Back in 1999, Kevin Campbell’s goals steered Everton to safety as the striker finished the club’s top scorer despite only netting for the first time on April 11.
Back when transfer deadline day didn’t arrive until March, the former Arsenal and Nottingham Forest striker returned to English football after a bizarre fall-out at his Turkish side Trabzonspor in Campbell had been described as “a discoloured cannibal” by club president Mehmet Ali Yilmaz. However, the Black Sea coast outfit’s loss proved to be the Blues’ gain as, after defeats to Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday in his first two matches, the Londoner netted an incredible nine goals in a five-game purple patch to keep Walter Smith’s men in the Premier League.
Starting with a brace in a 2-0 home win over Coventry City on April 11, it was 25 years ago today that Campbell really turned the tide for a struggling Everton team as another double inspired a 3-1 win at Newcastle United. The 29-year-old had inherited the famous number nine jersey at the club from Duncan Ferguson who had been controversially sold to the Magpies earlier in the season with transfer negotiations taking place behind the scenes as the two clubs faced each other at Goodison Park with Michael Ball’s penalty giving the Blues a 1-0 victory on November 23.
On the day of Everton’s visit to St James’ Park for the return fixture, Ferguson hit out at owner Peter Johnson’s decision to sell him for £8million. The Scot said: “From the club’s point of view, it was a bad idea to sell me because they never got the money from the deal to rebuild.
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“Maybe me going would have been a good thing for the club if they could have used the money to get two or three quality players in as a springboard to strengthen the team – but that never happened.
“I was happy at Everton, I remember reading someone saying the only thing loyal in football is a dog. Well I must have been a dog, because I was loyal to Everton and still got sold.”
Ferguson missed the game against his former club but a couple of other centre-forwards were at the heart of proceedings. Campbell fired the Blues in front after just 42 seconds but Ruud Gullit’s side had the chance to draw level on 31 minutes only for Alan Shearer – the Premier League’s all-time top scorer who also went on to become the competition’s most-prolific penalty taker, netting some 55 times – to have his high effort from the spot saved by Thomas Myhre.
Campbell doubled Everton’s advantage just before half-time and although Shearer did reduce arrears on 82 minutes with his second penalty of the afternoon, Campbell’s ex-City Ground team-mate Scot Gemmill, who had also made his Blues debut at Anfield a fortnight earlier, netted a couple of minutes from the end. Writing in the ECHO, David Prentice said: “Everton pulled off a gargantuan result in Tyneside, a result of awesome importance, and a result which places their Premiership future firmly in their own hands again.
“Just two games ago, the average Evertonian wouldn’t have trusted those hands to safely hold on to a glass of lager, let alone 45 years of top flight tradition. But the first back-to-back wins in the Premiership since November have reignited the belief that the Blues will survive.”
Recalling Campbell’s impact in his episode of the Royal Blue podcast’s Goodison Park: My Home series, Michael Ball told the ECHO: “We had two young players come in on trial from Spain or Italy, and we’d had some older players join us who hadn’t really hit the ground running. Then Kevin Campbell came in and I remembered seeing Kev on the television, training on his own and I thought: ‘Not another one – we need someone who is going to save this football club and he hadn’t done it for a couple of years.’
“We had these two lads on trial for a week or two. I liked to pit my wits against these guys when they’d come in and make it difficult but they ran riot and I remember thinking: ‘I hope we sign these two, they look dangerous and they could cause teams problems.’
“Kev came for a day and we signed him. I thought: ‘Hmm, I can’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel here.’
“Matchday comes and he’s a different animal. Mark Hughes was the same, in training you didn’t see anything from him but matchday they do what they do.
“Kevin was at the right place at the right time and had the ability to find the net. He was great with the youngsters, he was a great character and happy-go-lucky.
“In a dark period he always had a smile on his face and you sort of took that belief from him as he’d done it. He wasn’t turning up at the club for a last pay cheque, he had a job to do and knew he could pass down his experience, which he did in the mixture of a football team that we had.
“He had a fantastic link-up with Franny Jeffers. He was a shining star, which I didn’t see was going to happen but thankfully he chose Everton because he did have a lot of choices and he saved this football club with his performances.”
- Click here to watch Michael Ball's full interview on Goodison Park: My Home
