Mersey Hard Men: Johnny Morrissey was Everton FC's winger with bite

14 January 2010 04:00
PUT THAT IN YOUR LITTLE BLACK BOOK[LNB]JOHNNY MORRISSEY might not have been the first name on manager Harry Catterick's teamsheet . . . although despite international class competition like Alan Ball, Colin Harvey, Howard Kendall, Tommy Wright, Gordon West and Brian Labone, he certainly wasn't far behind.[LNB]But the Everton winger was ALWAYS first pick in five-a-side.[LNB]Team-mate Colin Harvey revealed that such was Morrissey's formidable reputation as a Mersey hard-man, even in training ground kick-abouts, that people always wanted him on their side.[LNB]'He was a winger who famously used to terrify the full-back who marked him,' smiled his former team-mate.[LNB]'He definitely belongs in any list of Mersey hard -men, but because of that reputation people don't give him enough credit for the skill he had - and he was very skilful.[LNB]'He was an excellent crosser, with both feet. He would get up and down and put a good shift in every game. He was a real team player and when you put those qualities together you had a very good footballer.[LNB]'But he knew how to tackle, too!'[LNB]Leeds United were considered the most ruthless team of that era, with teak tough players who verged on the cynical.[LNB]Names like Norman 'Bites Yer Legs' Hunter, Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles and the formidable central defender Jackie Charlton were renowned for their ruthlessness.[LNB]In October 1970 Charlton famously appeared on a TV programme where he said he'd once kept a 'little black book' of names of players whom he intended to hurt or exact some form of revenge upon.[LNB]Johnny Morrissey presumably figured on page one.

Source: Liverpool_Echo