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Memory Lane – Match 16

Unbeaten games against Norwich, Man Utd, Leeds Utd and Portsmouth

Forty Years Ago — 1973-74: Match 16

Everton visited Carrow Road hoping to put the defeat at Chelsea behind them and would attempt to avenge their defeat at the hands of Norwich City in the League Cup at Goodison Park the previous month. Since the Canaries had won at Goodison in the League Cup they had beaten Leicester City at Carrow Road and lost to Stoke City at the Victoria Ground which had left them level on points with 3rd from bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers on 12 points from 16 games played and 3 points adrift of Stoke City (15) a place above them in the league.

Due to the dearth of Everton-related news and the complete absence of the views of any of the Norwich City staff in this issue, I thought I would (especially for the younger readers) relate the information of the Everton team as given in the Pen Pictures of this programme.

David Lawson – Everton created a new record fee for a goalkeeper when they paid Huddersfield Town £80,000 for Dave in 1972. He was attached to both Newcastle United and Shrewsbury Town as a youngster but it wasn’t until joining ill-fated Bradford Park Avenue that he got his first taste of league football.

Terry Darracott – Terry was still an apprentice when he made his league debut in 1967-68 and until winning a regular place this season he had been mostly a reserve player at Goodison Park.

Roger Kenyon – Roger took over from England centre-half Brian Labone three years earlier and had developed into a sound successor. Roger also made his debut in 1967-68.

John Hurst – John joined Everton from school after winning England Schoolboys’ caps. In those days he was being hailed as ‘another Tommy Lawton’ but he was used in midfield and then moved back into defence. John was an ex-England Under-23 International.
John McLaughlin – Signed for £50,000 from Falkirk in October 1971 and though he spent his time at Falkirk as a Midfielder he was used as a defender.

Mike Buckley – A former Everton apprentice who turned professional in 1971, under manager Billy Bingham Mike was enjoying a long run in the Everton side.

Mike Bernard – Signed from Stoke City for £130,000, made his league debut for Stoke City in 1965-66 and played for Sir Alf Ramsey in the England Under-23 team.

Dave Clements – Signed from Sheffield Wednesday for £60,000 has 35 caps for Northern Ireland. Dave started his career in England with Wolverhampton Wanderers but failed to make the first-team, he moved on to Coventry City before joining Sheffield Wednesday in 1971 for £55,000.

Mike Lyons – Scored on his league debut against Nottingham Forest in March 1971. Mike became a full-time professional in July 1969.

Joe Harper – Everton’s then club record signing at £180,000 when he joined the club from Aberdeenin 1972. Joe made his mark at Morton scoring 29 goals for the club when they topped the Scottish Second Division. Huddersfield Town signed Joe in 1967, but he didn’t stay at Leeds Road long and re-joined Morton and scored another 27 goals for them in 1968-69 before he left to join Aberdeen where he gained full Scotland caps prior to moving to Goodison Park.

John Connolly – Signed from St Johnstone for £75,000 in 1972. Chief goalscorer for the Scottish club, he made his bow for St Johnstone in 1968 and was capped at Full and Under-23 level for Scotland.

David Irving – Signed from Workington Town for £25,000, Everton beating several other first division clubs to his signature. David was a former England Youth International who was mostly used as substitute.

The Canaries desperation for points had been helped when the unfortunate John McLaughlin had given them the lead with a goal at the wrong end, but Dave Clements scored the equaliser with a deflected shot off Duncan Forbes, from the edge of the area and then Mick Bernard had put Everton ahead. The two points were assured when the equally unfortunate Duncan Forbes reciprocated and scored the second own goal of the game following Mick Buckley’s shot across the area, which had given Everton a two-goal cushion. The following programme stated that only Mick Bernard had been awarded a goal, with the other two goals being recorded as own goals for Everton.

The win put Everton (21) into joint 2nd place alongside Liverpool (21) who had beaten Ipswich Town (4-2) at Anfield and Newcastle United (21) who had defeated Manchester United (3-2) at St James's Park. Leeds United had remained unbeaten thanks to their victory over Coventry City (3-0) at Elland Road and they now had a 7-point lead at the top of the table. Everton’s upcoming Division One fixtures at Goodison Park were to be against Newcastle United and Liverpool in the coming weeks.

Norwich City who were now a point adrift of Wolves and occupied the last of the relegation places, decided to terminate Ron Saunders's tenure at Carrow Road in the wake of this home defeat to Everton. In a strange quirk of fate, Ron’s first game in charge of Norwich City in the top flight had been against Everton at Carrow Road in August 1972 which had ended in a one-all draw with Joe Royle scoring an equaliser in the last 10 minutes after Jim Bone had given Norwich City the lead in the first-half.

1973-74 — First Division; Saturday, 17 November 1973
Norwich City @ Carrow Road, Score 3-1 (Forbes 2 (ogs), Bernard), Attendance: 19,825
Everton: Lawson; Darracott, McLaughlin, Clements, Kenyon; Hurst, Bernard, Buckley; Lyons, Harper, Connolly.

Thirty Years Ago — 1983-84: Match 16

As has been Everton’s way throughout its history – and probably every fan of every other club thinks the same about their own side – consecutive defeats had removed the fans’ rosy glow of optimism and it had been replaced with all those nagging doubts that re-appear when results hadn’t gone the way that they had wanted them to. Yes! The 1983-84 side had obtained a decent centre-forward... and yes, they had on occasion produced reasonable football... but they had still found it painfully difficult to score goals in the top division throughout the 1983-84 campaign and the team had still retained that irritating habit of losing goals through bad play or ill fortune.

This meeting, played in December 1983, had also brought the First Division’s top scorers, Manchester United (28), up against the league's lowest, Everton (9). Everton hadn’t won at Old Trafford since they had beaten Manchester United (2-1) there in March 1978, when Bob Latchford had scored twice. Given the circumstances, a visit to Old Trafford was probably a more difficult fixture than Howard Kendall, the supporters and his team would have wanted for Everton FC at that particular point in time. It hadn’t been all bad news of course as Everton still had a Milk Cup fourth round replay tie at Goodison to look forward to, but it is in the league that a team is judged and so far in the campaign, that particular Everton side had flattered to deceive.

Ron Atkinson’s Manchester United side had had their sights firmly set on usurping – some would say their fiercest rivals – Liverpool, by becoming Champions of England. So far in 1983-84 they had been in touch with the serial Champions and were hoping to bring the title back to Old Trafford after an absence of some 16 years. The 1983 FA Cup holders, who had beaten Everton (1-0) on the road to Wembley, had also reached Wembley in the League Cup final of 1983, but had lost to Liverpool (1-2) The ‘Red Devils’ gained a modicum of revenge for that defeat by beating Liverpool (2-0) in the 1983 Charity Shield match at Wembley.
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Man Utd had six First Division home wins to their name and, previous to the meeting with Everton, they had recorded a convincing victory over Division One runners-up Watford (4-1) at Old Trafford. They had also beaten the Champions, Liverpool (1-0), at Old Trafford but they had lost to Nottingham Forest (1-2) and Aston Villa (1-2) on home turf.

In a live televised match at Upton Park, the ‘Red Devils’ had had to settle for a draw against West Ham United (1-1), who were level on points with Man Utd (30) and both teams were a single point behind the league leaders Liverpool (31). In their away fixtures, Man Utd had lost only one game at Southampton (0-3) and they had dropped a point in the fixture with Norwich City (3-3), but had won at Stoke City (1-0), Arsenal (3-2) and Sunderland (1-0).

Ron Atkinson reflected on the pros and cons of the live broadcasting of Division One matches, and he said that, whilst it was good that the game got a wider audience and hopefully attracted larger numbers of paying customers into the grounds, he was also very wary that too many games being broadcast live could have resulted in potential match-going fans becoming ‘lazy’ and not visiting grounds, they could instead settle for the comfort of their armchairs. He felt that the figure of a dozen games broadcast live during a league season was about right to meet the demands of the clubs to increase revenue without it having an adverse effect on a club’s attendances.

Chairman Martin Edwards called for the Man Utd faithful to behave themselves and refrain from using bad language or obscene chanting when the TV cameras were set to visit Old Trafford for a fixture with Tottenham Hotspur to be played on Friday 16 December – that would be the first time that a league game had been broadcast live from Old Trafford. The Chairman had urged everyone to play their part in making sure that the commentators had only good things to say about the occasion. Mr Edwards also said that there were many who were uncertain about the advantages of live television but that Man Utd and the other clubs were contractually obliged to take part.

Whilst United’s first-team were concentrating on taking the title to Old Trafford, a future England international star was plying his trade in United’s youth team a certain David Platt who had joined United on a Youth Training Scheme and had scored for his team in a Lancashire Youth Cup tie with Burnley, played earlier that season.

In the focus section on Everton, the article’s author was Tony Pullein and he said that Everton were regarded as more of a cup side in modern times and that re-building the club would be a long and painful process and he also noted that only two of the regular first-team squad, Kevin Ratcliffe and John Bailey, were at Goodison when Mr Kendall took over in 1981. Tony added “But one thing is clear – Mr Kendall will not rest until one of those major trophies returns to the Goodison Boardroom.”

Adrian Heath was the unfortunate player left out of the team as Graeme Sharp and Andy Gray were chosen to lead Everton’s attack for the first time since Gray’s arrival at the club. But it was Kevin Sheedy’s sumptuous strike just after half-time that had been enough to earn Everton all three points and dent Manchester United’s title challenge as Liverpool had beaten Birmingham City (1-0) at Anfield. Incidentally Tony Pullein claims in another match programme that the goal by Kevin Sheedy was the first time in 1983-84 that Everton had scored a league goal in the second-half of an away fixture.

A small consolation for Man Utd had been that West Ham United had also lost, at Villa Park to Aston Villa (0-1). But Manchester United’s title quest was the least of the Evertonians concerns as they celebrated a rare and welcome victory at Old Trafford and they could now look forward to the League Cup 4th Round replay with West Ham United with far more optimism than they would have believed prior to this game.

Howard Kendall gave a description of Kevin Sheedy’s goal “Alan Irvine pulled inside Whiteside and then pushed the ball past Arthur Albiston. The hole appeared before him and he proved how he can go past most players. He then hit a quality cross which went between a couple of United players’ legs. Graeme seemed surprised when it arrived at his feet, but he got hold of the ball and set things up for a good, left-foot shot by Kevin Sheedy.”

1983-84 — First Division; Saturday, 3 December 1983.
Manchester United @ Old Trafford, Score: 1-0 (Sheedy), Attendance: 43,664.
Everton: Southall; Stevens, Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Higgins; Reid, Irvine; King Sharp, Gray, Sheedy. Unused Sub: Heath.

Twenty Years Ago — 1993-94: Match 16

Leeds United had a proud and trophy-laden history and they were a team to fear during the 60s and early 70s but a four-year – reduced to two years on appeal - European ban imposed when their fans had rioted during the 1975 European Cup final against Bayern Munich in Paris, allegedly in response to a disallowed goal from Peter Lorimer, and an ageing squad, meant that they never quite regained their place at the higher echelons of the game. That was until 1992 of course when Leeds United had the distinction of being the last ever club to win the old First Division and raise aloft the magnificent old trophy.

Many people thought that Leeds United would have defended their title with vigour and may even have expected them to retain it. But, unable to win a league match away from Elland Road in the newly formed Premier League, they had struggled to retain their place in the top flight, and it was only by virtue of their form at Elland Road, where their only league defeat had been to Nottingham Forest (1-4), that they managed to stave off the stigma of relegated defending Champions – something that had very nearly happened to Everton following Dixie Dean’s record-breaking season in 1929. In the European Cup, Leeds United had beaten Stuttgart (4-4) the previous season by virtue of the away goals rule, but had gone out of the tournament to Glasgow Rangers (2-4) on aggregate losing both legs (1-2).

The 93-94 season had seen an improvement and Leeds had registered two wins away from Elland Road at Southampton (2-0) and Coventry City (2-0) and they had only lost twice at Arsenal (1-2) and at Anfield where Liverpool (0-2) had been the victors. The remaining four away fixtures had ended in draws.

At Elland Road, Leeds Utd had been beaten only once by Norwich City (0-4) and had recorded wins over West Ham Utd (1-0), Oldham Athletic (1-0), Sheffield Utd (2-1), Wimbledon (4-0), Chelsea (4-1) and Swindon Town (3-0) with just a single drawn match at Elland Road with Blackburn Rovers (3-3). Whilst Leeds were unbeaten in six Premier League fixtures, in the League Cup, they had surprisingly lost to Sunderland (1-2) at Elland Road and would not be gracing Wembley in that tournament this time.

Leeds United, the reigning Champions and unbeaten for 34 matches, arrived at Goodison Park on 30 October 1969 to take on an Everton side who coveted Leeds United’s crown and a team who were beginning to show their true class, Jimmy Husband recalls the game and helped to describe the ‘Match Of The Past’. Jimmy said of that Leeds United team “They were the great invincibles of the day, justifiably believing they were going to win every game.” Jimmy scored the opening goal of the game and he said “it was just a reflex effort; Sandy Brown, our full back, was a powerful striker of the ball and, when he drove a free kick into the Leeds wall, it rebounded towards me. I was a bit sharp in those days and stuck the ball away!”

After 21 minutes, Joe Royle had the ball in the Leeds United net following a Johnny Morrissey cross which Joe hit the bar with and then he reacted the quickest to put Everton two goals in front. Shortly after half-time, Joe Royle thumped in a third past Gary Sprake and the points looked to be in the bag. But Leeds United thought otherwise and brought on Peter Lorimer as Leeds sought a way back into the game. Jimmy said “Yet Leeds were so good that at 3-0 down they were able to come back at us,,.,” Billy Bremner pulled a goal back when he chested Johnny Giles’s corner kick over the line and Allan Clarke added another with a quarter of an hour remaining, but Everton held out and secured the victory that had ended Leeds United’s unbeaten run.

Jimmy said that, considering Howard Kendall missed the match through injury and Tommy Jackson had taken his place in the team, it was testament to the team that Everton’s midfield had dominated and that “Not many teams bettered Leeds in midfield but I feel Everton just shaded it that day.” Horace Yates of the Daily Post wrote “Everton could be THE team of the season, for playing as they are, they are a delight to watch, but their daintiness is merely an attractive cloak for the devastation they pack. Everton have cause for genuine joy and satisfaction that so often they penetrated and tore apart as accomplished a defence as there is in football.”

Speaking about the youngsters Jimmy Husband (22) and Joe Royle (20), Horace wrote “These young men showed a zest, maturity and deadliness that lit the time fuse to blow up the Champions. Yet nobody suggests this was a two-man triumph. This was a team triumph of the highest order. It had to be to achieve such a result… Leeds are not to be disposed of by isolated brilliance here and there.”

In this fixture, Tony Cottee (67’) had scored the equaliser – his first goal in eight matches – after Rod Wallace (53’) had given the Yorkshire side the lead, as Leeds United extended their unbeaten run to seven Premier League matches and Everton had to be satisfied with a point.

In stark contrast to the previous game at Goodison, where Everton had lost to QPR (0-3), manager Howard Kendall said “The overall performance was very pleasing. Everyone there would have seen a distinct improvement, and that was made clear to me as I went up the tunnel at half-time. Whereas there was some abuse flying around on Saturday, someone said on Tuesday, ‘That’s a 100 per cent better.’”

1993-94 — Premier League; Tuesday, 23 November 1993
Leeds United @ Goodison Park, Score: 1-1 (Cottee), Attendance: 17,066.
Everton: Southall; Jackson, Watson, Ablett, Hinchcliffe; Ebbrell, Snodin (Stuart), Ward, Horne; Preki (Barlow), Beagrie, Cottee. Unused Sub: Kearton.

Ten Years Ago — 2003-04: Match 16

Everton hadn’t won at Portsmouth’s Fratton Park ground since April 1959, but they had only visited the ground three times since that victory. Whatever the history between the two sides had been, the 2003-04 meeting could have been one of the most important results for the remainder of that campaign. A loss for either side would have cast a dark shadow, whereas a victory would have offered some much needed hope to the winning side.

Harry Redknapp had taken over a struggling Portsmouth team back in 2001, but in 2002-03 the club had celebrated a return to English football’s top division, and they would have hoped to have a longer stay than the last time they had been in the that position. In 1987-88, Pompey’s stay in the top-flight had been all too brief as they had suffered immediate relegation back to the Second Division. That had been Portsmouth’s only season in the top division since they had been relegated in 1958-59.

Portsmouth’s 2003-04 campaign had started brightly with victories gained at Fratton Park against Aston Villa (2-1) and Bolton Wanderers (4-0), and Portsmouth had remained unbeaten in their first three Premier League away games as they had achieved draws at Manchester City (1-1), Wolverhampton Wanderers (0-0)) and Arsenal (1-1).

Pompey’s first defeat in the Premier League had arrived in their meeting with Blackburn Rovers (1-2) at Fratton Park and since that fixture they had only taken a single point on their travels, from a draw at the Riverside with Middlesbrough (0-0) gained in the match immediately before they faced Everton, but their home form had been a mixed bag with defeats suffered at Fratton Park to Charlton Athletic (1-2) and Leicester City (0-2) and victories gained over Liverpool (1-0) and Leeds United (6-1).

Their South-Coast rivals Southampton (0-2) had beaten Portsmouth in the League Cup at the Dell and thus ended Pompey’s ambitions in that competition. At the start of the Everton fixture, Portsmouth lay in 16th place, one place above Everton and 2 points better off than the Blues with 16 points gained from the 15 fixtures completed.

Portsmouth’s Chairman, Milan Mandaric, reported in his column that he would be unable to attend the match with Everton as he had another match to attend, namely his daughter’s wedding in Naples and he said that he hoped that his club would be celebrating 3 points from the match.

Harry Redknapp in his Management Matters column welcomed David Moyes’s Everton side to Fratton Park and he offered the Toffees’ supporters a warm welcome; he added that “Everton are one of the Country’s most famous and successful clubs and we know they will give us a damn good game today.”

2003 had been a special year for Portsmouth and the magazine reiterated that fact with the statement “The events which have occurred over the past 12 months have not only demonstrated a major leap forward in terms of the fortunes of the club but have also potentially laid the foundations which will pave the Club’s route to a completely new era of success and prosperity. From promotion to significant player signings and the exciting new plans for the future of Fratton Park, 2003 has been a year that will live long in the memory…”

In a couple of public information announcements, supporters of both clubs were reminded that Fratton Park was a no smoking stadium and that it was an offence to use portable mobile phones while driving, a law which had become effective on 1 December 2003.

The column that looked back on previous encounters between the two sides, entitled Silver Memories, informed its readers that, shortly after the war, Portsmouth had become Everton’s bogey side. The author wrote that not only were Pompey invariably the victors in the fixtures between the two sides at Fratton Park, but they usually won the games by large margins. Of the nine occasions that Everton had visited Fratton Park between January 1947 and November 1957, they had lost every match and conceded many goals including seven in September 1949, six in February 1951, five in November 1954 and four in August 1948.

The author of Silver Memories made fun of Programme Editor Duggie Reid, who had been the man responsible for the edition produced for the match between Portsmouth and Everton in September 1949. Duggie got it horribly wrong – unfortunately for Everton – as he wrote “There is much individual distinction about this modern Everton, which has a defensive make-up comparable to the best in the land.” Embarrassment all round for the Editor at the time and for Everton and its fans as the Toffees lost by seven goals to nil.

What the author failed to mention – probably due to their good manners – was that Everton had lost every single fixture involving Portsmouth between January 1947 and November 1956, when Everton eventually managed to halt the embarrassing run of defeats and gained a draw at Goodison Park with Portsmouth (2-2).

Everton, since beating Portsmouth (1-0) in September 1946 and prior to the victory over Portsmouth (4-2) in March 1958, with both games taking place at Goodison, had played Pompey 16 times and had lost 15 of them, with just one draw to show for their efforts. Everton can’t have had too many similar runs to match that poor record with Portsmouth, in their entire history.

When Teddy Sheringham had sent Jason Roberts through on goal with a pass that split the Everton defence wide open, and Jason Roberts (16’) had made no mistake with his opportunity to send Pompey into the lead, the Blues fans must have been fearing the worst, as now their team needed to score at least once to take a point. Steve Watson’s enforced substitution at the midway point of the first-half had been unwelcome, but at least his replacement, Wayne Rooney, had been given a chance to rescue something from the game. Portsmouth had spurned a good chance to extend their lead immediately before Gary Naysmith, after a good run, pulled the ball back into Lee Carsley’s path and the midfielder side-footed into the net to equalise a mere five minutes after Wayne Rooney had entered the fray.

Shortly before half-time it was Gary Naysmith who had once again provided the cross for Wayne Rooney (42’) to hit his shot towards the goal, and it squirmed into the net due to an error from Pompey keeper Pavel Srnicek which had sent the Blues fans at the other end of the ground into raptures. It was Rooney’s first goal since he had scored at the Valley against Charlton Athletic in August. As Rooney’s goal completed the scoring, the Blues’ left Fratton Park with all three points and their fans had good reason to celebrate Everton’s first victory on the road that season, during their long journey home. Incidentally, future Everton player Yakubu appeared for Portsmouth in this match.

It had been a very important victory as Everton (17 pts) moved one place ahead of Portsmouth (16 pts) into 15th place.

After this round of fixtures, Everton (15th) were three points clear of Aston Villa (18th) as the Midland’s club had beaten bottom club Wolves (3-2) at Villa Park. Leeds United (19th) had won against Fulham (3-2) whilst Blackburn Rovers (14th) had lost at Arsenal (0-1). But it was still tight in the lower reaches of the table and it would be a rollercoaster ride for the rest of the campaign, before the affected clubs found out their Premier League fate.

2003-04 — Premier League; Saturday, 13 December 2003
Portsmouth @ Fratton Park Score: 2-1 (Carsley, Rooney), Attendance: 20,101.
Everton: Martyn; Pistone, Stubbs, Unsworth, Naysmith; Watson (Rooney), Carsley, Gravesen, Kilbane; Radzinski (McFadden), Campbell. Unused Subs: Simonsen, Jeffers, Li Tie.

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