Don Hutchison on crossing from Liverpool to Everton - and the Anfield record he never knew he held
Don Hutchison has had one of those football careers that sounds slightly implausible when you list it all together.
Born in England but played international football for Scotland. Liverpool and Everton. West Ham and Millwall. And, as he put it himself during his exclusive interview with The Football Historian, a career full of “mental things”.
One of the biggest was crossing Stanley Park.
Hutchison is part of the relatively small group of players to have represented both Liverpool and Everton - a subject particularly close to me after writing Crossing the Park, my book about the players who have worn both red and blue on Merseyside.
Hutchison explained that when Everton came calling, he never viewed his Liverpool past as something that would stop him being accepted at Goodison Park.
“I’ve always done mental things,” Hutchison laughed. “Born in England, played for Scotland. Played for Liverpool, played for Everton. Played for West Ham, played for Millwall.
“I don’t know why it’s sort of panned out that way.”
When Hutchison met Howard Kendall before signing for Everton, the manager addressed the situation immediately.
“When I went to meet Howard Kendall, when I was going to sign for Everton, he was like, ‘You know what’s happening, don’t you?’
“I went, ‘Well, yeah.’ He went, ‘You can handle this. You’re made for this. You can put the blue shirt on.’”
Then came another layer of pressure. Kendall wanted Hutchison to inherit Gary Speed’s No.10 shirt following Speed’s move to Newcastle.
“He said, ‘In fact, I want you to take Gary Speed’s number, No.10.’ That was big because obviously he went to Newcastle.”
Hutchison, though, believes pressure simply comes with playing for major football clubs.
“There’s a natural pressure when you play for big clubs,” he said.
“There’s a natural pressure when you play for Liverpool to perform. You’re going to get scrutinised. Same when you play for Everton. Massive, massive football club.”
Rather than worrying about convincing Everton supporters with words, Hutchison knew the quickest route was rather more straightforward. Get stuck in.
“I just embraced it and thought Everton fans will like me because I’m not going to dilly-dally on the ball. I’m going to put my foot in and I’m going to be hard to play against.
“Everton fans can latch onto that, and I’m pretty sure after that I can try and be the player that I want to be. But first and foremost, I’m going to get right into people.”
Which, to be fair, is an extremely efficient Everton job interview. No Teams Meeting debrief required. Just tackle somebody.
Hutchison said he never seriously doubted that he would settle at Goodison, but his memories of Liverpool remain equally powerful.
“I never really had a doubt that I’d settle into Everton. And playing for Liverpool, I’ll never ever forget being a young boy after Hartlepool, making that first jump, signing for Kenny and playing at Anfield.
“European nights and travelling on European nights with Liverpool. Biggest club in England. Amazing.”
A piece of Anfield history Hutchison did not know he owned
During our conversation, I mentioned something Hutchison had never heard before.
He is the last Liverpool player to create a goal in front of the old standing Kop. In that he was fouled before Julian Dicks converted a penalty at the Kop end in April 1994.
His response?
“I didn’t know that!”
After checking exactly what the stat meant, Hutchison laughed: “I never knew that. I’ll take it.
“It’s them quirky stats that get thrown up and I’ll take both of them.”
The other quirky statistic? Hutchison is apparently the only player to have been sent off for Everton and against Everton.
Which somehow feels entirely appropriate for a player who later told me: “I think I had six red cards in my career and I probably deserved about nine.”
That particular story deserves an article of its own. And it has one - over on Patreon.
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