beating as a true Evertonian, As a kid, I watched centre forwards, cos I loved banging the goals in so I never focused on the centre halves at all, I used to watch the goal scorers. The only centre halves from the mid 70s/mid 80s were the likes of Mick Lyons and Roger Kenyon cos I used to watch them. I used to have this big thing about Martin Dobson who was a hell of a player but Latch was the goal scorer and he was the one I used to love watching.

Blue Kipper: I know we’ve touched on this before but who was your best friend at Everton?

Derek Mountfield: I still see Gary now and speak to him on a regular basis. I wasn’t a great socialiser and didn’t go out for a drink all the time, but we used to live close and we used to take turns going to training in the car. I always say hello and have a chat to the lads but I still see Bails on a regular basis, but Gary was probably the closest one in the club at that time.

Blue Kipper: Who in the modern game would you consider to be the most similar to yourself in their style of play? Tricky one!

Derek Mountfield: I don’t know, I think football now, centre halves have become more footballers. In my day, the centre half was there to defend and I think that’s where a lot of defenders now fall down. First and foremost you’re a defender and secondly, then you’re a footballer.You see a lot of players now trying to play football when they can’t and they shouldn’t. So my job was to clear the ball and if it meant putting the ball in row Z or Stanley Park I’d do it. It give everyone the chance to reboot and get back together. If there’s one centre half you’ve got to take your hat off to over the last 10 to 15 years you’ve got to look at Tony Adams I think he’s been outstanding. If it hadn’t of been for Arsen Wenger I think he’d have finished football 3 or 4 years earlier.

Blue Kipper: Did you used to live opposite the Royal Oak?

Derek Mountfield: I used to live up the road from the Royal Oak yeah.

Blue Kipper: How much do you hate the redshite?

Derek Mountfield: I’m an Evertonian – it’s as simple as that. I’m an Evertonian and I always will be.

Blue Kipper: What did you think of your time managing Cork City and what did you think of the league in Ireland?

Derek Mountfield: Cork City was a learning curve for me. I got the job and went in there with all the best intentions of doing it right. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, and there were things that I would have liked more support over and there were things I did wrong, but everyone in life makes decisions and you learn from your mistakes. The league of Ireland is a very, very competitive league and there are quite a lot of very good players who have come over here, Roy Keane and Dennis Irwin who come from Cork who have made good careers out of the game. But Irish football has to make that next step and become more professional as a league and as individual clubs. If there’s one problem with Cork it’s that it’s so isolated down south – any trip to Dublin takes 4/5 hours so I didn’t have the chance to watch enough games while I was there, which I regret. I did things wrong, I did things right, I tried to make them more professionals and tried to introduce things to them but it was a learning curve for me. I tried to do my best but sometimes your best isn’t good enough.

Blue Kipper: Do you think we should stay and redevelop Goodison or move elsewhere as the Kings Dock seems to have fallen through?

Derek Mountfield: This is the big debate. This was first mentioned 7/8 years ago when Peter Johnson was governor and we all shouted him down for being a red nose, we don’t want to move yet Bill Kenwright brought the idea back up 2/3 years ago and we all said “great idea Bill”. If you look at Goodison Park now compared to many of the premiership stadiums, we’re very much outdated. We all agree that we’ve got obstructed views, old stands. We need to do something, whether we redevelop Goodison or we move away from the place, we don’t know. I work down at the Albert Dock and I park the car in 99 mile per hour winds – I can’t imagine what that would have done to a football ground with a game on. I didn’t think that was the right venue, purely because of the logistics of getting in and out. If we move, we’ve got to move for the right reasons and maintain that we’ve got to concentrate everybody, the fans, ask them what they want, players etc. It’s got to be right, we don’t just want to go an build a stand or stadium that isn’t really fan-friendly. If we do move I’ll be there to collect a piece of Goodison Park to put in my house whether it be my old peg where I used to sit or part of the changing room or part of the pitch – I will want something to remember my times at Goodison, not only as a player, but also as a fan. If we do move, we’re going to move, to hopefully, a super stadium which will better Everton in the future.

Blue Kipper: What’s your opinion of the state of disabled football for young kids?*****

Derek Mountfield: I really don’t know much about the disabled football, I know we have a disabled football team in the club. If you look at disability, you’re looking at racism as well. We have got to make football more and more user friendly, we’ve got to make things right for the kids – they are the future of the club. We have got to make the facilities better for everybody. I work with disabled people and they are as committed to football and sport as anybody is and maybe we have to look again at whatever we can do to help them.

Blue Kipper: When you scored and when Sharpy scored, you never seemed to congratulate each other, whereas everyone else mobbed each other, was there anything in that?

Derek Mountfield: No – nothing. He called me a boney bastard! It’s hard to say, whenever I scored, Andy Gray was always the first one there. Nowadays, everyone there’s big celebrations and all that stuff, we used to jump on each other – but no – there was nothing in it, unless Sharpy has said something else!

Derek at The Alex Young Testimonial Dinner with The BLUEBLOOD stewards