130 yearsThe significance of March 15 in Liverpool FC history

While it’s not quite time to celebrate a landmark birthday for the Reds – officially, that will arrive on June 3 – it was on March 15, 1892 that club founder John Houlding split from Everton Football Club and decided to create a new team to play at his Anfield ground: LFC.

Formed by the congregational church of St Domingo in 1878, Everton initially played their football at Stanley Park before Houlding leased for the club a spot of land just opposite his home on Anfield Road, which he then bought outright in 1885.

So far, so amicable and Everton were crowned First Division champions in 1891.

But, off the pitch, tensions between Houlding – the Everton president – and the club’s committee had been simmering for some time, with a dispute over rising rent costs at Anfield one of several issues dividing them.

Those disagreements came to an irrevocable head at a dramatic meeting inside the Presbyterian School on Royal Street on March 15, 1892, where a vote was swiftly passed to eject Houlding and his close allies from the club.

Everton would vacate Anfield and move to the nearby Mere Green Field, later renamed Goodison Park.

Houlding, meanwhile, was left in possession of a football ground but without a team to play in it. And so his next move was to create a new club, one he and his associates would christen Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Limited.

A new story would begin to be written at Anfield after a seismic split in Merseyside football, with LFC officially recognised by the Board of Trade on June 3, 1892.