25 Years Ago Today...

Can't believe how enthusiastic and optimistic I sounded in my commentary: "Kanchelskis was probably having one of his best team games ever – linking, passing, cutting in, and shooting – even DEFENDING!!!"

Those were the days. And hate to be a killjoy but my records suggest we were only 8th going into that game, but the win took us up to 7th. But then, after a dull draw with Leeds Utd, we suffered 6 straight losses that took us through January 1997.

But pissing off Joe Royle seemed to be such a huge mistake, although Peter Johnson, then Chairman, claimed if he'd stayed as manager, Everton would have been relegated.

Royle's time as Everton Manager came to a premature end, following a 6th-placed finish the previous season. A sadness over his departure lingers. “I fell out with the local paper — I always said I gave them a silver service but unfortunately they used one of the knives to stab me in the back. It came from nowhere.

“I still see Peter Johnson (then chairman) on holiday and we usually end up with a glass of wine, shaking our heads at what happened.”

It was amazing how quickly it all unraveled. I remember at the end of that season we only had about 14 players so Paul Rideout came back from China as an emergency midfielder.

Kieran, that game was against Spurs in April '97. We won 1-0 thanks to a Gary Speed header.

I watched My Life at Everton featuring Paul Rideout on YouTube (well worth a watch) and he said that was his last game as he had to dash off to the airport to fly to China. Dave Watson (temp manager) wanted to him to stay but Paul just had to take the offer.

For those of you that don't know Toffee TV on YouTube has some great content with in-depth interviews with former players.

It would have been interesting if Royle had stayed and been allowed to sign Tore Andre Flo.

Tell a lie - we haven't won there in the league since 1994, was it Royle's second game in charge? I can see the goal in my mind, but can't recall who scored.

I too always remember that quote at the end of the Derby game about being challengers that season. We weren't good enough - and what followed did not come as a surprise. I seem to recall starting that season well until a really nasty home game with Villa which we lost 1 - 0.

Something was never quite right that season before Royle went.

Its strange, looking back, as we did have some decent players. Perhaps the dogs of war just ran out of fight...

Thats what Evertonians do at this club. We have never won a sausage without one being at the helm despite spending millions to bring in "names".

It's who we are.

Near the end of the season Joe had no doubts that Everton would stay up, While Martin O'Neill, manager of Leicester City, I think, who one point point more than Everton and a game in hand insisted that Leicester were in a relegation fight.

Joe couldn't believe it when he got the bullet, he went to meet Johnson over something else, he thought, and came out of the office with his comics and his P45, although it was stated that it was a mutual decision that Joe left, mutual decision my arse, Joe was shell shocked.

They were all a little past their best, but still capable. Channon and Ball were great racing buddies and got most of the headlines.
Charlie George was not quite as high profile, but he was probably the best one touch player I've ever seen. Truly brilliant on his day.... Maybe I'm biased because his celebration after scoring the winner against the shite in the cup final still rankles with Kopites nearly half a century later.

He was a proper, proper, footballer too though

We took Southampton back to the old lady for the replay. Eamonn O'Keefe was really having one and was taking more abuse than player I have ever heard. I te dying minutes, he pounced on a loose ball on the edge of the box and smashed an unstoppable winner into the top corner.The ground erupted.

Never heard so many Evertonians change their mind so quickly. The words "I always knew he would come good" were being said by so many people around me. It almost sounded like a chant.

Watching the rest of the big match revisited, I notice the PC brigade have put little bubble things over the player's mouths when they are uttering expletives - I realise that swearing isn't acceptable to many many people, but it's not as if we can hear what the players are actually saying is it?

We took over the Dell in the first leg creating one of the most spine tingling moments ever as every blue in that ground thundered out "we're on the march . " as players stood in position for the start of the second half. The saints fans cowed into absolute silence as players looked about the ground in awe.

An Everton player post match remarked it made them grow a foot taller.

The zeitgeist carried on to Goodison people bemoaned city trafic coming to a standstill writing to the echo about it in the ensuing days. Lord knows how many actually went suffice to say the street end was chocca half an hour before kick off

As Keegan later said "the fans won it for them"

Still had to wait another three years to see Everton win the cup, but it was definitely worth the wait when it finally happened!

I remember when Ball went to Southampton because my Dad suddenly took an interest in their results. He was always interested in the 60s players; his idols.

Randomly, the mention of O'Keefe gave me a flashback to the early days of Howard Kendall's first managerial reign when he was player-manager. I was in the lower Gwladys Street stand with my dad, right at the front behind the goal (early 80s, plenty of space). Kendall brought himself on and I could hear him coaching and talking O'Keefe through the match.

And yes, we did get a point. We rode our luck but I was more than happy with the performance in the end. It really cheered me up.