John Evans (footballer)

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For other persons named John Evans, see John Evans (disambiguation).

John Evans (born 28 August 1929) was a footballer with Liverpool Football Club between 1953 and 1957.

[edit] Life and playing career

Born in Tilbury, Essex, England, Evans played for Tilbury as an amateur and Charlton Athletic before Reds manager Don Welsh paid £12,500 for his services on Christmas Day 1953, He made his debut, along with full-back Frank Lock, the following day in a Boxing Day fixture at Anfield, W.B.A were the visitors for the league match which ended in a goaless draw. His first goal for the club came a week later on the 2 January 1954, again, in a league match at Anfield: this time Bolton Wanderers were the guests; unfortunately John's 2nd minute strike wasn't enough to fend off the men from Burnden Park as Bolton won 2-1.

John came to Liverpool with a good reputation for finding the back of the net having scored 38 goals in 90 appearances for Charlton, a goal every 2.3 games. He was soon into his stride in the red of Liverpool with a goal in his second appearance for the club. However, the club was going through its roughest phase of its history and Evans' eye for goal was affected only scoring 5 goals in the 16 matches he appeared in, not enough to stop Liverpool from being relegated to the 2nd Division.

John was a regular fixture in the starting line-up in the Reds first season in the lower tier playing in 38 league games and 4 FA Cup matches, in fact he was only 2 appearances behind the great Billy Liddell who topped the appearance chart for the 1954/55 season,John did finish as the clubs leading goalscorer though netting 29 league and 4 cup goals compared to 30 league and 1 cup goal for Liddell, even though Liddell and Evans notched a more than healthy 59 goals between them it wasn't enough to gain Liverpool instant promotion back to the big time, they finished a very disappointing 11th 12 points behind champions Birmingham City, 2nd placed Luton Town and 3rd placed Rotherham United who all finished on 54 points.

It was during this season that he became one of only four players to have scored five goals in one match for Liverpool, it happened on the 15 September 1954 in a league match at Anfield and his victims were Bristol Rovers, his goals came in the 7th, 39th, 40th, 70th an 85th minutes and were, unsurprisingly, enough to see off Rovers even though they managed to score 3 in the 5-3 thriller. He also managed to score 4 when Liverpool travelled to Gigg Lane to face Bury.

The following campaign, 1955/56, was less productive for Evans who scored 13 from 36 league and cup appearances, as Liverpool finished just outside the promotion places on 48 points, 4 shy of 2nd placed Leeds United. 56/57 wasn't the best for John as he only managed to hit the net twice from 11 outings as the Reds went with a certain Jimmy Melia.

Evans only made 1 appearance at the beginning of the next campaign and after scoring a goal every other game during his time at Anfield he was allowed to leave in the November of 1957, he joined Colchester United where he managed to hit the net 22 times. John also went on to play for Romford, in his home county of Essex and Ford United as an amateur.