Carra’s Merseyside memories

Ahead of Mersey Monday on Sky Sports, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher opens up about his memories of the Merseyside derby.

Carragher made 737 appearances for Liverpool and played in 30 derby clashes over a 17-year career with the Reds.

As the rivals prepare for their latest meeting, he tells The Fantasy Football Club – in a show that will air on Sky Sports 1 at 6pm on Friday – about some of his most memorable moments against Everton…

April 2001 – Everton 2-3 Liverpool

I think it’s possibly my favourite derby win. It’s known as the ‘Gary Mac derby’ because he got the winning goal with the last kick of the game from 40 yards with a free-kick.

We were going for Champions League places and had never qualified for it before and Everton were desperate to stop us in our tracks. I think they were fighting relegation – as they were every year at that time – and Emile Heskey made it 1-0, then Duncan Ferguson scored and [Markus] Babbel made it 2-1.

They then got a penalty that was never a penalty. Jeff Winter, who always liked to be the centre of attention, gave a penalty for absolutely nothing off a long throw and David Unsworth scored.

You think the dream of Champions League football is over and Gary McAllister puts a free-kick in from 40 yards and we go berserk. The celebrations after the game were big because we’d just lost to Leeds, who were Champions League rivals, and we had 10 men.

We might have been thinking a draw at Goodison would have been a good result, but to get the winner like that, there’s nothing better.

Also in that game….me against Duncan Ferguson, with studs showing. He was a major part of team-talks in derby games. I remember when I first got in the Liverpool team, Liverpool had a horrendous record against Everton and a lot of it was to do with Duncan Ferguson because he would raise his game.

It was also the fear factor he put in the Liverpool squad at the time. He caused us problems and me problems at certain times, but you’ve got to stand up and fight against him even when he was 6ft 4in and unstoppable at his best. You had to fight fire with fire!

January 2004 – Liverpool 0-0 Everton

I’d just come back from a broken leg and I had a decent game, nearly scored, but Nigel Martyn produced a great save in front of the Kop. I was playing left-back and Wayne Rooney was playing against me on the right. Everton …

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