Everton FC 12 days of Christmas - Four seasons outside the top flight

EVERTON have spent more seasons playing in the top flight of English football than any other club - yet what do we really know about the Blues' four seasons outside the top echelons of the English game?Everton's first season in the Second Division, as it was then known, was in 1930/31.The Blues had been relegated the previous season, finishing bottom of the table with just 35 points, incredibly just two seasons after their 1927/28 league title win - a triumph written indelibly into not just Merseyside but footballing folklore as it was the year Dixie Dean scored a record 60 league goals, a figure never likely to be beaten. It was a seismic shock therefore for the club to find itself in the second tier - the shareholders' AGM that summer called for the board to be sacked and a team manager appointed as was starting to happen elsewhere.The club's power-brokers held firm however and were rewarded with a blistering start to the season, with twelve of the first sixteen games being won.There was a slight blip over Christmas but the Blues soon bounced back with a 9-1 win over Plymouth that equalled that club's best ever league win and started a run of 14 successive wins in league and cup football that all but clinched promotion.The season also saw a successful FA Cup run that saw Everton reach the semi-final stage before losing to West Brom at Old Trafford but the title was won by seven points and immediate promotion achieved with a club record 121 goals scored (Dean contributing a mere 39 this time around).

Source: Liverpool_Echo