It wouldn't be like a Merseyside club to emerge from an argument, would it? But let's ignore that for the moment. In 1880 the Merseyside derby would have been Bootle versus Everton. The former came into being in 1879. It was an Anglican church team, formed around St. John's at back of the docks and since demolished because of bomb damage. The latter had come out of church too, the St. Domingo Methodist chapel still in Bootle but a couple of miles away, as an offshoot of the cricket team and was for a year even called St. Domingo F.C.. That had been a year earlier in 1878 with Everton's first official match played just before Christmas 1879 and won 6-0 against St. Peters, the then main Anglican church in the city.
with Wyllie and John McCartney both from Ayrshire and the McQueen brothers from Harthill via Edinburgh.
However, mammon soon raised it ugly head. Up to 2,000 people a game were soon coming to see what was offered and, having played in Stanley Park, which was, of course, a public, open space it was decided that Everton "needed a better suited pitch". Translated that means a ground where people could be charged to watch, not least the local Liverpool Senior Cup had been inaugurated. Bootle in 1883 won its first playing and it seems more than coincidence that Everton moved to a new ground at nearby Priory Road the following year and that same season won that same trophy. Club captain at that time was a Scotsman, John "Jack" McGill, reputed both to be ex. Glasgow Rangers and a man with a story with remarkable similarities to that of George Ramsay at
Aston Villa. Of the latter it is said he, having just moved into the area, ask if he could join in a kick-about, impressed with his skill and was asked to be club captain and coach. It was 1880 and a number of young, footballing Scots seemed to be drifting south, perhaps on the off-chance. Archie Hunter again at The Villa was another one. Of the former there seems to be no record. In fact there is no record at all of him having played football at any level in Glasgow or otherwise north of the border, which might explain why, having arrived in Liverpool aged twenty-one by twenty-four he was in the second-team.
The new ground did not last long. The following season Everton F.C. were again on the move an installed on land on the Anfield Road. Pieces were beginning to fall into place. The club was attracting the interest of the locally wealthy and influential, not least John Houlding, local brewer and Liverpool's mayor. And as soon as it was able, officially at least, Everton turned professional and went out into the market, even to Scotland, recruiting Alex Dick from Kilmarnock, incidentally probably the hometown of McGill's grandparents. It was 1885. It would then win the Liverpool Cup in 1886 and 1877 only in 1888 and 1889 to be pipped by Bootle, which had invested too, bringing in Tam Veitch from Dumbarton, Willie, his younger brother, and others, notably ex. Queen's Park and Scotland's
Andrew Watson. Yet the Watson and the other arrivals would in the long-run fruitless. With the formation of the Football League in 1888 and its one club per town rule it was Everton that pulled the long straw. It went out into the market once more, bringing in amongst others for a season and as captain
Nick Ross
from Edinburgh via Blackburn, whilst several of Bootle's players moved across, Tam Veitch included.
In the new league Everton was remarkably successful remarkably quickly. At the end of its third season the club topped it, beating champions for the first two year, Preston North End, into second place. It was 1891, at which point John Houldng, despite having been club President, more than double the rent for the Anfield Road ground, which he had managed to buy in the meantime. The rest of the Everton Board wasn't having it. At a meeting presumably without Houlding in early 1892 it decided to find a new ground and, already having a piece of land on the other side of Stanley Park on the Goodison Road, that is where it went. It's new home was made ready remarkably for the beginning of the 1892-3 season. Most of the players were happy to move too. Lord Kinnaird, the new FA President was there for the opening, all of which left Mr. Houlding with quite a few problems.
The first was the Everton name. It looked as if there would be two clubs with the same name, that is until Kinnaird's FA ruled it should move with the ground. It was more Everton went to Goodison than Goodison became Everton. Then there was the problem of the empty Anfield ground. It wasn't going to earn its keep, at which point Houlding did the obvious and started quickly. He set about forcing his way in. In March 1892 the club's controlling company rapidly underwent a name change, from Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds to Liverpool F.C.. It then applied to join the First Division of the Football League rather than the newly-created Second, although to be fair with Bootle already elected to the Second that option would have been impossible. It was unsurprisingly knocked back, so entered the Lancashire League instead and, with crowds growing from 200 to 2000, on winning it, if narrowly, was elected to the Second Division of the Football League the following season. He employed former Everton Club Secretary, William Barclay, as manager and recruited John McKenna as Club Secretary. He brought in ex. Scotland and Everton full-back, Alex Dick, as trainer. And he bought himself a team. And to do that he went to the obvious place, not Liverpool, which seemed to produce remarkably few top players, but to Scotland, where he had previous experience and a Scots scout.
The result was that at the beginning of 1892-3 season three-quarters of the squad was Scots, thirteen newly recruited, one, Andrew Hannah, an international. In the first game of the season of the team that took the field only the right-back, Joe Pearson, was English. Five were from the
Leven Vale
and three from Ayrshire. And by the next game against Bury even Pearson had been displaced. McLean moved back. James Kelso, another from the Leven Vale and brother of the international, Bob Kelso, came in, whilst Miller, yet another from the Leven Vale, now seven in all, came in for Smith. Small wonder that the team, rather than "The Liverpool Levens" as it almost could have, became known as the "Team of the Macs", and and has been remembered as such ever since, not least because in one photograph the line-up including the trainer is as follows:
Joe McQue John McCartney Andrew Hannah Sidney. H. Ross Matt McQueen Duncan McLean James McBride Alex DickThomas Wylie (like Hannah & McLean ex. Everton) John Smith (ex. Sunderland) John Miller Malcolm McVean Hugh McQueen
In fact Liverpool was to remain a team, if not of Macs, then of Scots for several years. Not until the turn of century as it won its first league title in 1901 did the number of non-Scots exceed that of players from north of the border but even then the team played in the Scottish style, The Cross, built as it was around the skills of perhaps the greatest attacking centre-half of them all, Polmont's Alex Raisbeck.