Left Back - The Man In The Other Corner

 

The romance between Everton Football Club and left backs started a long time ago. There have been some top class left backs that we could all name immediately from any era, but there are only 3 that can take a podium place.

 

Number Three – Leighton Baines

Has to be Bainesy here doesn’t it? The best left back Everton have ever had not to win anything, Leighton Baines had everything. He was hard working, tough tackling and dependable, he was also lethal from set pieces and scored dozens of goals from free kicks and penalties over the years; not to mention a few scorchers from open play as well. He was born an Evertonian himself and signed by David Moyes for relative peanuts in 2007. It was his partnership with “Peanuts” Steven Pienaar that was also all remember fondly.

 

We all have our favourite Leighton Baines goal, for me it’s the Newcastle free kick, closely followed by his thunder-bastard against Leicester City and maybe the two free kicks against West Ham as well. Aside from a few injury breaks, Bainesy was always in the team and sorely missed when out. There’s no surprise he was targeted by several other Premier League clubs over the years, most notably by Moyes himself when he left for Manchester United, having to settle for Marouane Fellaini instead.

 

Leighton was also an England international and played in the 2014 World Cup against Italy and Uruguay.

 

Number Two – Pat Van Den Hauwe

“Psycho” Pat won just about everything with Everton in the 1980s, he was part of that great side and remembers for his tackling, some of which bordered on assault, but he also had great technique and was capped internationally as well, but not for the country one might think based on his name.

 

Van den Hauwe gained British citizenship and chose to play for Wales, who at the height of his career had two teammates in Neville Southall and Kevin Ratcliffe among their ranks.

 

Two League titles, an FA Cup and of course the Cup Winners’ Cup were all part of the immense haul of medals Pat collected in his time at Goodison Park under the great Howard Kendall. The image of this man that comes to mind is a photograph I saw of him, I don’t remember where, but he was horizontal at waist height on a player from Nottingham Forest. I can only imagine the sound of the impact and the sharp intake of breath that MUST have accompanied it from the crowd, it looked a bad one. Everton fans love a warrior in their team and he certainly seemed to exude that kind of aura from what I have seen of him. My dad loves the man and any time Pat is brought it, the smile it gives him is as wide as the Mersey.

 

Number One – Ray Wilson

I mean come on… he was a member of the 1966 World Cup winning team for England and won that years FA Cup only a couple of months before. Ray Wilson got into football the hard way, he wasn’t part of any elite academy team; he was a Railway worker and even did his National Service in the army before playing in the old First Division.

 

Ray was first coached by Bill Shankly, before his days at the other end of Stanley Park with the other lot. Harry Catterick signed Wilson, but couldn’t play him at first due to injury but he soon made himself indispensable to his manager. Wilson could tackle and press forward much like a modern full back and help out in the attack.

 

Ray Wilson’s Everton career ended on a sour note, however, as injury plagues his last years and he was eventually granted a free transfer out, while Everton went on to win their first league title in for seven years in 1970.