Duncan Ferguson hailed during Everton testimonial

Surreal does not begin to describe it. Posted missing to the extent he was not seen at the ground for years following his abrupt departure from Everton in 2006, Duncan Ferguson was hailed to the rafters by those inside Goodison Park yesterday.

Duncan Ferguson waves to the crowd during his testimonial. Picture: Getty

And yet it was not the presence of nearly 35,000 Everton supporters that was the most powerful indicator of Ferguson’s remarkable magnetism. Rather, it was his ability to persuade Wayne Rooney to pull on an Everton shirt again that underlined the Scot’s legendary status – in these parts, at least.

Rooney might remain an Evertonian at heart but having once kissed his Manchester United badge after scoring at Goodison Park, there were issues that needed to be resolved. However, forgiveness was applied to a player due to be lining up against Everton for Manchester United as soon as October, just as veneration fell on Ferguson, this totemic and often misunderstood figure.

Three local charities have further benefited from a so-called bad boy of Scottish football, with the gate receipts accrued from a crowd of 34,718 going to Variety, The Lily Centre and Everton in the Community.

Ferguson embraces former Everton striker Wayne Rooney. Picture: Getty

Ferguson was handed an official and belated welcome home in the form of a testimonial against Villarreal. So what if it rather ruins the narrative neatness of him scoring a goal with his final touch for Everton in the last minute of the last game of the 2005-06 season.

His first touch since then came when the substitute won a typically combative header in the middle of the park. It set Everton on the way to winning a corner, from which Tyias Browning “took the ball right off my head” – or so Ferguson claimed later during an on-pitch interview – to put the home team back in the game.

But neither this goal nor Ferguson’s seven-minute cameo could prevent Everton falling to defeat against a team whose very invitation was a nod to a moment that perhaps sums up the Scotsman’s football career. Villarreal won 2-1 – just as they had done on a hot night in Spain in 2005 to qualify for the Champions League group stages at Everton’s expense.

It is almost ten years to the day since Ferguson powered home a header that should have secured Everton a lifeline in their Champions League qualifier against the Spanish side. But referee Pierluigi Collina detected an infringement that no-one else could, even with the aid of replays.

Everton’s dream of reaching the group stages for the first time died. Ferguson was robbed of his moment just as he was when his overhead kick was saved by Germany goalkeeper Andreas Kopke during a 1993 friendly at Ibrox, one of seven goalless caps for Scotland.

He would shortly endure a more serious case of being robbed of his liberty after becoming the first footballer to be jailed for an onfield offence following a head-butt incident involving Jock McStay during a Premier League match between Rangers and Raith Rovers.

“A short holiday back in Scotland” is how Ferguson obliquely referred to his time at Barlinnie in 1995 in the match programme as he explained how the support of Everton fans helped him through a difficult spell.

History was celebrated yesterday – or at least some of it was – while ancient grievances were also forgotten, in the case of Ferguson as well as Rooney. The Scot was not always regarded with such fondness during a career in which some fans, even here at Everton, regarded him as an expensive folly, particularly on the occasion the injury-prone striker was brought back from Newcastle United for near-on £4 million.

Ferguson was back wearing the 
No 9 jersey yesterday, coming on as substitute one more time – he already holds the club record for substitute appearances – to rapturous applause, swapping with another Scottish former Rangers player in Steven Naismith after 83 minutes.

Rooney appeared ten minutes earlier, replacing former Manchester United team-mate Tom Cleverley to a remarkably warm reception. As one veteran local commentator later put it, yesterday goes down as “a game-changer” in terms of the way Rooney is perceived by the blue half of Merseyside.

Instigating the thawing of relations between the fans and their one-time golden child is Ferguson’s latest gift to Everton. Some are now theorising that Rooney’s eventual return to the club is not now the non-starter it once seemed.

“Rooooon-ey, Rooooon-ey!” they sang once more on the Gwladys Street End, but mostly we heard paeans to Ferguson, whose 60 Premier League goals remain a club record. As do his number of Premier League red cards – eight.

When Everton fans were recently asked to vote for their top nine Dunc moments, two of those chosen involved on-field spats with opponents – one was a confrontation with Sami Hyypia which left the then Liverpool defender on the ground, the other was referred to as “that” Steffen Freund incident, when he was photographed throttling the Leicester City player having already been sent off.

Such trials and tribulations, if frustrating for fans at the time, help make up a compelling narrative. Ferguson certainly always knew how to create a stir. He scored his first goal for the club in a famous derby win against 
Liverpool.

“The night he became the legend before the player”, was how Joe Royle, the then Everton manager who also endured Ferguson’s lazier performances, termed it.

It was too much to expect the now 43-year-old could add to his tally of Everton goals yesterday. He barely had time to throw a punch in anger. But his mere presence in the box did spark some alarm among the opposition defence in those brief moments he was on the pitch. As manager Roberto Martinez wryly remarked later: “I always knew we’d win the period of the game when Duncan was on the pitch.” And they did – 1-0.

Everton looked in need of inspiration from somewhere as they fell behind to goals by Gerard and Nahuel, in the 38th and 60th minutes. No goals after 20 minutes prompted an inevitable cry: “Get Dunc on for Christ’s sake!”

When he warmed up for the first time after 21 minutes, it was a good ten minutes before he was able to return to the dug-out.

It was his writing hand that was given the most intense work-out as he signed autographs for the adoring youngsters at the front, many of whom were not even born when he was in his Everton heyday.

Goodison Park had become Ferguson Park for an afternoon to mark Big Dunc’s big day. Fans were invited to purchase Big Dunc mugs, scarves and tee-shirts. Two bagpipers played either side of a statue of Dixie Dean, the legendary centre-forward whose renown Ferguson, with a much more modest scoring record, could claim to rival yesterday.

Perhaps the Scot really might have a major part to play in the club’s future. Many here are anticipating his eventual graduation from his current role as first-team coach to manager, something likely to surprise Jim McLean, his former manager at Dundee United, among others.

Ferguson has even been making himself more readily available in recent times, showing a softer side to his enduring hard-man image. He contributed to a glossy testimonial programme chronicling his career. Featured inside were many of the dafter moments, including the time he turned up in a Liverpool-red blazer to sign for Everton on loan from Rangers in 1994.

There was also – gasp – an interview with the man once dubbed by local journalists as “the Tartan Trappist”, in which he claimed had he not made it as a footballer, he had wanted “to cut down trees in Scotland”. He might not have become a lumberjack but even his old foe Jim McLean might have to accept Big Dunc’s done OK.