Alan Waddle scored once in twenty-two Liverpool appearances. That solitary goal won a Merseyside derby: a 1–0 victory at Goodison Park on 8 December 1973, secured after Bill Shankly’s side had lost Kevin Keegan before half-time.
Waddle was a summer signing from Halifax Town, brought in as cover for John Toshack. The opportunity to lead Liverpool’s attack against Everton came during an unsettled period for team selection, with injuries and illness reducing Shankly’s options. Neither Toshack nor Steve Heighway was in the starting eleven; Waddle and Phil Boersma were.
There was a further setback in the first half. Keegan, struggling after an earlier challenge, went off in the forty-second minute and Brian Hall replaced him. Liverpool reached the interval with the match still goalless, but without another of their established forwards.
The decisive contribution came in the sixty-seventh minute. Ian Callaghan crossed and Waddle, closely marked by Mike Lyons, turned the ball in with the outside of his left foot. The finishing detail survives in Eric Todd’s contemporary Guardian report, reproduced in Liverpool’s later account of the month.
Everton could not equalise. Colin Harvey came on for John McLaughlin near the end, but the home side finished without a goal in front of a crowd of 56,098. Liverpool had protected Waddle’s lead and taken both points.
The league table gave the victory a significance beyond the local rivalry. Liverpool remained second with twenty-six points from nineteen matches, six behind unbeaten Leeds United. Everton were fifth, four points behind their neighbours. Waddle’s finish had preserved Liverpool’s place as the leaders’ nearest pursuers.
His Liverpool career would offer few opportunities to repeat it. Sixteen of his eventual twenty-two appearances came in this first season, and he left for Leicester City in September 1977. The scoring record never grew beyond one.
At Goodison, however, one was sufficient. With Liverpool’s more familiar attacking options absent or withdrawn, their deputy centre-forward supplied the goal that decided the derby.