Gary Lineker made his competitive Everton debut ON THIS DAY in 1985.

The Blues were up against Manchester United at Wembley in the Charity Shield and although the new record signing didn’t score on his first appearance, he helped the team avenge the FA Cup final defeat two months earlier.

Lineker for Andy Gray was the only change in the Everton side that had played in the cup final.

Trevor Steven opened the scoring, latching onto a left-wing cross from Kevin Sheedy in the 27th minute and Adrian Heath capitalised on a late spill by Gary Bailey to make it 2-0.

It was Heath’s first competitive game since his season-ending injury eight months earlier

The game saw the debut of the new, and rather unpopular, ‘white-bib’ style home kit that will forever be known as ‘the Lineker kit.’

Colin Harvey’s testimonial game took place ON THIS DAY in 2003 against a Bologna team that nearly didn’t turn up!

The Italians were having real travel problems and a call through to Everton Football Club indicated that they would not make it to the UK in time for the game.

Thankfully, a resolution was found although putting the kick-off back a few hours undoubtedly affected the attendance of 13,000 for one of Everton’s greatest-ever servants.

The Blues won the game 3-0 with goals from Tomasz Radzinski, Nick Chadwick and Mark Pembridge.

It was David Unsworth’s turn ON THIS DAY in 2002.

His testimonial was at Goodison Park against Athletic Bilbao and it provided a first appearance at Goodison Park in the senior team for 16-year old Wayne Rooney. Newly-signed Chinese international, Li Tie, also made his Goodison bow.

The Spanish side won the game 1-0 thanks to a goal on the stroke of half-time from Ismael Urzaiz.

Referee Uriah Rennie blotted his copybook when he booked the man of the moment, Unsworth, for a seemingly innocuous challenge!