ON TUESDAY night, City of Liverpool FC knocked Everton out of the cup – a cup competition in which Everton are the most successful side, having lifted the trophy 46 times, and whose previous winners include Bootle, Marine, Prescott Cables, Tranmere Rovers, Southport, Earlestown, New Brighton and Liverpool FC.

This is the Liverpool Senior Cup, organised by the Liverpool County FA for teams in the city and its surrounding area, contested since 1882.

The first Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool was played in the final of this tournament in 1893, although the first official meeting between the two clubs is considered to be the First Division game in October 1894.

This is because back then, as it is the case now, top-flight teams tended to use reserve players in the Liverpool Cup.

Liverpool were reaching the end of their inaugural season after the Stanley Park split which saw the creation of Liverpool FC and Everton’s move to Goodison Park. The new Liverpool side had just won the Lancashire League which, in those early days of the English football league structure, was effectively the third tier.

Everton fielded a mixture of first-team and combination (reserve team) players in that 1893 final, played at Hawthorne Road, Bootle, where a full-strength Liverpool side ran out 1-0 winners.

The only goal of the game was scored by Scottish forward Tom Wyllie, who had moved from Everton to Liverpool as the new club was created.

“I would much rather have seen the full strength of Everton on the field, and so would lots of their supporters,” wrote Richard Samuel in a match report for the Cricket and Football Field. 

“The executive, I suppose, considered the team quite good enough to again win the cup, but when they failed it is bad form then to step in with a protest, and this on the most flimsy ground.”

A full section of Samuel’s report was dedicated to said protests. Everton believed a Liverpool player other than the goalkeeper, William “Billy” McOwen, had punched the ball clear at a corner late in the game.

“Liverpool have just as good grounds for protesting on account of time being up before the corner was taken, so you see the hollowness of the affair all through,” added Samuel. “The Liverpool men played a much better game, and played to win.”

Even then, controversial incidents could take up a large portion of a match report, and clubs fielding reserve sides in cups was a talking point in the 19th century, as it is in the 21st.

An earlier version of the Merseyside derby was contested between Everton and another club, the original Bootle FC. Bootle won the first edition Liverpool Cup, defeating Liverpool Ramblers in the 1883 final.

They went on to win two further finals before disbanding in 1893 after their first season in the Football League Second Division, making way for a new entry into the football league — newly crowned Lancashire League winners, Liverpool FC.

It’s around this area of north Liverpool between Bootle docks and Fairfield, where the first Senior Cup final was played at the Liverpool College Ground, that the best Liverpool teams emerged.

Bootle were first, winning those three Liverpool Cup finals and generally being considered the best team in the area prior to the creation of the Football League in 1888.

“The style of play produced by Bootle St Johns proved far superior to that of Everton,” writes Everton historian Tony Onslow of the first game between the two sides in 1880.

Bootle didn’t join the football league initially as only one team per city was permitted at the time and Everton got the nod. While playing on the Anfield side of Stanley Park, Everton won six Liverpool Cups and topped the Football League in the competition’s third season in 1891.

Liverpool FC came onto the scene and won their first league title in 1901, claiming their second Liverpool Cup in the same year after the competition had been dominated by Everton, who had won 12 finals by the time Liverpool won their second.

Everton also reached two FA Cup finals in the 1890s, and became the first Liverpool side to win the competition in 1906.

Liverpool FC no longer compete in the Liverpool Senior Cup, and Everton field a youth team as opposed to reserves.

The young Everton side which faced City of Liverpool on Tuesday were managed by the head coach of Everton’s U18s, Paul Tait. They struggled in the unfamiliar conditions on a windy night in Bootle, conceding a goal in either half, from Kevin McEllin and Anthony Brown.

Everton’s youngsters stuck to their plan of playing out from the back, but were rarely able to make this work due to the conditions and the high pressing and hard work in defence of Craig Robinson’s Purps.

“I thought it was a really good challenge,” Tait told evertonfc.com. 

“It was different to what we normally have in our league fixtures and I thought it was a really good mental and physical test.

“Our boys were getting a bit of stick off some of the crowd and that is the real game. Not everything is smooth and nice.

“The opportunity for them to come and play a non-league team, the learning they have got tonight will be invaluable.”

Everton still value the test provided by the Liverpool Cup as it provides a different experience for their young players, some of whom will end up playing in the lower leagues.

For City of Liverpool FC, it was another milestone in the history of the young club which is currently in its fourth season. 

A victory in the first meeting with Everton and, depending on results of other ties, a potential semi-final meeting with Bootle, Southport, or Tranmere Rovers, the new team is beginning to write its own story in Liverpool’s historic cup competition.