FAN ARTICLES

Holding out for a hero

By David Price :  30/07/2010 :  Comments (15) :

Sometimes it?s not a career that determines the title of hero, sometimes it can be that one moment, that when you witness it, you just know that this player is special.

My moment of truth was, like all great things for our club, in the Eighties, before the journey hit full speed, actually close to the point of derailment. Late 1983, Round 2 of the League Cup, at home to Coventry, remember it well? No, didn?t think so. There was myself and 9,000 other hardy souls on a filthy winters night. Everton couldn?t score to save their life in the league and the most popular song on the terraces was ?Kendall Out?.

It was close to depression and the sceptre of relegation was becoming a real threat. To take us away from this we had a Mickey Mouse cup to play in. The fans had voted with their feet and the expectation levels were zero. Deep into the second half, Everton were trailing one nil, we had used our substitute and shortly after,the young striker called Graeme Sharp, still trying to impress, takes a shocking challenge to his ankles and can?t carry on. Down to 10 men with less than 10 minutes to go. Sharpy drags himself to his feet after treatment and can hardly stand. Magnum thinks he should stay off, the game was lost, why risk further damage.

Sharpy beckons to the ref to come back on, Kendall puts him left wing to do whatever. This courage, this determination somehow grabs the crowd by the scruff of the neck, ala Nev?s challenge on Ronaldo. Suddenly 9,000 fans sound like 50,000. To a man, everyone is now behind the team, the team responds, on 88 minutes, Everton work a move into the box, going off memory rather than research, I think Tricky Trev equalises. The crowd are going crazy, and like the rain, Everton pours downward to the Coventry goal. Another move down the right, Tricky Trev gets to the by-line, sends in a clipped cross to the far post, from wide left, Sharpy has literally dragged himself from the touchline to the corner of the 6 yard box and dives full length to head a 90th minute winner.

Oxford away was dubbed Kendall and Everton?s turning point but without that Rd 2 ?non-event?, we wouldn?t have even got to that point. Sharpy is carried off; the match ends 2-1 to the Blues. I knew then in Graeme Sharp we had something special, some-one to be a legend, some-one to be a hero but more importantly, some-one who knew what it was to be an Evertonian.

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