Column

Memory Lane — Match 7

QPR, Birmingham, Oldham and Leeds, including a rare hat-trick for utility man Steve Watson

Forty Years Ago — 1973-74

Queens Park Rangers, who were runners-up in Division 2, and the last of the promoted clubs along with the Champions Burnley that came up via the now defunct two-up two-down system, paid only their second visit to Goodison Park for a top flight fixture. The previous occasion in 1968-69, had seen them win only four matches out of 42 played, with all of those victories coming on home turf.

QPR manager Gordon Jago’s shrewd transfer dealings had seen the club promoted 11 points clear of nearest rivals Aston Villa, proving that talented players were available at reasonable prices outside of the top division. By re-investing the money that he had received for Rodney Marsh when he sold him to Manchester City, Mr Jago bought Dave Thomas from Burnley for £160k, Stan Bowles from Carlisle United for £112k and Don Givens from Luton Town for £40k and they each repaid his foresight by scoring 46 goals between them. Givens was the most prolific with 23 league goals, Bowles got 17 and Dave Thomas added 6 to the tally as well as being a regular contributor of assists to his strike partners. In fact Don Givens had added two more goals to his tally at Upton Park the previous Monday where Rangers had gained a valuable win, which put his team a point ahead of Everton in the table going in to this fixture.

‘Scene one’ informed the readers that, despite the economic ‘freeze’ in Britain, some clubs are putting up their prices for fans who want to attend league matches, indeed the visitors were the subject of an investigation by the Prices Commission but the Commission permitted the price rises as the club was losing money, so QPR were able to charge up to £40 for a season-ticket. In Everton's home game against Ipswich Town, John Hurst had made his 300th appearance for the Toffees in all competitions – a fact John hadn’t been aware of until Howard Kendall and Colin Harvey pointed it out to him after they had read the Daily Post’s match report.

David Exall in ‘Club Talk’ revealed that Everton voted in favour of the new system of three-up, three-down mainly because the club believed that competition would be extended to the end of the season in both divisions. He cited that last term QPR and Burnley had so dominated the promotion places that it was virtually settled with a fifth of the program to play. Smaller clubs with lower attendances would benefit from the change as it would give them an opportunity to get into the top flight as long as they proved themselves on the field of play. David warned that the idea of a Super League would in all probability see the larger clubs with greater ground capacities remain in the Super League, with the financial aspects of a club being as important if not more so in the long-term, rather than results at any particular point – which in his view would be tantamount to removing the interest of promotion and relegation.
Mike Lyons grabbed the only goal of the game in typically brave style when he stooped to nod home past the frustrated figure of Under-23 England goalkeeper Phil Parkes after 74 minutes of the match.

1973-74 — First Division: Saturday, 15 September 1973
QPR @Goodison Park: Score 1-0 (Lyons); Attendance: 30,795
Lawson; Darracott, McLaughlin, Bernard (Husband), Kenyon; Hurst, Newton; Lyons, Royle, Harper, Connolly

Thirty Years Ago — 1983-84

Ron Saunders, the manager of Birmingham City, had played for Everton in the 1950s but he had only made 3 first team appearances and just one of them was at Goodison Park, that game was a First Division fixture played on 9 April 1955 where the Toffees defeated Spurs by a single goal scored by Wally Fielding. Birmingham City, having flirted with relegation in previous seasons, had seen a huge turnover of players with some 50 players leaving and joining the club. Ron Saunders said he was always confident that his team would remain in the top flight the previous season and he was proved correct when Birmingham City took a staggering 16 points from their last 6 games including a 1-0 victory over Everton at St Andrews in April. Birmingham City had started the 1973-74 season brightly with wins against Watford (2-0), Stoke (1-0) and Ipswich Town (1-0) at home, but they only had a point to show from their away fixtures. Birmingham City had lost at West Ham United (1-4) and Notts County (1-2) but drew their previous away game at Wolverhampton Wanderers (1-1).

Howard Kendall welcomed back Billy Wright to Goodison and said that he was happy that Billy found a First Division club to play for. Howard related some transfer news, which involved Martin Hodge who had joined Second Division Sheffield Wednesday after the two clubs agreed terms and although Mr Kendall said he didn’t want to lose him, he recognised that Martin wanted and needed first team football. Alan Irvine had submitted a transfer request due to a lack of first team opportunities and the recent arrival of Terry Curran – who was out of action due to a thigh strain.

John Bailey in ‘Fact File’ revealed that the biggest influences on his career so far had been Jim Smith and John Pickering. Suitably for John’s sense of humour he was born on April Fool's Day, although he was nobody’s fool on the football pitch. The first live televised league game was scheduled to be broadcast in just over a week when Nottingham Forest were set to face Tottenham Hotspur at the City Ground and the ‘comment’ section said that the value of ground advertising was significantly enhanced with the broadcasting of live games.

Graeme Sharp converted a penalty to equalise for the Toffees early in the second-half at Goodison after Mick Hartford had given Birmingham City the lead against the run of play in the first half. Howard Kendall thought that the penalty was awarded correctly and also felt that Birmingham’s disallowed ‘goal’ for offside, was also the correct call from the officials.
1983-84 — First Division: Saturday, 24 September 1983
Birmingham City @ Goodison Park: Score 1-1 (Sharp); Attendance: 15,253
Arnold; Harper, Bailey, Ratcliffe, Higgins; Reid, Steven (King), Heath; Sharp, Johnson, Sheedy.

Twenty Years Ago — 1993-94: Match 7

After suffering three consecutive league defeats, a bruised Everton travelled to Boundary Park to take on Joe Royle’s Oldham Athletic. Oldham had managed to retain their Premier League status by the slenderest of margins following a late run which gained them 21 points from 11 matches or, to put it into context, just 7 points less than they had taken in their first 31 games. Six of those points came from trips to fellow strugglers Middlesbrough and title challengers Aston Villa. But it was their excellent form at Boundary Park which ultimately helped the ‘Latics’ to preserve their place in the top division, where they were unbeaten in their last seven fixtures which had seen them earn 15 points from those matches. Wins over Wimbledon (6-2), Liverpool (3-2), Southampton (4-2) and eventual Champions Manchester United (1-0), whilst unexpected, were gratefully welcomed by the Oldham fans and their players. Even then it was only a superior goal difference of just 2 goals that kept the Latics in the Premier League at the expense of Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest.

Oldham Athletic’s home form hadn’t continued into the start of the new season though as they had lost their opening home game to Ipswich Town (0-3) and drawn the other two fixtures with Coventry City (3-3) and Wimbledon (1-1). Away from home Oldham Athletic had beaten Swindon Town (1-0), but had lost to both Blackburn Rovers (0-1) and in their most recent fixture at Leeds United (0-1). Everton went into the game four points better off than their hosts but any slip-up would've seen the Toffees looking nervously over their shoulder at those teams that were fighting against relegation.

Joe Royle in his notes said that Everton would provide a different type of opposition than Oldham’s previous opponents; he said that Everton’s early performances had promised much and that Howard Kendall was sure that the Toffees were not too far away from a return to the ‘Glory Days’. Was this Joe being kind to Everton? Or was Joe playing mind games?

Sponsors Carling had named their dream team which was chosen based on a fans survey, the result of which is: 1. Flowers (Blackburn); 2. Jones (Liverpool); 3. Dorigo (Leeds); 4. McGrath (Aston Villa); 5. Ruddock (Liverpool); 6. Townsend (Aston Villa); 7. Ince (Man Utd); 8. Giggs (Man Utd); 9. Shearer (Blackburn); 10. Wright (Arsenal); 11.Waddle (Sheff Wed). The only Everton player to make the 18-man squad was Neville Southall.

In order to subscribe to satellite sports channels, you needed to purchase a decoder and dish at the cost of £199.99 with the sports package costing £11.99 per month to watch 60 [yes, sixty] live Premiership games. If you preferred to take your missus to a show, then there was the Oldham Coliseum where Sarah Lancashire (Raquel from Coronation Street) was appearing in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’.

In the Did You Know? section, most of the information about Everton was pretty common knowledge but one thing I personally didn’t know was that Dennis Stevens had won an FA Cup Winners medal with Bolton Wanderers five years before he won a Championship medal at Everton. Whoever was responsible for the chart showing Everton’s 10-year league record got it horribly wrong as they had Everton in Division 3 in 1984 and Division 2 in 1985 and 1986!!!

Tony Cottee was the Everton hero as he scored the winner in the first half of a match that Everton should and could have won more comfortably, although Neville Southall pulled off a couple of his trademark saves to ensure Everton returned to Goodison with all three points and thus stopped the run of consecutive league defeats. Howard Kendall believed the win at Boundary Park was fully deserved and that his team should have had at least one penalty awarded during the game. He was pleased that Everton withstood some late pressure and that Neville Southall had made a couple of important saves. But he still bemoaned the lack of finishing power and bad luck in front of goal especially when Peter Beagrie hit the crossbar.

1993-94 — Premier League: Saturday, 11 September 1993
Oldham Athletic @ Boundary Park: Score 1-0 (Cottee); Attendance: 13.666
Southall; Holmes, Hinchcliffe, Ebbrell, Jackson; Ablett, Ward, Radosavljevic (Horne); Cottee, Rideout (Barlow), Beagrie. Unused Sub: Reeves.

Ten Years Ago — 2003-04 Match 7

Leeds United arrived at Goodison with a very different squad of players than those who had played for the club in recent times. Rio Ferdinand had left to join Manchester United and Harry Kewell had gone to Liverpool; another five high-profile players had left due to the financial mess that Leeds United had managed to get itself into.

Having parted with former Manager David O’Leary in March, Leeds appointed ex-Everton player Peter Reid. Reid had over ten years of management experience with spells at Manchester City and Sunderland where he had twice taken the Black Cat’s to the Premier League by virtue of winning the Division One title in both 1995-96 and 1998-99.

Leeds found themselves level on five points from six games, with Everton, both clubs would have hoped for better starts to the new campaign and a win would be most welcome for either club. Leeds had only won one Premier League game and that was in their recent away fixture at Middlesbrough which they had won by the odd goal in five. Since that match they had suffered a heavy defeat to Leicester City (0-4) at Filbert Street and a home defeat to Birmingham City (0-2).

Everton Manager David Moyes reported that his injured players were getting closer to fitness and that he soon hoped to have a fully fit squad to choose from. Richard Wright did not need major surgery and both Kevin Campbell and Li Tie would be back and available in the following days and weeks, but the news on Francis Jeffers and Scot Gemmill was not quite as good and they both would take a little while longer before they were available for selection.

Club Secretary Michael Dunford said that a meeting had taken place at the request of North West Development Agency Chairman Bryan Gray. The meeting was held to discuss the general principal of Everton FC and Liverpool FC and the possibility of a Ground Share. Mr Dunford said that because both Clubs are at different stages of planning and Liverpool FC are seeking a positive response to their planning application for their new stadium which they hope to start building by May 2004, if anything were to happen with regards sharing it would have to be agreed quickly by both clubs. Mr Dunford went on to say “Everybody shares the same aims and ambitions. The authorities want the two football clubs to be successful but this is probably the last stop saloon as far as any opportunity for the two clubs to share a stadium.” Casting doubt on the probability of a shared stadium, Mr Dunford ended by saying that unless a shared stadium “completely satisfies Everton 100%, there will be no sharing option.”

According to the ‘Bits n Bobs’ section, a game at Goodison in March 1927 between Everton and Leeds United became the first match to be broadcast live – on the radio by the BBC – Everton won the game two-one. Another snippet of information relates to penalties and the recent match between Everton and Newcastle had been the first time ever that Goodison had witnessed three converted penalties in the same game.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Aston Villa Chairman Doug Ellis replied to the news that Villa might be the subject of a Venezuelan buyout: he said that he would “listen to offers”. Mr Ansell, Villa’s financial director ‘suggested that clubs had reached a watershed. Transfer fees and wages, he said would not be maintained at the levels of recent seasons. Mr Ansell added “fees for the majority of players, other than for the best, will come down and although players will still be paid decent money, it will not be some of the large monies.”

David Moyes said the performance against Leeds United was exactly what he and his team wanted. Hat-trick hero Steve Watson recalls the misunderstanding that occurred during the game with Leeds United “The manager didn’t realise that I’d scored a hat-trick. He pulled me over to the side when somebody was injured and said ‘come on, you can get a hat-trick here.’ I said ‘well funnily enough I already have!” Steve scored his goals after 27, 37 and 5 mins with Duncan Ferguson getting his goal in the 40th minute, a good day for the Blues and a much needed shot in the arm for a team looking a little low on confidence prior to this fixture.

2003-04 — Premier League: Sunday, 28 September 2003
Leeds United @Goodison Park: Score 4-0 (Watson 3, Ferguson); Attendance: 39,151
Martyn; Hibbert, Watson (Rooney), Stubbs, Yobo; Unsworth, Gravesen, Radzinski (Kilbane); Ferguson, McFadden (Linderoth), Carsley. Unused Subs: Turner, Weir.

Reader Comments (38)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

About these ads

---