Column

Memory Lane — Match 28

League games against Portsmouth (H), Chelsea (H), Liverpool (H), and Wolverhampton Wanderers (H) lovingly recalled from 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago, with the help of Patrick's extensive collection of matchday programmes.

Forty Years Ago — 1973-74: Match 28

Wolverhampton Wanderers had reached the League Cup Final at Wembley and were four points behind Everton when they had arrived for the game at Goodison Park, Everton were still in search of their first league win of the year and had already exited the FA Cup following a defeat by WBA (1-0) at the Hawthorns.

Wolves Manager Bill McGarry, speaking to reporter Dennis Shaw, said of his side's upcoming League Cup Final at Wembley that he was both full of joy and relief at their achievement and added, “If I dwelt on my career as a player and manager and thought about how little I had to show for it in terms of major honours, I would go mad. It would seem as though I had wasted my life.” Fortunately for Bill McGarry and his team, they would have something to show for their endeavours from their Wembley encounter with Manchester City as they beat the Maine Road side (2-1) to carry off the trophy.

Everton had failed to beat Wolves in their previous three meetings at Goodison Park but, prior to that, the Blues had won five fixtures in a row, including a victory in a Fourth Round FA Cup Replay.

The cup replay had taken place on 21 February 1967 following a draw (1-1) at Molineux. Alan Ball (80’) had converted a penalty late in the game to cancel out Wharton’s goal scored after half-an-hour of the first half. Over 53,000 had attended that match at Molineux, but 62,020 had visited Goodison Park for the replay. Derek Temple had replaced Jimmy Gabriel in the side at Goodison as Jimmy Husband (2) netted twice, one in each half and Derek Temple scored the other goal as Everton had beaten Wolves (3-1) to set up an all-Merseyside Fifth Round tie with Liverpool. Wolves’ consolation goal had been scored by Wharton.
Everton: West: Wright, Wilson; Hurst, Labone, Harvey; Young, Ball, Temple (Brown), Husband, Morrissey.

Everton’s most recent victory against Wolves at Goodison Park had taken place on 31 January 1970 when the Blues had triumphed with a single goal victory; Joe Royle (32’) had scored the only goal of the game in front of almost 46,000 fans, a win which had given Everton another two points on the way to the Title.
Everton: West; Wright, Newton; Kendall, Labone: Harvey (Brown); Husband, Whittle, Royle, Hurst, Morrissey.

The highest margin of victory for Everton over Wolves at Goodison Park during the 1960s had come in the fixture played on 5 December 1964 in front of a fairly low attendance for a Saturday game as only 27,533 people had passed through the Goodison turnstiles, but to be fair Wolves were not the attraction they had once been as they propped up the division prior to that match. Those who had managed to get to the ground would have enjoyed their day, having seen Fred Pickering (2); Derek Temple (2) and Sandy Brown overwhelm Wolverhampton Wanderers (5-0) as the Blues went nap. Everton: Rankin; Wright, Brown; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Temple, Harvey, Pickering, Vernon, Morrissey.

The Match: Mike Bernard (27’) with another penalty put Everton ahead and Mike Lyons (55’) with a typical header had put the Blues two goals up before Alan Sunderland (67’) scored for Wolves, but the Blues held on to gain their first league win of 1974.

This match signalled the end of Howard Kendall’s seven year association with Everton as he and Archie Styles would be leaving to join Birmingham City and Bob Latchford would move in the opposite direction to begin a new chapter in the club’s history. The victory over Wolves saw Everton move into joint fourth in the table along with Derby and Burnley who all had 31 points from their completed fixtures. Leeds United remained unbeaten as they had won at Old Trafford (2-0) a victory that had put Manchester United at the bottom of the pile.

1973-74 — First Division; Saturday, 9 February 1974
Wolves @ Goodison Park, Score: 2-1 (Bernard, Lyons) Attendance: 26,504
Everton: Lawson; Darracott, McLaughlin, Kendall, Kenyon; Bernard, Harvey (Kenny), Buckley; Lyons, Jones, Telfer.

Thirty Years Ago — 1983-84: Match 28

Just three weeks prior to the first ever all Merseyside Cup Final, Everton and Liverpool met at Goodison Park for this First Division fixture. The Reds were the league leaders and a rejuvenated Everton would have taken great pleasure if they could beat their neighbours and simultaneously show the watching nation that the Blues were indeed worthy of their place in the final and would not be travelling to Wembley just to make up the numbers.

Much of the match-day magazine was devoted to the events that had taken place at Villa Park and the fantastic support that Evertonians had given their team in the successful League Cup Semi-Final. Howard Kendall in his column welcomed Joe Fagan and his Liverpool side to Goodison and said “We know that people will be looking at the match with one eye on the Wembley occasion, but the game should be put into proper perspective. It is a league fixture and the points are important to both sides.”

Jim Greenwood, the Everton Secretary, said that the club had already been inundated with requests from all over the country for tickets for the Wembley show-down, but the Club’s priority was to ensure that regular supporters would be given preference. He also stated that “There would be no segregation on trains, partly because it would be impractical but mainly because supporters will want to go with their friends, no matter which club they follow.”

Jim added “We hope that Wembley will enable Merseyside to show the rest of the country how supporters should conduct themselves.”

Evertonians, whilst happy to have seen their side reach a Wembley Final would not have relished playing the Reds at Goodison Park as points and indeed goals had been hard to come by in Goodison derbies in the previous 10 years. Only Andy King had scored a winning goal at Goodison Park during that period and only Peter Eastoe, Graham Sharp, Asa Hartford, Joe McBride and Mick Ferguson had enjoyed the unique feeling of scoring a derby goal at Goodison. The ten league matches played at Goodison during that period had produced four draws and five defeats with just that single win when Andy King had scored the winner.

The game in which Andy King had scored the winner had been played on 28 October 1978 in front of 53,141 supporters, with the winning goal scored just before the hour mark.
Everton: Wood; Todd, Pejic, Kenyon, Wright; Nulty, King, Dobson; Latchford, Walsh, Thomas.

Since that victory in 1978, Everton had only taken a point from a home league derby in the match played on 18 October 1980. 52,565 had witnessed Asa Hartford and Joe McBride (21’) scoring for the Blues’ but Sammy Lee (23’) and Kenny Dalglish (56’) had done likewise for the Reds in a fixture that had seen both sides in the top 4 places in the league.
Everton: McDonagh; Gidman (O’Keefe), Bailey, Wright, Lyons; Stanley, McMahon; Eastoe, Latchford, Hartford, McBride.

The Match: Alan Irvine failed to make the squad due to an injury and Trevor Steven had taken his place in the side, in what had been the only change to the Everton team that had so valiantly fought back from a two-goal deficit at Watford the previous week to earn a point. But Trevor’s match had been short-lived as Alan Harper had replaced him in the Everton team after just 20 minutes of the game.

As was often the case during the early 1980s, Liverpool had taken the game to Everton in the first-half at Goodison Park and they had been rewarded when Ian Rush (17’) had given them a deserved half-time lead. As good as the Reds had been in that opening period, many Evertonians would have been disappointed with the Blues’ first-half showing. Howard Kendall’s words of wisdom during the half-time break had the desired effect as Everton showed far more determination and spirit in the second period and harried and chased Liverpool as they started to cause them problems.

Graeme Sharp (77’) had a glorious opportunity to equalise for the Toffees but his tame penalty was gleefully saved by Bruce Grobbelaar and the Liverpool supporters sensed it would be their day. As the clock ticked on and the game became more frenetic, the Liverpool anthems became louder and more triumphalist. But, with only five minutes remaining on the clock, a long ball from Sheedy deep in his own half was flicked on twice, firstly by Andy Gray and then by Graeme Sharp and an Adrian Heath header found an unlikely overlapping runner in Alan Harper and the former Liverpool player smashed the ball into the net at the Gwladys Street End and sent Goodison into a frenzied mass of noise and colour. It may not have been the winning goal but it had been received as such; considering what had happened in the previous couple of games against the old enemy, the goal restored the belief in the Evertonians' hearts and minds that their team were once again ready to challenge the all-conquering team in red.

Howard Kendall had been pleased with his team’s second-half performance and said that Graeme Sharp had admitted that he had changed his mind on his run-up to the penalty, but Howard Kendall believed that it was important that the strikers took the penalties as it helped to keep their goal tally ticking over... [unless, of course, they missed them!]

1983-84 — First Division; Saturday, 3 March 1984
Liverpool @ Goodison Park, Score: 1-1 (Harper), Attendance: 51,245
Everton: Southall; Stevens, Bailey, Ratcliffe, Mountfield; Reid, Steven (Harper); Heath, Gray, Sharp, Sheedy.

Twenty Years Ago — 1993-94: Match 28

A little over a month after the Everton had travelled to Stamford Bridge and had lost (4-2), Chelsea had arrived at Goodison Park with their hopes high that they could overturn the Toffee’s and complete a successive league double over the Blues. For their part, Everton would hope to continue the form they had showed in the recent game with Swindon Town (6-2). With both defences prone to conceding on a regular basis a goalless draw would have seemed unthinkable from this particular fixture.

Following the recent trip to Old Trafford, for what had been a poignant occasion for all involved, Everton FC Chairman Dr David Marsh had received correspondence from Manchester United Chairman Martin Edwards which had been reproduced in the match-day magazine:

Dear David, I felt I must write to you and express my thanks at the impeccable behaviour of your supporters during the one minute silence for Sir Matt on Saturday.

I would also add that I thought your players helped to make this an occasion a memorable one, as it was a very sporting match played under difficult circumstances.

Mike Walker emphasised how important it was for Everton to take maximum points from their next two league fixtures at home to Chelsea and Ipswich Town, and that his team must not relinquish a two-goal lead like they had in the cup-tie at home to Bolton Wanderers. Mr Walker also welcomed David Williams who had recently joined the club as first team coach. David had been a member of Walker’s backroom staff at former club Norwich City. Walker explained that replacing Colin Harvey in the Everton set-up had not been a reflection on Colin’s abilities but more that the new manager felt that he needed to make a change.

Former Everton player, Alex Parker had been asked to comment on a memorable game between Everton and Chelsea at Goodison Park for the Matches of the Past feature. Alex had picked a game that had been played on 12 March 1960 in front of a crowd of over 50,000 fans. Everton ran riot in the first half of the game as Roy Veron (10’) and Jimmy Harris (12’) with a headed goal put Everton in command. Two more goals were scored by Bobby Collins (24’) and Micky Lill (34’) to put the Blues four-nil ahead. Tommy Ring made it five-nil five minutes before the break and Chelsea pulled one back through Peter Sillett (42’) but on the stroke of half-time Tommy Ring (45’) scored his second goal of the game and Everton’s sixth to restore their five-goal advantage.

No doubt the large crowd would have been anticipating a record score for the Toffees but the second-half produced no further goals and Alex Parker said “Despite the big win, I felt our fans went home feeling they had not really seen a very good match despite the size of the victory. If it had been goalless at half-time and we had scored six in the second they would have been saying it was one of the best games they had ever seen at Goodison.”

Alex also thought that Johnny Carey’s half-time instructions had had a bearing as the manager had asked the team to take it easy in the second period and Alex commented “It was though he was telling us not to rub it in although perhaps he was suggesting we save our energy.”
Everton: Dunlop; Parker, Bramwell; Gabriel, Labone, Meagan; Lill, Collins, Harris J, Vernon, Ring.

Although that game at Goodison Park in 1960 had been a high-scoring affair, it hadn’t been Everton’s record victory over the men from Stamford Bridge as on 29 April 1978, Everton had beaten Chelsea (6-0) in what was a momentous day for Everton Striker Bob Latchford. Clive Thomas took charge of the game in front of almost 40,000 expectant Evertonians as they hoped that Bob Latchford, who needed to score twice in this match, would become the first player since Francis Lee, to score 30 top-flight league goals in a season, and there was also the not unsubstantial amount of £10k from a national newspaper in prize money at stake.

Martin Dobson (7’) opened the scoring early in the first-half and Billy Wright (14’) doubled the Blues’ lead, but although the crowd were happy that their side had started so well, it was Big Burly Bob who they had come to worship and so far their favourite had yet to score. Everton scored a third goal early in the second period from another unlikely source when Neil Robinson had put his side three goals in the lead.

With 18 minutes of the game remaining, Bob Latchford had eventually managed to get on the scoresheet with a trademark header to put the Toffees four goals in front. Latchford was now tantalisingly close to his record haul, but time was now his enemy. Mike Lyons (75’) much to the chagrin of the home fans – as many believed that Mike should have passed it to the unmarked Bob Latchford to get his record goal – made it 5-0 and the third goal in a frantic scoring period had come from the spot when Clive Thomas awarded Everton a penalty after Mike Lyons had made the most of a challenge by Chelsea’s Micky Droy.

Up stepped the hero of the hour, Bob Latchford to despatch his kick low into the net past Peter Bonnetti in the Chelsea goal, to send the Evertonians in the crowd into raptures and it was hard to believe that a single player’s achievement had been received in such a joyful manner. So Bob Latchford had become a record goalscorer for Everton almost exactly 50 years after WR Dean had scored his record tally of 60 league goals in May 1928.

“Bobby Latchford walks on water” was a refrain that could be heard long into the night from Evertonians who had enjoyed the day a little too much – I was one of them – and I’m sure there are one or two on Toffeeweb who had the same experience.
Everton: Wood; Robinson, Pejic, Lyons, Wright; Buckley, King, Dobson; Latchford, Telfer, Thomas.

WR Dean had been the only Everton player to score a hat-trick in a match against Chelsea at Goodison Park and it had happened on 14 November 1931 when Dixie not only grabbed a hat-trick but had scored five times in the victory over Chelsea (7-2). Everton had gained promotion to the First Division having won the Second Division in 1931 and they had designs on winning the top prize as they were four points clear of second placed West Bromwich Albion – who had also gained promotion the previous season

Those five goals had come in a devastating opening half-hour of the match as Dixie (5’, 8’& 15’) completed his hat-trick in the opening 15 minutes and then WR Dean added another two goals (24’, 32’) before Mills pulled one back for Chelsea to make it five-one to Everton at half-time. Johnson (50’) and Stein (60’) put Everton seven-one up before the last goal of the game was scored by Chelsea’s Jackson (85’).

I don’t know whether they had free entry into the ground at three-quarter time in those days, but if you had got into the stadium by that method you would certainly have missed a great deal of the action – just under 33,000 people had gained entry by the traditional method and they had the privilege of being in the stadium that day as the free-scoring Everton team showed their title credentials.
Everton: Sagar; Williams, Cresswell, Clark, Gee, Thomson; Critchley, White, Dean, Johnson, Stein.

As Everton had been knocked out of the FA Cup, a friendly game at Southend United had been arranged – due no doubt as a thank-you to Southend, for the recent acquisition of Brett Angell – Everton won the game played on Monday 31 January 1994 thanks to a John Ebbrell goal.
Everton: Southall; Jackson, Moore, Snodin, Hinchcliffe; Stuart, Kenny (Unsworth), Ebbrell (Grant); Beagrie, Barlow (Preki), Angell.
Unused Sub: Kearton.

The Match: Reported by the Independent’s Jon Culley, Sunday 6 February 1994:

At 3pm yesterday, only one place separated Everton and Chelsea but the gulf in attitudes exposed as their troubled paths crossed seemed as wide as the whole division.

Mark Stein continued his remarkable scoring sequence – he has 10 in his last 10 games – but there is little else for the Londoners to recall with pleasure. Everton brought the Stamford Bridge revival to a crashing halt. Of the nine Premiership matches that preceded this one, Everton had won only one, surrendering their FA Cup ambitions to First Division Bolton during the same depressing period. Yet if one team appeared gripped by panic yesterday, it was Chelsea, who have not lost in their previous eight starts.

With the notable exception of Frank Sinclair, defensively they looked ill at ease, their midfield quartet seemingly strangers to each other. It was just as well that Stein cannot stop scoring because no one else seemed especially likely to do so. Gavin Peacock did rattle Neville Southall's bar and Neil Shipperley, seizing on a rebound, forced the Welshman to make the save of the match, but these were isolated threats.

Mike Walker, in his fifth game in charge of Everton, prefers patient assessment to axe-wielding, and the evidence here is that this relaxed approach has rubbed off on his new players. It is an aid to confidence, of course, when the opposition invites you to take a fourth-minute lead. Sent away by Andy Hinchcliffe's pass, John Ebbrell should have been halted by Nigel Spackman, or failing that by Steve Clarke, but neither could intervene, and the Everton midfielder finished stylishly by sidestepping the goalkeeper.

Everton's own shortcomings were highlighted by Chelsea's equaliser. Sinclair, gaining possession near the edge of his own area, progressed unimpeded almost to the opposite 18- yard line, where he released the ball to Stein. The £1.6m forward chipped Southall to score for the seventh consecutive Premiership game, a feat no other player has achieved. He boosted his tally further with a consolation penalty. But Chelsea's joy at drawing level lasted only two minutes before Paul Rideout rose in solitary splendour to meet Peter Beagrie's left-wing cross and head the home side in front.

The occasion was clearly an inspiration for Graham Stuart. Against his former club, the 23-year-old midfielder provided the final pass when Rideout added his second and when Brett Angell claimed his first goal for Everton, both close-range chances with the visiting back four gapingly stretched.

Although this Everton - Chelsea clash did not carry the same historical importance of those games mentioned earlier, it had been a very important and satisfying victory that had restored some confidence and pride into the club as Everton moved into 15th place in the Premier League table, but Oldham Athletic (23 pts) had beaten Southampton (24 pts) and Manchester City (24 pts) had beaten Ipswich Town (2-1), which meant that the gap between Everton and the team third from bottom had been extended by a point but Oldham had two games in hand on the Blues so it was far too soon to relax in what had been a topsy-turvy Premier League campaign.

1993-94 — Premier League; Saturday, 5 February 1994
Chelsea @ Goodison Park, Score: 4-2 (Ebbrell, Rideout 2, Angell) Attendance: 18,821
Everton: Southall; Jackson, Snodin, Ablett, Hinchcliffe; Radosavljevic, Stuart, Ebbrell; Beagrie, Angell, Rideout.
Unused Subs: Kearton, Barlow, Moore.

Ten Years Ago — 2003-04: Match 28

Having gained their first Premier League victory of 2004 in their previous fixture, Everton had to wait a fortnight to play a first-team match as they had been knocked out of the FA Cup and so had a blank weekend prior to this important fixture with fellow strugglers Portsmouth. Alan Irvine, previewing the game prior to Everton’s victory over Aston Villa, said that following Pompey’s victory over Liverpool (1-0) in the FA Cup, they would be on a high and full of confidence for their trip to Goodison and that the game would be a six-pointer. Pompey had since lost to Arsenal (1-5) in the FA Cup Sixth Round at Fratton Park, so perhaps they wouldn’t arrive at Goodison Park in the best of spirits – whatever mood they were in it was imperative that Everton gained three valuable points in the battle for Premier League survival.

Everton had travelled to Ireland on the 2 March 2004 and had beaten Bray Wanderers (4-0) in a hastily arranged friendly game – David Moyes had given his International stars such as Wayne Rooney, Thomas Graveson and Tobias Linderoth a weeks holiday and Alan Irvine had taken charge of the squad as David Moyes had been suffering from a virus. Everton had won the match thanks to a brace of goals from Jeffers (25’ & 45’) and one each from McFadden (78’) and Chadwick (89’).
Everton: Wright; Hibbert, Weir, Unsworth (Watson), Naysmith; Carsley, Gemmill, Nyarko; Campbell (Radzinski), Jeffers (Chadwick), McFadden.
Unused Subs: Martyn, Kilbane.

David Unsworth had been featured in the match-day magazine as he hoped to make his 300th league appearance for the Toffees in the match against Portsmouth. In the article, David said that one day he hoped to become a manager and he would love to be good enough to be Everton’s manager at some point in the future. The article pointed out some of David’s facts and figures and it said that Unsy would be the 20th Everton player to reach the 300-game milestone and the first since Dave Watson to do so. Unsy made his debut at White Hart Lane in 1992 and scored a goal in the draw (3-3) with Spurs, which meant that he became the last Everton player to make his debut in the old First Division and the only Everton player to score on his debut after coming on as a substitute.

Another substitute appearance for Everton against Newcastle United in March 2001 had resulted in David becoming the only Premiership player to score at both ends after coming on as a substitute. Most fans will remember that he scored the opening goal of David Moyes’s Everton tenure, but he also scored the first goal against David Moyes at Goodison Park when he scored for Everton in the victory over the Scotsman’s Preston North End (2-0) team in the FA Cup tie played in January 2000.

David made his Premiership debut against Liverpool (2-1) at Goodison in December 1992, scored two penalties in derby matches, and played against the old rivals on 14 occasions.

Portsmouth’s last visit to Goodison Park for a top-flight fixture had occurred on the 9 April 1988 when Colin Harvey’s Everton took on Alan Ball’s Pompey team. Kevin Dillon had opened the scoring to put Pompey in the lead and just 11 minutes later Adrian Heath (37’) got Everton back on level terms before the interval. Trevor Steven (54’) scored in the early part of the second half as the Blues held on to win the game in front of just 21,292 supporters.
Everton: Southall; Stevens, Pointon, Van Den Hauwe, Watson; Reid, Steven, Snodin, Heath; Harper, Sheedy.

How many readers know that Howard Kendall captained England to a World Cup triumph two years prior to Bobby Moore? It did happen, but it was as the captain of the England Youth team that took part in the Junior World Cup held in Amsterdam in 1964.

England Youth had played Poland (1-1), Republic Of Ireland (6-0), Austria (2-1), and Portugal (4-0) before beating Spain (4-0) in the final and the team had retained the trophy that they had won a year earlier in England. Other notable players for that successful team that Howard mentions in the article are Harry Redknapp, Don Rogers, John Hollins, David Sadler, Peter Noble and John Sissons. David Sadler (2) scored twice in the final and Harry Redknapp and Don Rogers joined him on the scoresheet. [I was hoping to find more information on this tournament, but couldn’t find any details on the various web-sites and books – perhaps some of the older readers remember some details?]

In Premier Points, Arsene Wenger made an interesting remark – which some at Everton would be wise to take heed of – when talking about Arsenal’s proposed move to a new stadium at Ashburton Grove and how it was essential for the club’s progress he said, “We have come so far through limited money, good buys and some good fortune, but could we achieve the same level of performance over the next 20 years with the same ground? Never!”

The Match: Another late show from Everton as Wayne Rooney (78’) hit the winner in the latter stages of the match. Wayne received the ball on the edge of the penalty area, moved it to his right foot and hit the ball past the despairing dive of Shaka Hislop. For some reason that isn’t obvious to me, Rooney made a bee-line back down the pitch towards the Pompey faithful and cupped his hand to his ear as part of his goal celebrations.

Incidentally, future Everton player, Yakubu completed the whole 90 minutes for Portsmouth at Goodison. A good day’s work from the Blues’ and a very important win for Everton (32pts), that put them into fourteenth position, eight points ahead of third from bottom Portsmouth (24pts), with only ten or so games remaining.

2003-04 — Premier League; Saturday 13 March 2004
Portsmouth @ Goodison Park 1-0 (Rooney) 40,105
Everton: Martyn; Hibbert, Stubbs, Yobo, Naysmith; Watson, Nyarko, Linderoth, Kilbane; Ferguson (Radzinski), Rooney.
Unused Subs: Wright, Carsley, McFadden, Unsworth.

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