I remember this game all too well. I also remember the growing disbelief that a club that had ridden so high in the '80s was in decline. How deep that decline got (has got?) was unimaginable back then.

Around this time, they started talking about an English 'Super League'. This eventually emerged as the Premier League. It would need the support of the 'big 5'. Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton. For the young people, Man City and Chelsea were non-runners back then. We'd been shafted by the European ban, which was no fault of ours, and are still paying for that now.

As for the new players taking stick, Pat Nevin writes very eloquently of the demise of the club in that era. A lot of it was down to the remaining '80s heroes not wanting to gel with the new guys. Perhaps if the likes of Steven and Stephens (even Kendall) had stuck around, we could have bedded one or two new players in each year rather than have to try to replace so many at once. Who knows?

But what I do know is that, as hard as being an Evertonian can be, the few ups are so much better for the many downs.

There's something about this time of year. I often refer to them as an Everton October, but more recently it's being extended into November!

That match was depressing. I didn't even like the strip!!

Newell never convinced me even though he showed potential in patches. I suspect in hindsight, my view was blinkered as I compared everything striker to Sharp. I guess that's harsh. Some of the players we bought around that time and after gave us brief moments optimism.

However.

Tony Cottee. A coup at the time with him choosing Everton over Arsenal. Did he ever live up to being the most expensive British signing or was he victim of backing the wrong horse?

Stuart McCall; robust and popular, but no Peter Reid.

Peter Beagrie; just massively frustrating. For younger fans who think Anthony Gordon and Demarai Gray try to do it on their own, watch footage of him trying to beat his man several times. After he'd already beaten him several times.

Pat Nevin. Tricky, great to watch at times and loved him, but no Trevor Steven. I thought he slowed the game down too much too often.

Neil McDonald. No Gary Stevens. Nowhere close.

Martin Keown. Excellent player, brute of a defender and a leader. He was never going to hang around at a club on a downward projectile as he proved by moving to Arsenal to achieve great success.

I don't want to sound harsh in comparing to my boy hood idols as that is probably unfair. It's just to emphasise that although we made high profile signings, we were swapping our Mercedes Benz's for Ford Focus's. We were downgrading. And pretty rapidly in hindsight.

I have to comment on your commentator remark. Yes, I wish we could go back to have more sports journalists assisted by the odd ex-footballer. I can't stand those pre-staged quotes that they clearly have been waiting to get in. And I keep saying this, but what did we ever do to offend Chris Sutton?

Final one, 3rd in the league that late in the season never again? We will be when we win our 10th league title.

Normal service was of course resumed with indecent haste.

An early mistake by Colin Harvey was the failure to strengthen the squad from a position of strength in the summer of 1987. The players we recruited the following summer were below the standard to which we had become accustomed. From then it was all downhill.