'Don't you, worry' - Duncan Ferguson made promise to 'look after' Everton record-breaker

'Don't you, worry' - Duncan Ferguson made promise to 'look after' Everton record-breaker

Former Everton striker James Vaughan, whose record as the Premier League's youngest-ever goalscorer has stood for over 20 years, celebrates his 37th birthday today

Duncan Ferguson, who James Vaughan says looked after him after he made his debut aged 16, clashes with opponents during Everton's 1-0 win over Liverpool earlier in the 2004/05 season

James Vaughan hailed the ‘fantastic’ set-up that David Moyes instilled at Everton first time around as the Scot looks to revive the Blues’ fortunes at Hill Dickinson Stadium while recalling how his older team-mates would act as his minders. Although Vaughan – who celebrates his 37th birthday today – will no longer be part of the club’s staff, having departed his role as head of academy recruitment and player pathways back in May, an interview he gave with Sky Sports in 2021, shortly before hanging up his boots with Tranmere Rovers, where he would become sporting director, the Brummie reflected upon his dream debut.

On April 10, 2005, Vaughan, aged 16 years and 270 days at the time, became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history when he came off the bench and netted on his Everton debut to seal a 4-0 thrashing against Crystal Palac - and his own record-breaking strike has now stood for longer than he’d been around back then.

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On-loan Mikel Arteta set the ball rolling just seven minutes in with a superb free-kick curled around the wall for his first goal for the club before a Tim Cahill brace early in the second half (smashing into the net on 47 minutes and then a back-post header on 54 minutes) put the Blues in command.

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With 16 minutes remaining, manager Moyes replaced left-back Gary Naysmith with the teenage striker and on 87 minutes Vaughan as he attacked the ball to meet a low, left-wing cross from Kevin Kilbane. Vaughan said: “It was the perfect situation, as a young lad, coming on for a game where we were in control.

“It was all a bit of a blur. I remember making a tackle and the crowd went mad, and I just thought if I kept doing that, I'd be all right.

“And I remember the goal clearly, I can't forget that. The keeper rolled it out to Leon Osman, then Kevin Kilbane took it on the overlap and put in a great ball. I always say I owed him a lot.”

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Vaughan’s close-range strike sealed a 4-0 victory and put Everton four points clear of neighbours Liverpool. The gap would prove unassailable, as the Blues sealed their Champions League spot by finishing fourth, ahead of the Reds who would lift the trophy later that month in Istanbul.

He said: “It was a fantastic team. It was a group of lads working for each other, working for the manager and the staff, and the atmosphere around the place was fantastic.

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“The manager managed to get the most out of the players we had at the time and that showed in the results we were getting. All that squad from when I made my debut like Lee Carsley, Alan Stubbs, David Weir, Duncan Ferguson – just to mention a few – those senior pros, they were old school.

“Alan Irvine and David Moyes were brilliant with me at the time. All of it, it was just a fantastic education to the game.

“The whole feel about the place was old school and it brought me up in that manner and I still play the game like that now.”

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Vaughan added: “Because I was so much younger and they were all senior, they just looked after me. I remember playing in a game with Duncan Ferguson and someone smashed into me.

James Vaughan celebrates his goal with Tim Cahill and Duncan Ferguson in the match between Everton and Crystal Palace at Goodison Park on April 10, 2005 (Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images )

“He just said: ‘I’ll get him back for you, don't you worry’. It was just a case of them looking after me. As a 16-year old, you're fearless and you just want to go out there and play the game you've dreamt of playing, and that's what I did.

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“I don’t think it’s possible to stay fearless. As you become a first team player regularly there’s people's wages, jobs and careers on the line.

“You know you’re responsible for part of that, and you have to take that responsibility on. But as a kid you don’t have that so you can just go out and play and enjoy your football.”

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