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There’s not a great deal to look back on fondly from an Everton perspective on May 1; the Blues have only won three times on this date previously.
But here, we’ll look back at two of them, including a victory at one of the top-flight’s big guns and the time one of the club’s longest-serving players made his final bow in the perfect fashion:
1926 - Chedgzoy signs off 15 years of service in style
Born in Ellesmere Port, Sam Chedgzoy scored 33 goals in 279 games in his 16 years at @Everton, between 1910-26, and played 8 times for England, after which he moved to the US, and later to Canada. During WWI he served in the Scots Guards. He finally retired at the fine age of 50. pic.twitter.com/NWw9fO3GUz
— CardhawkUK (@CardhawkUK) April 7, 2020
On May 1, 1926, the curtain came down on the longest spell of an Everton outfield player in the club’s history. After 15 years and 126 days at the Blues (though he also guested for West Ham during the First World War), Sam Chedgzoy made his final of 300 appearances in royal blue.
And Chedgzoy, who had forced the rule on not being allowed to score directly from a corner to be overturned after dribbling in from his own corner in 1924, signed off as he could only have dreamt. After Dixie Dean’s opener at Bolton, the winger was on hand to double Everton’s lead to see them rise two places on the final day of the 1925-26 season.
The Ellesmere Port-born forward would then emigrate to the United States, joining New Bedford Whalers, before moving to Canada with Montreal Carsteel, who he later managed before passing away in Montreal in 1967.
1962 - Blues hold on to edge past Arsenal
#OTD 1962⚽️Manager George Swindin having been told his contract would not be renewed, overseas his final game, a 3-2 defeat to Everton, which sees Arsenal finish the season in 10th.
— ️ernie ️riffa (@goonerbeau) May 1, 2020
Jack Kelsey plays his final match and George Armstrong scores his first senior goal for the club. pic.twitter.com/ZhkMLZcRhV
On the back of a frantic 8-3 home win over Cardiff three days earlier, Everton signed off the 1961-62 season with another victory, but their 3-2 triumph over Arsenal should really have been more comprehensive.
Alex Young’s brace and Jimmy Gabriel’s goal saw Harry Catterick’s side race into a 3-0 lead with less than half an hour to play, but two goals in as many minutes from the Gunners soon put that under threat. Thankfully, though, the Blues saw it out to clinch a fourth-placed finish.
This meant European qualification for the first time in Everton’s history, and despite an improvement on the previous season’s finish of just one place, the difference in toughness and experience was plain to see. Under Catterick, Everton looked to be going places.