Column

Memory Lane - Match 2

The Foxes, Hammers, Citizens and Cottagers feature in Patrick's look at Everton's second games of the season over the decades

Foxes, Hammers, Citizens and Cottagers

Forty Years Ago – 1973-74: Match 2

Goodison welcomed Leicester City to open the 1973-74 home season.

The disappointing defeat at Elland Road had increased the need for Billy Bingham, the recently appointed Everton manager, to gain his first win and where better place to do it than in front of the adoring faithful?

Mr Bingham in his programme notes said that he was glad that the club had toured Sweden during the close season where he had been able to assess the squad in a ‘tremendously hard’ three game tour. The games were played against Landskrona on 12 August, who Everton beat 3-1 (Royle, Kendall & Bernard), Hamstad on 14 August who Everton beat 2-1 (Buckley 2) and on Thursday 16 August where Malmo defeated Everton 1-0.

The manager also mentioned a disciplinary situation had arisen during the tour and three of the players had been late on parade; each had received and accepted their necessary punishment. Advocating mutual respect and trust and a firm but fair professional attitude Bingham laid out his methods for shaping the players into a committed and happy squad. He also reported that Joe Royle was recovering from his back problem whilst there was bad news for Tommy Wright who had undergone a cartilage operation.

A feature on the newly appointed Chairman Mr Alan Waterworth mentions that Mr Waterworth had travelled all over Britain and the continent studying turf and soil structures. In a quote attributed to Mr Waterworth the article stated "I want to feel that every single member of Everton’s staff and directors are pulling one way for the club. From myself and the directors down to the ball boys, we go ahead as one."

In the regular ‘10-20-40 years ago’ feature, a 4-0 drubbing of Manchester United at Goodison Park in the Charity Shield was recalled where Jimmy Gabriel, Roy Vernon and Alex Young scored the goals. Chairman Mr John Moores was looking forward to playing Inter Milan in the European Cup and was confident if Everton could win that game, then they would have a good chance of bringing the European Cup to Goodison.

Among the various trinkets pictured in an advertisement, the usual wallet for £1, Rosette for 18p etc, there was curiously one item which stood out like a fox in a henhouse — namely a plastic LFC Pennant. Adorned with "Liverpool FC" and featuring the year (1973) whilst embossed with replicas of the two trophies that our neighbours had won the previous year. Priced at 30p, the same price as the Everton FC equivalent, it also somewhat undermined the proud claim made in the advert that they intended to ‘offer supporters a wide range of Souvenirs which any Evertonian would be proud to own’. Imagine the furore if a similar item was available in Everton One or Everton Two today, Oh the early 1970s... such an innocent period of time.

Leicester City had finished just above Everton the previous season in 16th place (out of 22) with the same number of points but a superior goal difference. With the likes of Peter Shilton, Frank Worthington and Keith Weller in their ranks, the Foxes were always a difficult team to face, and so it proved as Leicester City left Goodison with a point following a 1-1 draw. A rare lapse from the aforementioned England Goalkeeper allowed Roger Kenyon to open his and Everton’s account at Goodison, and I bet many of you are thinking ‘header’ but no, it was the boot of Roger that put the ball into the Leicester net.

Some lucky bloke from Bootle won the golden goal with the goal timed at 21mins 47secs. Also in the report in the following programme, Lawrence is in goal for the Blues... I wonder if those lads at the printers were by any chance, affiliated to our friends from across the park?

1973-74 — First Division: Tuesday, 28 August 1973

Leicester City (Goodison Park), Score 1-1 (Kenyon); Attendance: 33,539

Lawson; Darracott, Mclaughlin (Lyons), Kendall, Kenyon; Hurst, Harvey; Newton, Royle, Harper, Connolly.

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Thirty Years Ago — 1983-84: Match 2

Bank Holiday Monday saw Everton take on West Ham United, hoping to repeat the success of the previous Saturday with another win. If last season’s finishing positions were anything to go by it would be a close game as West Ham United had finished 82-83 on the same number of points as their hosts, and, like Everton, missed out on a Uefa cup berth.

Both sides had ended that fruitless season in good form, with West Ham United winning seven out of their last ten fixtures and Everton victorious in six out of their last eight fixtures, including a 2-0 win over the Hammers at Goodison Park at the end of April where Graeme Sharp had scored a pair to secure the three points for the Blues. Like Everton, West Ham United had gained maximum points from their opening fixture where they had beaten Birmingham convincingly by four goals to nil, a game in which their highly rated teenage striker, Tony Cottee, had scored a brace.

The Everton Comment page reflected on the ‘softly softly’ approach that is required for the possibility of Live TV coverage, the article agreed that the coverage of football was in need of a revamp, but it wasn’t sure that broadcasting live games was the answer. Potential advertisers were also adopting a 'wait and see' attitude, and it would probably be a lot clearer in twelve month’s time when all parties had agreed to review the situation.

Howard Kendall in his notes was left rueing the sending-off of Kevin Ratcliffe in a friendly game at Walsall as it meant that Kevin had been unavailable for the opening two games of the season, which to Howard’s thinking was too harsh a punishment for a misdemeanour in a pre-season game. As it happened, Kevin Ratcliffe had two pages devoted to him in the programme where he spoke about how last year he had approached the Manager to clarify his position at the club and was wondering if it was the right time to move on.

Kevin looked forward to representing Wales in the European Championship qualifying games and thought that, but for a slip-up against Iceland, his national team would be in a great position to reach the finals in France the following summer, but he was still optimistic that Wales would make it. Kevin was also pleased that his partnership with Mark Higgins had gone so well and he mentioned how unusual it was to have a centre-back pairing where both players were predominantly left-footed. In fact, in all but one of Everton’s last 30 games of last season, Higgins and Ratcliffe had turned out for the Blues.

In the ‘Newsdesk’ feature Graeme Sharp was mentioned as ESCLA (London Supporter’s Club), had awarded him The Dixie Dean Memorial Trophy in recognition of Sharpy’s achievement of being Everton’s top scorer in the previous league campaign, in which he had scored 15 goals for the club, a total that he had also reached in season 81-82, and therefore this was the second time that Graeme had received the prestigious honour. Graeme was obviously a popular guy at that time because he was also featured in the ‘Fact File’ where, once again, Everton youngster Jimmy Coyle was mentioned as one to watch. Graeme also told the readers that Willie Henderson, the Glasgow Rangers player, was his hero as a boy and that John McEnroe was the sportsman he most admired.

As many had envisaged, the West Ham United game was a tight affair where a Steve Walford goal for the Hammers was enough to secure the points to the delight of their travelling fans. Howard Kendall said that West Ham United were a well organised side and that Alvin Martin was superb in keeping the Everton attack at bay. Although Kendall thought that the winning goal had been a fluke.

1983-84 — First Division: Monday, 29 August 1983

West Ham United (Goodison Park), Score 0-1; Attendance: 20,375

Arnold; Harper, Bailey, Mountfield, Higgins; Richardson (Johnson), Steven; Heath, Sharp, King, Sheedy.

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Twenty Years Ago — 1993-94: Match 2

Following the 2-0 win at the Dell, Everton, were sure to be in buoyant mood for the visit of the team from the other end of the East Lancashire Road, Manchester City. Howard Kendall’s former club had been on the receiving end of a 5-2 battering at Maine Road by Everton – Everton’s biggest ever win at Maine Road at that time – in the final fixture of the previous season. Everton fans attending Goodison for the first home fixture of the season were optimistic – which was in stark contrast to the mood that had surrounded Everton during a traumatic close season.

Manchester City, managed by former Everton player and club legend Peter Reid, had finished in the top 10 the previous season and had some good players including Gary Flitcroft, Niall Quinn, David White and former Everton player Steve McMahon in their ranks. Howard Kendall was bullish in his column and despite no new arrivals he was optimistic that Everton would surprise a few people, but he was more concerned about the injuries that Barry Horne and Andy Hinchcliffe had suffered.

Dave Watson was bemoaning the fact that it was difficult to recruit new players as the prices had gone silly again with a minimum of £2M being asked for any player that the club showed an interest in. David said that Chelsea, under the tutelage of player manager Glenn Hoddle, may prove dark horses that season and that he fully expected Arsenal and Manchester United to be going for the top honours but he also added ‘Don’t write off Everton!”.

In the feature on the visitors, it was reported that Maine Road opened a new stand in the FA Cup tie with Spurs earlier in the year at a cost of £5M — similar to the amount that Everton FC were rumoured to be valued at during the summer. Another feature, ‘Match from the past’, focused on Paul Power and his involvement in previous games between the clubs: from the 1986-87 season, a 3-1 victory for Everton at Maine Road where Power scored a goal to add to Heath’s pair; and from the previous season, 1985-86, and a game where Paul was playing for his beloved Manchester City but was on the wrong end of a 4-0 thrashing where Sharp added a goal to Lineker’s hat-trick at Goodison.

At a cost of £11, an Evertonian could purchase a ticket for the upcoming away game at Arsenal. If you wanted to purchase a ticket for a category ‘A’ game at Goodison and sit in the Main Stand, it would cost £13 or you could choose to pay on the turnstile for the Gwladys St Terrace for £9 as long as the game wasn’t an all-ticket match. A cup of Bovril and a pasty would cost you £1.35 — if you had the stomach for it.

The News Desk reported that Tony Cottee was pleased with the new three-year contract that he had recently signed and was particularly pleased to have the honour of being Everton’s Number Nine for the new campaign.

Ian Snodin was feeling good about his prospects for the new season having come through the pre-season unscathed following the various injuries and niggles he had endured in the last few years.

Paul Rideout scored what turned out to be the winner in a game that Howard Kendall believed was helped by the confidence his team had gained from the away victory at Southampton. The injury to Dave Watson was a major concern for Howard, although he was pleased that Paul Rideout had opened his account for the season.

1993-94 — Premier League; Tuesday, 17 August 1993

Manchester City (Goodison Park), Score 1-0 (Rideout); Attendance: 26,025

Southall; Holmes, Jackson, Snodin (Preki), Watson (Barlow); Ablett, Ward, Ebbrell; Cottee, Rideout, Beagrie. Unused Sub: Kearton.

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Ten Years Ago — 2003-04: Match 2

Following the narrow defeat at Highbury, Everton entertained Fulham for the opening fixture at Goodison Park in 2003-04. Fulham were of course David Moyes’s first opponents when he arrived at Goodison some 18 months earlier. Whilst he had tasted victory on his Goodison baptism, in his notes for this game, he lamented the defeat to Chris Coleman’s side during the previous season’s run-in as costing Everton a place in Europe.

Chris Coleman had been put in charge of the first team at Fulham with five games of the 2002-03 remaining as they flirted with relegation, but a tally of 10 points from those five games, including that victory over Everton courtesy of own goals by Richard Wright and Alan Stubbs, persuaded Chris to apply for the manager’s job on a permanent basis.

A large part of the programme was devoted to the 125th anniversary celebrations and a quote was highlighted "Throughout our history, we have maintained our position as one of the big names in football and have played a significant part in changing aspects of the game known and loved today."

A match is recalled in the '125... Thousands of Games' section where the first home game of 1982-83 season is featured. Following a 2-0 loss away to Watford, Everton entertained newly crowned European Champions Aston Villa at Goodison. A crowd of just over 24,000 turned up to witness the 5-0 demolition of Villa which was the club’s biggest opening home victory for 60 years; incidentally it was in this game that Kevin Sheedy made his home debut.

Michael Dunford reported that the club had decided to cap season ticket numbers at 28,000. He also stated that a waiting list for season tickets and corporate facilities was growing and announced the arrival of a new facility in the Bullens Road car-park, namely a marquee, which gives the club an extra 300 hospitality places and he hopes it proves successful.

Evertonfc.com was featured and they said they were hoping to make it one of the best websites in the Premier League although the sight of a strange looking David Moyes avatar was a little off-putting. In the ‘bits and bobs’ section of useless trivia that you didn’t know, it said that the first goal scored at Goodison in the post-war era was scored by George Wilkins from a penalty for Brentford in August 1946... it goes on to say that George was the father of former Chelsea and Manchester United player Ray. Colin Harvey thanked the fans for the turnout and the fantastic reception that he had received for his testimonial match.

The result of the Fulham game was a convincing home victory, with the Blues running out 3-1 winners with goals from Naysmith (7), Unsworth (20) and Watson (35) which effectively won the game for Everton in the opening half although a goal from Hayles (68) provided Fulham with a tantalising glimpse of rescuing something from the game. The attendance of 37,604 certainly pleased Michael Dunford especially as Fulham only took up 500 places at Goodison.

2003-04 Premier League, Saturday, August 23, 2003

Fulham (Goodison Park) Score 3-1(Naysmith, Unsworth & Watson) Attendance: 37,604

Wright; Watson, Pistone, Stubbs, Yobo; Unsworth Linderoth; Radzinski, Rooney (Chadwick); Naysmith; Pembridge. Unused Subs: Simonsen, Weir, Li Tie, Osman.

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