Bred A Blue: Episode 34. Neil Moore
The latest guest in our Bred A Blue podcast series is former central defender, Neil Moore. Moore is a lifelong Evertonian who lived the dream… just! He played six senior games for his beloved Blues under Howard Kendall and Mike Walker before accepting that the level of competition was always going to be just too much. “I had Dave Watson, Kevin Ratcliffe, Martin Keown, David Unsworth, Gary Ablett all ahead of me,” he recalls. After progressing through the ranks, Moore made his debut at Goodison Park in October 1992. Everton defeated Rotherham United 3-0 with Moore replacing Barry Horne in the 87th minute. “Howard sent me on up front and all I did was run around for three minutes without touching the ball,” he says. “I got slaughtered for that in the dressing room afterwards!” Two of his subsequent Premier League appearances for Everton were against Manchester United and Arsenal, so Moore found himself competing against the likes of Paul Merson, Kevin Campbell, Eric Cantona and Mark Hughes. He also played 45 minutes as an emergency striker again alongside Peter Beardsley at Goodison against Sheffield United! Like every player who worked with Howard Kendall, Moore was immensely fond of him, describing him as a ‘fantastic character and a brilliant man’ but he admits that he got more of a sniff when Mike Walker came in. “It’s all about opinions and about trust, and Mike trusted me,” he says, “which was fantastic from my point of view.” Eventually though, Moore realised that his future lay beyond Goodison Park, ‘Joe Royle just didn’t fancy me which was fair enough because that’s football’ and, ironically, it was Walker who offered him a way out – taking him to Norwich City. However, a friendly fixture at Carrow Road while he was still technically on loan, ruined his chances of a lengthy career in Norfolk. Norwich were playing West Ham but the referee called it off because the stadium was shrouded in thick fog. “You couldn’t see the half-way line,” says Moore. That’s when it got bizarre! The referee refused to take the game, so an appeal went out and a qualified official happened to be in the crowd. He duly officiated the game, in ridiculous conditions, and Moore suffered the most horrendous bad luck. “I broke two vertebrae in my spine so the chance of playing in the Championship was basically over before it had begun.” As enthusiastic an Evertonian as you could ever wish to meet, Neil Moore went on to have a long-playing career at lower league and non-league level and his love for the Blues has never wavered. He recalls his days of cleaning Neville Southall’s boots (after first knocking on the men’s dressing room door to be allowed in), buying chocolate bars with the coins intended to wash the kit in the laundrette, being coached by Mike Lyons and Jimmy Gabriel, and much, much more!
