Column

Memory Lane – Match 37

Matches against Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers

Forty Years Ago 1973-74

Newcastle United's St. James' Park, was the destination for Billy Bingham’s Everton as they set about trying to add more points to their tally from games away from Goodison Park. Having beaten Tottenham (0-2) and drawn at Maine Road (1-1) in their previous away fixtures, the Blues would be seeking to record their first victory at St. James’ Park since September 1969. Newcastle were still cock-a-hoop following their victory over Burnley (2-0) in the FA Cup semi-final which had sealed their place in the Wembley showpiece in May where they would face Everton’s neighbours Liverpool.

Newcastle United’s players had a curious way of wanting to thank their fans for the backing they had given them during their FA Cup run to Wembley. In a small advert they explained how they would be purchasing a limited number of footballs which they would all personally autograph. These footballs would be available to any fan that sent a postal order or cheque to the value of £8.50 made payable to Newcastle United FC ‘Players Pool’ and sent to Groat Market and not St. James’ Park. As I say a curious way of ‘thanking’ the fans.

The last occasion that Everton had tasted victory at St. James’ Park had been early in the 69/70 Championship winning campaign when Jimmy Husband had scored twice to give Everton both points on the road to the title. On Saturday 11 February 1967, Newcastle United had been struggling at the bottom end of the table and Everton were unusually placed just above mid-table when they travelled to St. James Park. But an electric period of just under 20 minutes saw Everton score three times without reply as Alan Ball (9' (pen) opened Everton’s account from the penalty spot, two minutes later Jimmy Husband (11') doubled the Toffees advantage and finally Johnny Morrissey (18') got on the scoresheet to effectively seal the points for an impressive Everton performance in front of a crowd of a little over 31,000 spectators. Everton: West, Wright, Wilson, Hurst, Brown; Harvey, Young, Ball; Gabriel, Husband, Morrissey.

The Match: Malcolm MacDonald who had scored both the goals that had beaten Burnley in the Semi-Final the previous weekend was making his 100th appearance for the Magpies and he struck the first blow for Newcastle, as the battle of the English strikers played out at St James’ Park. But seven minutes later Everton’s record signing Bob Latchford (58’) restored parity with his sixth goal in eight appearances for the Blues. However, the final word went to Malcolm MacDonald (70’) as he converted the penalty which won the points for the home side. Everton remained in sixth place in the table whilst Newcastle United climbed three places up to thirteenth.

1973-74 — First Division; Saturday, 6 April 1974
Newcastle United @ St James’ Park Score: 2-1 (Latchford) Attendance: 45,497
Everton: Lawson; Bernard, Seargeant, Hurst, Kenyon; Clements, Harvey, Buckley; Latchford, Lyons, Telfer.

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Thirty Years Ago 1983-84 Match 37

Howard Kendall’s Everton would be aiming to get the show back on the road following successive away defeats by Southampton and Sunderland in recent weeks and despite having a trip to Wembley to consider it was important that the Everton players refocused their attentions back to the bread and butter games of the First Division. Graham Hawkins was in charge of relegation threatened Wolves and it would take a poor performance by the hosts if he and his side left Goodison with more than a point.

Howard Kendall said that he and his players wanted to put things right after losing at Wolves (3-0) late in 1983, in what he described as “one of the worst displays of the season”. But he warned that just because Wolves’ looked odds on to be relegated it didn’t mean that his Everton team wouldn’t have a battle on their hands in trying to secure the points.

The last meeting between the two sides at Goodison Park had taken place on Saturday 8 May 1982 and had resulted in a score-draw (1-1) as Peter Eastoe had scored for the Toffees and a future Everton hero Wayne Clarke had put the ball in the net for the visitors. A crowd of just over 20,000 had turned up to watch the final home league fixture of the 81/82 campaign. Everton: Southall; Borrows, Walsh, Higgins, Wright; McMahon, Irvine, Heath; Sharp, Eastoe, Ross.

The match-day magazine printed details of the allocation of tickets for the forthcoming showpiece final at Wembley to be played on May 19. Tickets would be sold during the period Friday 27 April to Sunday 6 May. Prices ranged from £5 for a terrace ticket to £20 for the most expensive seats available.

In a feature on an Everton Legend, the subject was none other than William Charles Cuff who had spent most of his career working for the benefit of Everton Football Club.

He first watched Everton when, under our original name of St. Domingo, the team played its matches in Stanley Park. The schoolboy spectator of Victorian times grew up to become one of the most powerful figures in the Football League, of which he was President until his death in February 1949.

The legendary Mr Cuff was educated at Liverpool College and became articled to the legal profession in 1888. He was a choirmaster at St Domingo’s Church and played football for the Mount and Walton Breck clubs.

After joining the Everton board in 1895, he became secretary in 1901, an appointment which meant giving up his directorship. One of his early achievements was to recognise the importance of a reserve team competition and pioneer the formation of the Central League in 1911.

Increasing pressure in his career as a solicitor forced his resignation as secretary in 1918, but within three years, he was back on the Board and became Chairman until 1938. He is credited with persuading Tom McIntosh, the secretary, to sign William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean from Tranmere Rovers in 1925 and also with a profitable deal which created today’s training ground at Bellefield. He sold the club’s previous training pitch at Stockgate Lane for £60,000 and bought another piece of land – now Bellefield – in Eaton Road for £30,000 from the Co-op.

Mr Cuff was elected to the League’s management committee in 1925 and became vice-president in 1937. Two years later he was elected president.

Always; he was a man of vision. When transfer fees had reached a ceiling of £20,000, he warned against the peril of further inflation. What he would have said about the first million pound player, only 30 years later, is not open to question.

He was used to value for money. Not only when he inspired Dean’s move from Tranmere but also when, along with fellow director Tom Percy and Secretary Theo Kelly, he got the 17-year old Tommy Lawton from Burnley for £6,500.

Above all, he believed in a style of football which gave Everton its tradition as the ‘School of Science’.

A record of his ideals was published in the Liverpool Daily Post in 1946. “Throughout its history Everton has been noted for the high quality of its football. It has always been an unwritten but rigid policy of the board, handed down from one generation of directors to another, that only classical and stylish players should be signed. The kick-and-rush type has never appealed to them.” That was the Will Cuff remembered by those Everton players who won the Second Division, the League Championship and the FA Cup in successive seasons under his chairmanship.

The article acknowledges that the main source of information for this piece was John Roberts’ “Everton – The Official Centenary History” published in 1978 by Granada Publishing Ltd in Mayflower Books.

Everton and Wolves had played out an entertaining match at Goodison Park on 11 April 1964 as witnessed by the 43,165 in attendance and Evertonia reported -

It was Everton who made the early running in this match. After only six minutes Dennis Stevens had shot us into the lead. Five minutes later Fred Pickering registered our second and we deserved the lead on the run of play. The home forwards put on a fine display and the Wolves goalie was the busiest man on the field. However, after half an hour, the Wolves reduced the arrears with a good goal from Crawford. At this stage the Everton threats were not so intense as they had been and there was no more scoring before the interval.

The second half was only two minutes old when the visitors drew level, Crawford pushing home a Wharton shot that had not been well fielded. But the shock came little more than five minutes further on when Wharton put his team into the lead. Everton fell away after this and many sensed defeat for was not until a minute of the final whistle that Derek Temple at last put the ball in the Wolves' net to save us a point at the last gasp. Everton: Rankin; Brown, Harris; Gabriel, Labone; Kay, Scott, Stevens, Pickering, Temple, Morrissey.

The Match: Everton’s first return to Goodison Park since they won a place in the FA Cup Final was according to Howard Kendall very much a one-sided affair and he commented that “We hit the bar, hit the post and had a goal disallowed but still finished with a comfortable win (2-0). The opening goal had been scored by Andy Gray (40') and the other came later in the game and had been scored by Trevor Steven (72'). Howard Kendall’s only minor problem was that his team’s performance hadn’t been reflected in the score-line and Howard felt they should have capitalised on more of their chances. This defeat for Andy Gray’s previous club had officially consigned Wolves to relegation.

1983-84 — First Division; Monday, 23 April 1984
Wolves @ Goodison Park, Score: 2-0 (Gray, Steven), Attendance: 17,185
Everton: Southall; Stevens, Bailey, Ratcliffe, Mountfield; Reid, Curran, Heath; Gray, Steven, Richardson

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Twenty Years Ago 1993-94 Matches 37

Following three consecutive league defeats away from home Everton returned to Goodison to face Blackburn Rovers. Blackburn Rovers arrived at Goodison having had a good season and still hopeful of catching Manchester United at the top of the league. Blackburn would have hoped to continue their good form by taking advantage of Everton’s abysmal run of form and with Kenny Dalglish in charge of Rovers’, Everton would find a team highly motivated and keen to inflict more damage on their hosts.

Blackburn Rovers made their first visit to Goodison Park on 3 March 1993 to play Everton in a top-flight fixture since October 1965 and it was the Toffees who came out on top. David May (42’) put the visitors in the lead just before the break but some ten minutes into the second period Colin Hendry (56’) equalised for the hosts by putting the ball into his own net.

On the hour mark, Blackburn were reduced to ten men as Steve Sherwood received his marching orders and Everton took full advantage of their numerical supremacy when Tony Cottee (71’) scored the winning goal during the last twenty minutes to send most of the 18,086 supporters in attendance home happy. Everton: Southall; Jackson, Sansom, Kenny (Barlow), Watson; Ablett, Ward, Beardsley; Cottee, Horne, Ebbrell.

That previous visit for a League fixture by Blackburn Rovers had occurred on Tuesday October 5 1965 and had ended in a draw (2-2) as Mike Ferguson (14’) and Keith Newton (44’) were on target for Blackburn Rovers, while Jimmy Gabriel and Brian Labone scored for Everton to give both sides a share of the spoils in front of 34,694 spectators.

Brian Labone’s goal in that game was his first for the club and the only goal that he scored at Goodison Park, the only other goal of his career came later that season at Turf Moor against Burnley (1-1). Everton: West, Stevens, Brown; Gabriel, Labone; Harris (Hurst), Scott, Harvey; Pickering, Husband, Temple.

Everton players who had scored hat-tricks against Blackburn down the years included Alex ‘Sandy’ Young in November 1910; W.R. Dean in December 1931; Tommy Johnson in December 1932 and Tommy White in October 1933. All of the hat-tricks had come at Goodison Park. It is noticeable that Dean’s, Johnson’s and White’s hat-tricks had come in consecutive seasons which must be a pretty rare occurrence for any club to achieve against the same opponents.

Brian Labone had been asked to choose a Blackburn Rovers fixture for ‘Match of the Past’ and unusually Brian had chosen a defeat by Blackburn Rovers. However, the reason Brian had picked a game in which Everton had lost at Goodison Park had been due to Fred Pickering’s feat of scoring a hat-trick in consecutive appearances on the same ground for different clubs. Evertonia reported on both games in the first game played on Saturday 9 November 1964 against Blackburn Rovers:-

It was after only three minutes that Fred Pickering opened the scoring for Blackburn in last season's game. Twenty minutes later the same man scored a great goal to increase his side's lead and bring on the Goodison gloom. Left-winger Harrison registered Rovers' third goal before Alex Young opened Everton's account with a goal after half-an-hour.

Everton came more into the game after this although their labours were not rewarded with any more goals for the time being. Indeed, it was again the visitors who scored the next goal - and Fred Pickering scored it. Although Everton did what they could in the circumstances (Jimmy Gabriel had been a limping passenger for most of the game, in addition to other troubles) it was not until only five minutes remained that our second goal went in. This was a header from Derek Temple and the effort completed the scoring for the afternoon.

Brian Labone said of the Blackburn defeat, “When a side loses heavily at home people immediately look to the goalkeeper and the centre-half. “There was no point in looking at Gordon West. This one was down to me. “In well over 500 games for the club only about three players scored a hat-trick against me and I wasn’t happy about it that Saturday afternoon. “I didn’t bother to buy any newspapers that weekend.” Brian said that he took it as some sort of a compliment when Harry Catterick paid £85k for Fred Pickering’s services some four months after the Blackburn debacle. Brian revealed how Fred was nicknamed Boomer due to the tremendous right foot shot that he possessed.

For the second match played on 14 March 1964 against Nottingham Forest Evertonia reported:-

Fred Pickering made his Everton debut. Fred helped himself to a hat-trick that afternoon. With Dennis Stevens netting another two, and Roy Vernon also getting in on the scoring picture, the visitors did not have a happy afternoon. Forest scored a goal through Vowden with about five minutes left to play.

As that report seems a little sparse for a man who scored a hat-trick on his Everton debut I have decided to reproduce the far more reverent and graphic report from the Match of the Past feature -
A crowd of over 50,000 turned up at Goodison on the Saturday afternoon of March 14th 1964 to see Pickering's debut against Nottingham Forest although there were mixed feelings among our supporters. Their idol, Alex Young, had to stand down to make way for the new arrival.

When Fred failed to score with a hook shot after only five minutes there were murmurings of "We want Young" from the terraces but within a minute they were replaced by a roar greeting the newcomer's first goal for the club.

He provided an awesome example of the power in his right foot with a rocket shot into the Park goal after Alex Scott's cross had been headed out.

On the half-hour Fred scored a class goal when after running across the pitch in front of a packed defence, he found the gap he was looking for and smashed another ferocious drive into the net from nearly 25 yards
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By now "Pick-er-ing, Pick-er-ing" was ringing round the ground. This put us three up because Dennis Stevens had scored in the eighth minute and Roy Vernon hit a spectacular fourth in the 59th.

Pickering completed a dream debut with a header from Scott's cross with 10 minutes left to send the crowd into ecstasy, removing any doubts about the wisdom of signing him. Stevens scored our sixth before Geoff Vowden hit a consolation goal for Forest...

The Match: Everton were unable to recover from their defeat at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers took full advantage of the negative mood at Goodison Park by beating the Toffees. Old boy Mike Newell (27’) opened the scoring and when Jason Wilcox (60’) added to Rovers lead just on the hour mark, damage limitation was the best that Everton could achieve. Mike Newell (81’) ensured that the points were heading to East Lancashire and another heavy defeat sapped the enthusiasm of the home supporters as they began to seriously entertain the idea that Everton would be playing Second Division football in the coming August.

1993-94 — Premier League; Monday, 4 April1994
Blackburn Rovers @ Goodison Park, Score: 0-3 Attendance: 27,427
Everton: Southall; Jackson, Snodin, Watson, Unsworth; Stuart, Horne, Ebbrell, Limpar; Angell (Barlow), Cottee.
Unused Sub: Kearton, Parkinson.

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Ten Years Ago 2003-04 Match 37

The last home game of the 03/04 campaign saw Everton who were safe from relegation take on Bolton Wanderers at Goodison Park, it was a chance for David Moyes and his players to thank the fans for their support and a good win and performance wouldn’t have gone amiss either.

David Moyes in his pre-match programme notes said that it was great for Everton to have the England Centre-Forward on the books….Wayne Rooney is “due every credit for attaining that level at such a young age and so soon in his career.” Writing about the 2003-04 campaign as a whole David Moyes said:

“I feel that our own league position is not where Everton should be but come the end of the season the table doesn’t lie. To have won only nine league games this season to date is a poor return for this football club. There were a lot of complimentary things written about the team and myself last season and therefore I accept the responsibility for our poor league position and performances this time around. The position we are in is embarrassing to me and although it’s not the first time in recent years that Everton have struggled you can rest assured that I will be doing everything I can during the close season to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Gavin Buckland in his bits n bobs feature reminded the readers that the fathers of three former Everton players had taken part in the FA Cup Final at Wembley. Johnny Morrissey Snr. appeared for Everton in 1968 and his son John Jnr. had appeared for the Toffees on a couple of occasions, coming on as substitute against Luton Town and Inter Bratislava. Don Megson had played for Sheffield Wednesday against Everton in 1966 and his son Gary played 25 times for the Blues in the early 80s and finally John Higgins who had appeared in the 1958 Cup Final for Bolton Wanderers and whose son Mark had captained Everton in the late 70s and early 80s until he sustained an injury that cruelly robbed him of the chance to take part in Everton’s glory years.

The 1968 Everton cup final team provided three players who went on to manage Everton at Wembley in the FA Cup Final. No other cup final team had provided more than one player who had both managed and played for the same club, in the FA Cup Final. The three famous Everton names were Howard Kendall (1984, 85, 86), Colin Harvey (1989) and Joe Royle (1995).

A vote had taken place on various platforms to find the ‘Greatest Everton Team’ a competition that had been held to help celebrate Everton’s 125th anniversary. At half-time during the Bolton game those selected players who were able to be present would walk out to the acclaim of the Evertonians. Dixie’s Dean’s great-grandson Daniel would be there to represent his famous forebear. The Greatest Everton team was as follows: - Southall; Stevens, Wilson; Labone, Ratcliffe; Steven, Reid, Ball, Sheedy; Dean, Sharp.

On 28 December 1997 Everton having completed twenty Premier League fixtures and with only seventeen points on the board, welcomed another struggling team, Bolton Wanderers to Goodison Park, for what even at this stage of the season appeared to be one of those ‘six-pointers’ as the media tend to call matches between sides who are close to each other at either end of the table. Nevertheless the importance of the match couldn’t be called into question as Everton (17pts) who were second from bottom in the table were already four points behind Bolton (21pts) who were in sixteenth spot in the Premier League. Bolton had ex Everton favourite Peter Beardsley in their line-up and former Toffee Colin Todd was the manager of the Trotters.

Everton got off to a good start to the game as Duncan Ferguson (17’) gave them the lead in the early part of the first period and shortly before half-time it was again Duncan Ferguson (41’) who doubled Everton’s lead to help settle the nerves of the Goodison faithful, but two quick strikes from Bolton’s Bergsson (42’) and Scott Sellars (43’) restored parity in a crazy three minute period as the sides went in level at the break and the erstwhile feeling of satisfaction and calm among the Evertonians had been replaced with frustration and anger as the teams left the field. But in the second-period Duncan Ferguson (67’) scored a classic Duncan Ferguson headed goal.

A very important goal for his club and a goal that completed his hat-trick and more importantly won the three points for the Toffees which gave them more than a flicker of hope of escaping relegation – perhaps it could be said that it had been one giant leap for Duncan Ferguson and one small step for Everton. The majority of the Goodison crowd (37,149) would have enjoyed both the result and the performance of their talisman as they celebrated Everton’s first Premier League victory on home turf since Everton had beaten Liverpool (2-0) back in October. Everton: Myhre; Thomas, Tiler, Dunne, Hinchcliffe; Cadamarteri, Farrelly, Ball, Oster (Thomsen); Barmby, Ferguson

The Match: Another disappointing day for all Evertonians as their team succumbed to a sucker blow and another game without a win left the Blues’ with an empty feeling in the last home game of the campaign. eight wins and six defeats at Goodison Park for Everton was hardly the return that Evertonians had dreamt of way back in August and Everton’s only league win away from Goodison had come at Portsmouth in December an extremely disappointing return but at least the Blues still had Wayne Rooney in their side and surely next season would deliver better performances and results wouldn’t it? Wayne Rooney unbeknown to those in attendance would be playing his final match at Goodison Park in the royal blue of Everton.
Details of the match as reported by the BBC:-

Everton restored Ferguson alongside Wayne Rooney in attack in a bid to finish a desperate season with a flourish. And the giant Scot was prominent in the early stages, firing narrowly over from 20 yards then having a shot headed off the line by Nicky Hunt.

But Bolton had shown they were able to open Everton up down the flanks and it was no surprise when they went ahead after 14 minutes. Djorkaeff moved in from the touchline, leaving Tony Hibbert and Steve Watson in his wake before flicking a clever finish past Nigel Martyn.

Everton responded with a Ferguson volley that flashed narrowly wide from James McFadden's cross. The home side were struggling in the face of the slick movement and passing of Djorkaeff and Jay-Jay Okocha, and their attacking efforts were floundering against Bruno N'Gotty.

Everton finally managed another effort in first-half injury time, Rooney forcing the ball to Ferguson, who brought Jussi Jaaskelainen to his knees from the edge of the box.

Boss David Moyes made a double substitution at half-time for Everton, replacing Alessandro Pistone and Alex Nyarko with Lee Carsley and Tomasz Radzinski. Radzinski had the desired effect, striking an upright with a volley after a long cross from Rooney. And, as Everton finally took a measure of control, Radzinski and Leon Osman set up Ferguson for the equaliser. The Canadian international scampered away and fired his cross into the box, Osman turned it on and Ferguson finished from six yards.

Radzinski's pace was making a big difference, and he should have given Everton the lead when he sprinted clear of Emerson Thome and rounded Jaaskelainen, only to fail to find the target. Everton were in charge, but with time running out they were hit with a late sucker punch as Djorkaeff grabbed the winner

2003-04 Premier League Saturday 8 May, 2004
Bolton Wanderers@ Goodison Park 1-2 (Ferguson) Attendance: 40,190
Everton: Martyn; Hibbert, Yobo, Weir, Pistone (Radzinski); Watson (Campbell), Osman, Nyarko (Carsley), McFadden; Rooney, Ferguson.
Unused Subs: Wright, Linderoth.

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