Column

Memory Lane — Match 24

Games against Ipswich, Tottenham, West Ham and Manchester United

Forty Years Ago — 1973-74

Having beaten Derby County and Manchester City on home turf over the festive period, Everton travelled to East Anglia in good spirits and in the mood to start 1974 on a positive note. Ipswich Town managed by Bobby Robson were a difficult side to beat on their own patch, but Everton could be relatively confident as they had managed to overcome Ipswich (3-0) at Goodison, earlier in the campaign. Prior to this encounter Ipswich Town (25 pts) had been 2 points and two places behind Everton (27 pts) in 6th position in the league table.

The festive period had been mixed for Ipswich Town as they had beaten their local rivals Norwich City (2-1) at Carrow Road on Boxing Day, but surprisingly lost at Old Trafford (0-2) the following Saturday. Their most recent home fixture had resulted in victory against Birmingham City (3-0). Only Newcastle United (1-3) and Leeds United (0-3) had left Portman Road with maximum points during this campaign, but even Leeds United (2-0) had lost there, albeit in a League Cup second round tie.

Ipswich Town had also beaten Fulham (2-1) at Portman Road in a replay following a draw at Craven Cottage (2-2) in the 3rd Round of the League Cup before surprisingly losing at home to Birmingham City (1-3) in the 4th Round.

Ipswich’s quest for European success continued though as they successfully negotiated themselves into the latter stages of the Uefa Cup, beating Real Madrid (1-0), Lazio (6-4) and Twente Enschede (3-1) on aggregate. In the tie with Lazio, Trevor Whymark had scored four goals in the home leg at Portman Road (4-0) and they awaited the draw to find out who they would meet in the next round.

The Cinemas in Ipswich had advertised their latest ‘blockbusters’ at the Guamont, you could have seen The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in 'Dynarama' and Lost In The Desert, or you could have visited the Odeon where they had Eric Porter, Jeremy Kemp and Bill Travers starring in The Belstone Fox... or, if you preferred a laugh, you could have chosen to see Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper in the classic comedy The Plank. Before or after your visit to the cinema, you could have dined at the Centre Spot, a bar and restaurant where a cold buffet would set you back 55p or a hot lunch would cost you 60p and Luncheon Vouchers were accepted. If you were in need of transport, you could have rented a car from Budget for the princely sum of £2 per day and 1.5p per mile or £3.55 daily inclusive of 100 miles...

The Match: New Year’s Day 1974 was not a good one for the travelling Evertonians as Ipswich Town gained revenge for their defeat at Goodison earlier in the campaign as they bounced back from their defeat at Old Trafford, and handed out a sharp reminder to Everton (0-3) that, despite the Blues’ consecutive victories on home turf, playing away against your closest rivals was as ever fraught with dangers. Ipswich were comfortable winners and the result also meant that they leap-frogged above Everton in the league table. Brian Hamilton (2) – who would join up with Everton a few years later – and Clive Woods were the Ipswich Town marksmen on an inauspicious start to 1974 by Everton.

Only 2 points separated fourth placed Ipswich Town (27 pts) and 10th placed Southampton (25 pts), who had lost at Wolverhampton Wanderers (1-2), in the First Division, as Everton (27 pts) had been joined by Leicester City (27 pts) who had gained a point at Anfield (1-1) against Liverpool (32 pts). Leeds United (40 pts) had drawn at home to Spurs to remain unbeaten and Burnley (30 pts) had drawn at Coventry City (1-1). At the bottom of the table, West Ham United had beaten fellow relegation strugglers Norwich City (4-2), while Manchester United had been defeated heavily at Loftus Road by QPR (0-3).

1973-74, First Division; Tuesday, 1 January 1974
Ipswich Town @ Portman Road, Score: 0-3, Attendance: 23,444
Everton: Lawson; Darracott, Styles, Clements, Kenyon; Hurst, Bernard; Buckley, Lyons, Royle, Telfer (Harper).

Thirty Years Ago — 1983-84

Tottenham Hotspur had been many experts choice to make a challenge for the title prior to the start of the 1983-84 campaign, but a torrid December had undermined their high hopes. Everton would have been looking to complete the league ‘double’ over Spurs as they had already beaten them at White Hart Lane the previous September.

If Everton could manage a win over Tottenham in today’s fixture it would be the first time since 1960-70 that they had done the league ‘double’ over their North London rivals, when they had beaten Spurs (1-0) at White Hart Lane on the 11th March 1970 and three days later on the 14th March 1970, had also beaten Tottenham Hotspur (3-2) at Goodison Park.

In the first encounter at White Hart Lane, Alan Whittle (16’) had scored the winning goal, whilst at Goodison Park, Alan Whittle (30’) had once again opened the scoring but Alan Gilzean (33’) had equalised minutes later, shortly before half-time Alan Ball (40’) had successfully converted a penalty as Everton regained the lead but once more Spurs had equalised when Dennis Bond (72’) had also successfully converted his penalty before Joe Royle had settled the match and Everton had gained two valuable points in their ultimately successful bid for the title.

Having taken 17 points from their first eight First Division encounters away from home, Spurs form had then hit a brick wall as defeats at Norwich (1-2), Manchester United (2-4) and West Ham United (1-4) and draws with Stoke City (1-1) and Aston Villa (0-0) had derailed their campaign somewhat. Following Everton’s victory at White Hart Lane in early September, Tottenham Hotspur had recovered by beating Nottingham Forest (2-1), Notts County (1-0) and QPR (3-2), but defeats in December by Arsenal (2-4) and Watford (2-3) had undone all their good work. Spurs’ League Cup campaign had also been brought to a premature end as their local rivals, Arsenal (1-2) had beaten them at White Hart Lane in the third round. The FA Cup had started with a victory over Fulham (2-0) following a goalless draw at Craven Cottage and Spurs would have hoped to add another trip to Wembley in that competition as they had been handed a fourth round tie at home to Norwich City. Europe had provided many highlights for Spurs in the 1983-84 campaign as victories over Drogheda United (14-0), Feyenoord (6-2) and Bayern Munich (2-1) on aggregate had meant that Spurs could look forward to a Quarter-Final tie of the Uefa Cup to be played in early March.

The Reserves and Youths’ section of the magazine reported that Everton’s youngsters had progressed to the last 16 of the FA youth cup following a well-deserved victory over Blackpool (2-0) at Goodison Park. O’Brien and Fielding had both scored in the first-half and Coach Graham Smith said that “We played well in the first-half when we scored our two goals, but it was always going to be a bit of a scrap.” Graham added that “We had to work hard to hold on to our lead, but we battled well and I was very pleased with the performance from such a young side.” Everton: Hall, Ashcroft, Oldroyd, Macowat, Hughes, Richmond (Walsh), Hood, Fielding, O’Brien, Rimmer N, Wakenshaw

Newsdesk revealed that the recent victory at Birmingham City may have been due to the fact that Everton had played in unfamiliar colours, as the Referee John Deakin, had deemed that the Silver shirts that Everton had been due to wear for the game would not have been sufficiently different to the home side’s kit, therefore a colour change had been required.

Howard Kendall took up the story “We wore this strip (Silver) with no question at Ipswich and Leicester, but the referee at Birmingham felt that the conditions weren’t favourable and that in his opinion, there was a danger of the colours clashing. Whether we agreed or not, we had to go along with him, in fact, the shirts were ready for us because Keith Bradley, Birmingham’s Youth coach, had spoken with the referee and then gone into the store to sort out a set of Birmingham’s yellow shirts for us. Howard added “I’d like to thank Birmingham for their help. Maybe we should make a bid for their shirts after starting 1984 with an away win!”

The Match: Adrian Heath had struck a rich vein of form in recent weeks and it was he who had struck twice just before half-time (43’) and again late in the second period (78’) that had earned Everton that elusive league ‘double’ over Tottenham Hotspur whose consolation goal had been scored by Steve Archibald.

The victory for Everton (31pts) had closed the gap on Tottenham (33pts) to just two points and the Blues’ were eight points behind sixth placed Southampton (39pts) who had lost at Old Trafford (2-3), the top four clubs had all managed to win that week-end as Liverpool (48pts) led the table with Manchester United (46pts) close behind while West Ham (43pts) and Nottingham Forest (42pts) had been slightly off the pace in third and fourth places respectively.

Only Birmingham City from the bottom four clubs, had gained maximum points with a win at Ipswich Town (2-1), which had created a five point gap between them and third from bottom Notts County (20pts), Stoke (17pts) who had lost at Watford (0-2) and Wolves (17pts) who had lost at home to Luton Town (1-2) remained rooted to the bottom two places and almost certainly doomed to relegation.

1983-84 First Division Saturday 21st January 1984
Tottenham Hotspur @ Goodison Park 2-1 (Heath2)
Attendance: 18,003
Everton: Southall, Stevens, Harper, Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Reid, Irvine, Heath, Sharp, Richardson, Sheedy Unused Sub: King

Twenty Years Ago — 1993-94

If the last game of 1993 hadn’t have been the sort of encounter that Evertonians would have chosen, then surely a visit from West Ham United to Goodison Park would be welcomed with a little more relish, a perfect fixture for the Toffee’s to help get the show back on the road, given their historical supremacy at Goodison Park over the Hammer’s in the previous decade and a golden opportunity to put 1993 behind them and begin the New Year on a positive note.

Billy Bonds the manager of West Ham United had strong ties with his club and he would have wanted his team to play in the traditional ‘West Ham’ way, but with the added steel that he had displayed in his own playing days. Billy had taken over as West Ham United’s manager in February 1990 and he had steered them to promotion to the top-flight a year later, but the Hammer’s time in Division One had been short-lived as they had been relegated in that first season back in the big time. But undeterred Billy had guided his club to Premier League status and the newly promoted club had fared better in this campaign with thirty points on the board from their 23 league fixtures played so far.

Everton Caretaker manager Jimmy Gabriel would have hoped that his temporary charges could emulate the result that Everton had achieved in their last meeting with West Ham United at Goodison Park on the 7th December 1991 when Everton had beaten the Hammer’s by four goals to nil. Everton had raced into a three goal lead by half-time as Tony Cottee, Peter Beagrie, Peter Beardsley and Mo Johnston had hit the target for the Blues’ in front of 21,563 supporters Everton: Southall, Jackson, Hinchcliffe, Ebbrell, Watson, Keown, Ward (Warzycha), Beardsley, Johnston, Cottee & Beagrie.

The only Everton player to score a hat-trick against West Ham United had unsurprisingly been WR Dean who had managed the feat in 1932, the record victory by Everton in this fixture at Goodison Park had been achieved in 1927-28 when West Ham United (7-0) had succumbed to the soon to be crowned English League Champions.

The ‘Match of the Past’ featured a fixture played between the two sides from May 1986, when Everton had beaten West Ham United (3-1) in their last home fixture of that ‘doubly’ disappointing campaign. Adrian Heath recalled how although Everton had wanted to win the game against West Ham United to cement the runners-up spot in the First Division the players had been wary of picking up injuries prior to the Cup Final the following week.

Gary Lineker had scored twice in the match to take his tally to 30 First Division League goals and thus had matched former Goodison Park hero Bob Latchford who had hit 30 goals in 1978. Gary Lineker could have completed his second hat-trick in consecutive home games but he had resisted the temptation and decided to allow Everton’s regular penalty taker Trevor Steven to despatch the penalty – Gary said “When I was with Leicester City I missed two penalties in a row, it was more important for Trevor to have the chance in case we got one in the Cup Final.” Adrian lamented the fact that Everton had failed to secure any silverware that season but he said that “it was also a special period for the players, knowing we were turning out for such an illustrious club and helping them to the greatest period in their history. There we were in League and FA Cup finals, winning two titles plus a European trophy. It was the stuff of dreams for footballers. The only disappointment was being banned from playing in the European Cup through no fault of our own and under such tragic circumstances.” Everton: Mimms, Stevens, Van Den Hauwe, Ratcliffe, Billinge, Richardson, Steven, Lineker (Aspinall), Wilkinson, Heath & Sheedy.

The Match: Tim Breaker (5’) had opened the scoring in the first-five minutes and although Everton had the rest of the game to rescue the situation, once again they had failed to find the net and another three points had headed to the visitors, in what was becoming a crisis rather than a blip. If Everton were to arrest this horrendous situation a new manager would have to take the reins as soon as was possible as the fans patience and home games were receding at an ever quickening pace. The result hadn’t been as damaging as might have been feared as only Sheffield United had taken maximum points having beaten third from bottom, Oldham Athletic (3-1), which had meant that Everton (25 pts.) who were in 16th position, had a gap of six points over the Lancashire team. The nest game for Everton had been scheduled for Monday 3rd of January at Stamford Bridge and as Chelsea had also found life difficult during this campaign it would be a true test of the Toffee’s resolve.

1993-94 Premier League, Saturday 1st January 1994
West Ham United @ Goodison Park 0-1 Attendance: 19,579
Everton: Southall, Holmes, Snodin, Jackson, Ablett, Ward (Stuart), Horne, Ebbrell, Beagrie, Rideout, Cottee (Barlow) Unused Sub Kearton

Ten Years Ago — 2003-04

Everton had been knocked out of the FA Cup at Fulham and the Blues’ hadn’t won a league match since Wayne Rooney had scored the winning goal against Birmingham in December, the transfer window had come and gone and there had been no additions to the squad, so possibly the last thing that David Moyes’ team had needed had been a visit from Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United the reigning Premier League Champions.

Since Everton had defeated Manchester United in the 1995 FA Cup final at Wembley, the Blues’ had only taken a single point from the Red Devils at Goodison in the eight Premier League games played. In fact Everton had only won one Premier League game against United at Goodison Park from the eleven matches played.

The drawn game had happened at the start of the 1999-2000 campaign United had won a unique treble the previous season and Everton had hoped that they could spring an early surprise on their visitors. Dwight Yorke (07’) had given United an early lead and it had remained that way until late in the game when the unfortunate Japp Stam (86’) had got his head to the ball first but had only managed to put it past his keeper Mark Bosnich into the United goal, it may not have been a winning goal but it had been just as well received by the Evertonians’ in the 39,141 crowd. EVERTON: Gerrard, Weir, Watson, Gough, Unsworth, Ward (Cadamarteri), Gemmill, Collins, Barmby, Hutchinson (Phelan) & Campbell.

The last Everton win at Goodison against Manchester United had occurred in February 1995 when Duncan Ferguson (58’) had firmly planted his header past Peter Schmeichel into the Manchester United goal that had sent the Goodison faithful into raptures and had put a huge dent in Manchester United’s title aspirations. EVERTON: Southall, Barrett, Watson, Unsworth Hinchcliffe, Barlow, Ebbrell (Samways), Horne, Parkinson, Ferguson & Limpar. Not only had Duncan Ferguson’s goal secured the three points for the Blues’ but it had also broken an Everton duck against Manchester United at Goodison that had stretched back to September 1989 when Graeme Sharp (54’) had scored the winning goal in the victory over United (3-2) where Mike Newell (33’) and Pat Nevin (47’) had also been on the scoresheet, Manchester United had rallied with goals from Brian McClair (57’) and Russell Beardsmore (66’) and Kevin Sheedy (87’) should have sealed the victory for Everton, but his penalty had been saved by Jim Leighton in the United goal, however, Everton had held out and had won the game. EVERTON: Southall, Snodin, Pointon, Ratcliffe, Watson, Whiteside (McDonald), Nevin, McCall, Sharp, Newell & Sheedy

The Match: This match had been a similar one to the match in 1989, but this time it had been Manchester United who had raced into a three-goal lead, Recently signed United player and future Everton player Louis Saha (09’) had opened the scoring when Everton had appealed for offside but the Linesman on the Bullens Road side of the ground in front of the Manchester United supporters had failed to flag and Saha finished with coolness – I can’t remember another game where the Linesman had run the line in front of the away supporters at Goodison maybe someone can tell me of another occasion when it has happened. Ruud Van Nistelrooy (24’) then doubled Manchester United’s lead following a mix-up in the Blues’ defensive line, before Louis Saha (29’) - who had begun to make a habit of scoring against Everton – had found the net again which meant that Everton who had been a team short on goals and confidence had trailed United by three-goals to nil at half-time.

Although many of the recent encounters with United at Goodison Park, had ended in defeat for Everton, the Red Devils had only really humiliated the Toffee’s, when they had beaten Everton (1-4) in October 1998, but at half-time in this game it had seemed as if that score-line would be more than acceptable.

Fortunately for Everton, David Moyes’ side had different ideas and they had set about United in the second-half, Duncan Ferguson had flicked on Gary Naysmith’s corner-kick and David Unsworth had reached the ball with his head and he had managed to squeeze it into the United goal at the Park End, which meant that Everton had some hope of retrieving the match, that hope had been increased when following a fine save by Tim Howard in the United goal from a Wayne Rooney shot, the resultant corner had ended with Manchester United’s John O’Shea putting through his own goal – Manchester United’s players and fans’ had protested that Duncan Ferguson had handled the ball and to be honest they may have had a case – however, the goal had stood and it had reduced United’s lead to a single goal.

When Tommy Gravesen’s perfect delivery of a free-kick had reached the six-yard box Kevin Kilbane (75’) had stolen a yard of space in front of the static Man U defenders as he met it perfectly and had claimed the equalising goal a quarter of an hour from the end of the game, Goodison Park had celebrated wildly and many had believed that the Blues’ could do the impossible and go on to win the match, but alas it hadn’t been the case as Ronaldo had put in a perfect cross into the Everton penalty area, which Ruud Van Nistelrooy (89’) had gleefully headed into the Everton net and the Gwladys Street had been briefly stunned into silence.

Although Everton had lost the match they could be proud of their second-half showing and it had been a real shame that their fighting spirit had not been rewarded, but it had still been a defeat and a win of any description had been needed and the sooner that win had arrived the better. Everton had slipped to sixteenth place in the Premier League but the five point gap between the Blues’ and Leicester City had remained intact as Leicester City had lost to Newcastle United (1-3), Manchester United had remained in second place in the table behind Arsenal who had beaten Wolverhampton Wanderers (3-1) at Molineux.

2003-04 Premier League, Saturday 7th February, 2004
Manchester United @ Goodison Park 3-4 (Unsworth, Kilbane & O’Shea OG) Att: 40,190

Everton: Martyn, Hibbert, Stubbs, Unsworth, Pistone (Naysmith), Watson (Rooney), Gravesen, Carsley, Kilbane, Ferguson, Jeffers (Radzinski) Unused Subs: Simonsen & Linderoth

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