Mayers: Derek

1961-1962 (Player Details)

Outside Right

Born: Liverpool: 24-01-1935

Debut: v Charlton Athletic (h): 19-08-1961

5’8” 10st 5lb (1961)

Mayers, a schoolboy forward who also excelled at cricket and golf, joined Everton straight from school, initially as an amateur, turning part-time professional in August 1952. He quickly rose to the first team, making his debut in a 3-0 win over Bury at Goodison Park on 15th April 1953 and scored two goals. In the days when conscription was compulsary, he was called up for national service and while he represented the Army, on occasions, it impaired his progress at Goodison, when, after playing the following week in a 0-3 defeat by Lincoln City at Goodison, there was only one appearance, in a 0-1 loss at Griffin Park to Brentford on 3rd October 1953 in the whole of the 1953-54 season. After the Toffees had regained their First Division status, he regained his first team place in a 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park on 15th October 1955 and by the end of November 1955 he had made seven appearances in the 1955-56 season. He regained his place for the 5-1 defeat at Elland Road in the opening fixture of the 1956-57 campaign and went on to make eight League and one F.A. Cup tie in that season, but was unable to be anything but a fringe player and was surplus to requirements at the end of the season. So after scoring seven goals in eighteen League appearances, and none in one F.A. Cup tie, former Everton Manager, Cliff Britton, who was then Manager of Preston North End, took him from Goodison on 24th May 1957 to Deepdale for £2,000, and there he enjoyed the best football of his career. Preston had finished third in the First Division in the 1956-57 season and possessed outstanding players as Tom Finney and Tommy Thompson of England, Willie Cunningham and Tommy Docherty from Scotland and Irish International Frank O’Farrell. Tom Finney moved from his Outside Right spot to Centre Forward and, after a few reserve team games to get used to the Preston format, he made his debut at Deepdale in a 3-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on 14th September 1957 in their seventh game of the season, and Mayers was off the mark with his first goal on debut. Apart from a bout of flu, he maintained his first team spot for the rest of the season, which was highlighted by his scoring twice against his former club Everton in a 3-1 win at Deepdale. He kept his place in the team until the end of the season, scoring telve of the one hundred goals that North End scored as they finished runners-up in Division One to Wolverhampton Wanderers. His form was so impressive that he was chosen for the sixteen man squad that was chosen by the F.A. to tour South Africa at the end of the season. He remained a regular for four seasons, despite competition from Les Dagger, Les Campbell and Sammy Taylor, but unfortunately the club suffered relegation to the Second Division at the end of the 1960-61 season. He scored his final goal for Preston at Bloomfield Road, the only goal in a win over Blackpool. At Preston, he scored twenty nine goals in one hundred and thirty-two games in total, of which twenty-five were in one hundred and eighteen League appearances. On 6th June 1961 he became one of new Manager Don Revie's first signings when he joined Leeds United for £2,150. At Elland Road, he joined players such as Billy Bremner and Jack Charlton but although he was a regular on the right wing for most of the first part of the season the arrival of Bobby Collins and Ian Lawson, saw Billy Bremner moved from inside right to the wing at his expense and his future at Elland Road was limited. He only stayed at Leeds for the one season before being taken by Bob Stokoe to Bury in June 1962 for £1,000. He scored six goals in thirty-two League games at Gigg Lane and then moved to Wrexham in October 1963 for £2,500. He left Wrexham in the summer of 1964 after scoring twice in twenty-one League games. He was asked to go to Australia by the former Blackpool player Bill Perry, but prior to flying off to join Australian club South Coast United, he had a handful of games for Welsh league team Rhyl as a favour to their manager, Albert Dunlop, a former team mate at Everton and Wrexham. He stayed for eighteen months with South Coast United, where the Player-Coach was Jimmy Kelly the former Blackpool midfielder, in the NSW First Division before returning to the North West of England. He had to retire from the game, due to knee problems and he became a salesman, selling office filing systems, and remained with the business for twenty-seven years. He retired in Ashton-in-Makerfield and still plays in every golf day that the Preston North End Former Players Association organise unless he is playing abroad in the Jimmy Tarbuck Classic. He finished first in three consecutive years in the annual tournament held in Portugal.