The first full season under their new name saw Everton to continue to play in the south-east corner of Stanley Park. The successes from the previous season earned the club an invite to join the Lancashire Football Association, making the club eligible to compete in the Lancashire Cup for the first time.
The draw for the first round of the Lancashire Cup was unkind to Everton as they drew Great Lever, who were a well established team from Bolton. The team gained a very creditable 1-1 draw at Great Lever but were soundly beaten in the return game, 8-1. Everton protested as the referee was a Great Lever committee member and he was responsible for some dubious decisions, the Lancashire FA upheld the complaint and ordered the game to be replayed. The third game took place in front of a hostile Great Lever crowd, with the Everton players suffering continuous verbal abuse, and eventually lost the game 1-0. So the club’s first entry into a ‘major’ tournament had ended on a sour note.
Following their elimination from the Lancashire Cup, Everton had to make do with games against local sides and recorded some significant victories. Although only friendlies, the games were to further enhance the club’s reputation throughout the game and this in turn helped in the recruitment of good quality players from around the UK.
The club’s second season got off to a disastrous start with a 13-1 defeat at the hands of Bolton Wanderers, who that had been formed four years before Everton and like the Merseysiders had their beginings as a church side. As a result of this defeat club officials decided that extra training was required and so the team started night time sessions, as time went by it proved its worth during the rest of the season. These nocturnal training sessions earned the team their first nickname of ‘the Moonlight Dribblers’, also during this time they were also called ‘Black Watch’ which was reference to the all black kit the side were now playing in.
One of the early stars of the Everton side was Jack McGill, a centre forward who was signed from Glasgow Rangers, he was prolific goal scorer and was soon appointed team captain and also took control of the training.
Four teams from the Liverpool area, Bootle, Liverpool Association and St. Peter’s joined Everton in competing in the Lancashire Cup. Everton’s campaign got off to a great start with a 5-0 home victory over Middleton but the joy was short lived as in the next round they lost 3-1 away to Turton, who were formed in 1871 thus making them the oldest club in Lancashire. During these early days Everton’s main local rivals became Bootle and the first games between the two being played during this season, Everton winning both, 7-4 at home and 4-1 away. The season that had started off badly ended impressively with a record of 22 matches played, 15 wins, four draws, three defeats, 70 goals scored and only 16 conceded.
The game was becoming better organized in and around Liverpool and new attitudes were being voiced especially surrounding the lack of competitive games once a team was eliminated from the Lancashire Cup. There were no league football at this time and to fill the void in competitive football twelve local sides got together to form the Liverpool and District Football Association and introduced the Liverpool Cup for the 1882-83 season.
The team did not trouble anyone in the Lancashire Cup this year with early elimination at the hands of Blackburn Rovers. The game ended 8-0 to Rovers but the score line was not as embarrassing as it could have been, Blackburn had established themselves as one of the top sides in the country and the previous year had become the first Northern side to compete in an FA Cup Final, when they lost 1-0 to the Old Etonians. They also came with a recent reputation of scoring double figures and one of the games saw a 16-0 demolition of Preston North End.
The inaugural Liverpool Cup saw Everton reach the semi final were they lost 3-1 to their main local rivals Bootle, who went on win the trophy. All proceeds from the competition went to the Hospital Saturday Fund and it is recorded that all games were well attended.
Games involving Everton were starting to attract large crowds with gates at Stanley Park regularly topping 2,000. Club officials soon realised that a new enclosed ground was required so that a fee could be charged for admission and the club could start to compete with the bigger clubs from around the country. So Everton’s tenancy at Stanley Park was to come to an end but officials and supporters hoped that a move would prove to be beneficial to everyone.
