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He came into St Luke’s Church to Z-Cars. He left it to Elvis Presley’s In The Ghetto.

And in the 55 minutes inbetween – friends, family, ex-team-mates, rivals and hundreds and hundreds of heartbroken supporters celebrated the life of Andy King.

St Luke’s Church, in the shadow of Goodison Park, was packed to the rafters. Hundreds more stood silently outside until the coffin, carried amongst others by Peter Reid, Mick Harford and John Barton, emerged, when those silent mourners broke into spontaneous applause.

They all knew King the carefree, effervescent footballer.

They all knew King the spectacular goalscorer.

And some of them knew a hint of the man from chirpy TV interviews and fans’ gatherings.

But in a moving and humorous eulogy, former Luton striker Mick Harford revealed another side to Andy King.

“Kingy probably had more facets to his personality than anyone I knew.” he said.

“He could be sensitive, he could be nervous, emotional, very spontaneous, honest, reliable, proud, loving, caring, loyal, funny, witty, passionate, especially about Barbara and his friends and family.

“And what a character. He was lively to say the least.”

Harford related a couple of anecdotes of the man he had known since December 1985.

He said: “Kingy had a lot of sayings, but one of his favourites over the years was ‘Im a lover, not a fighter.’

“What that really meant was that he loved to start a fight - as his minder at Everton, George Wood, would testify.

“I relieved George of his minding duties and we ended up in many scuffles, many scrapes. But at the end of the day he was just having a laugh.

“I remember the day I walked into Andy’s office at Swindon Town to find Andy on the floor with his secretary in a headlock.

“I said ‘Andy what are you doing?’

“He replied: ‘She called me a bad manager.’

“I said ‘But what have you got her on the floor for?’

“He said: ‘No, she got me on the floor!’

“So I let them tussle for a while and she started to get the better of him. I separated them and Andy said ‘What did you do that for? It’s the only chance I’ll ever have of winning a fight!’

“Then there was the time I went with him to the Liverpool v Sunderland FA Cup final, we ended up in a pub in Maida Vale full of Sunderland fans.

“Andy, my brother in law and myself ended up in a bit of scuffle, a bit of a scrap and we ended up outside looking in, with all the Sunderland fans baying for our blood.

“They were screaming ‘We’re going to kill you.’ so I said ‘Send your best three out.’

“Kingy turned to me and said ‘make it two.’

“But on a serious note, anyone who knew Kingy well knew he didn’t have one bad bone in his body.

“Football was his real passion. And his biggest love in the game was Everton Football Club.”

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright, who knew King as “My hero, my friend, my lad” sent a tribute to be read out which said: “He was a magical spirit who blessed Goodison every time I saw him.”

While Kevin Ratcliffe, the most successful captain in Everton’s history, stood to pay tribute to his former team-mate’s life.

“I’ve known Kingy for nearly 38 years. I first came across him at Everton Football Club when I signed apprentice forms and I was his designated boot boy,” he said.

“It was hell. Sixteen months of hell. Mickey taking and whatever else came with being an apprentice in those days.

“But it made me stronger and I thank him for that

“I’ve never actually told him that, but I’m thanking him now.

“He later became my friend and while we never met that regularly, we spoke nearly every week, all about football, players we’d seen, matches we’d seen, and, of course Barbara who he worshipped.

“Eventually we talked about the old times. And he spoke about coming back to Liverpool to live.

“What can you say about Andy King? He’s a person who would light up a room.

“And you wouldn’t need to be in that room to know that Andy King was in there.

“You know, in football we have acquaintances, we don’t have friends.

“But looking round today I can say, Andy, you had a hell of a lot of friends.”

The Church was filled with a Who’s Who of Evertonians.

Gordon Lee, the manager who King enjoyed his best footballing days under, was there.

So were old Everton team-mates Mark Higgins, Andy Gray, Roger Kenyon, John Hurst, Mike Pejic, Gary Jones, Cliff Marshall, Alan Ainscow, John Bailey, Cliff Marshall, George Telfer, Alan Irvine and David Jones.

Howard Kendall, who brought him back to Goodison for a second spell, was there, as were Derek Temple, Colin Harvey, Ian Snodin, Graham Stuart and Graeme Sharp.

Former Bellefield groundsman Dougie Rose was present, as was MK Dons boss Karl Robinson where King was working at the time of his horribly premature death, while Alan Ball’s son, Jimmy, drove all the way up from Southampton for the day to pay his respects.

Director Jon Woods and former director Lord Grantchester were present, while from across the park old rivals Ian Callaghan and Phil Thompson paid their respects.

After a moving service - laced with much of the humour for which King was known - the mourners emerged into the brightest, sunniest, warmest day of the year.

On the day that the sunniest of dispositions was laid to rest, it was fitting.