Everton 2 - 0 Newcastle United

14 April 1995

Scorers

Everton: Amokachi 22, 55

Newcastle:

Yellow cards

Everton: Ablett, Limpar

Newcastle: Venison

Sent off

Newcastle: Lee

Lineups

Everton: Southall 7, Barrett 7, Watson 7, Unsworth 7, Ablett 8, Limpar 9, Horne 8, Parkinson 7, Hinchcliffe 7, Stuart 9, Amokachi 9 (63. Grant 6)

Newcastle: Hooper, Hottiger (Clark 60), Peacock, Howey, Elliott, Fox (Gillespie 60), Bracewell, Venison, Lee, Beardsley, Kitson

Subs not used: Jackson, Kearton (Everton), Harper (Newcastle)

Officiating

Referee: R B Gifford (Mid-Glamorgan)

Attendance: 34,811

Overview

Joe goes to Toon on Newcastle

The relegation candidate made the European candidate look like a fool last night in front of 34000+ at GP and the lurking millions on SKY. The atmosphere at times was even BETTER than the semi, and the players' performance certainly matched it.

Newcastle (and their toon toon barmy army) managed to put up more fight than spurs, but stood no more chance of winning than spurs.. on this form Everton WILL WIN THE LEAGUE next season, and do better in Europe than Man United.

I don't think skill-wise they are in the class of the 80s teams yet, but they make up the gap more than enough with their morale and will to win.

Now before we dash off to buy our season tickets, a word on the other side to balance out the euphoria.. It's not as easy to motivate the team all season or against mediocre opposition or with nothing to play for. It would be a major miracle if any team could keep up the energy & motivation we've seen in the last two matches for a whole season. You can dare to believe these last two games are 'typical', but you may be disappointed the next time the blues fail to produce it and drop easy points to crap teams!

Right. That's enough caution - back to the report...

YEEEAAAHHHH!!! What a stunning & superb win!

On paper, Newcastle would probably win, and Everton would be happy with a point and no injuries. In fact Joe Royle confirmed that his name is a false one.. he's not royalty, he's a football deity. Only five days after a heart-bursting display against Spurs, he managed to squeeze an encore out of the mere mortals of Mike Walker's legacy.

The early play heavily featured Limpar on the right, and the midfield ballwinning that rocked spurs. This set Goodison alight as the crowd sensed another great victory. Amo was finding space between the centre backs to make progress, and the midfield kept him well supplied with liverpool-type direct balls to run on to.

{The delightful thing about this is that this means Everton have two, perhaps 3 completely different attacking philosophies a their disposal, and can win with either! THe first is the cross & head one, featuring Hinchy & Duncan, and the second the fast break/counterpunch/direct style of Amo, Stuart & Limpar.}

One attempt from Amo was dazzling. It deserved to win the match by itself. He collected the ball, accelerated, beat the defender and hammered a cannonball shot from the edge of the box. It just missed at the near post, but if it had gone in, it would have created the biggest cheer since Barry Horne's goal - it was that good.

Minutes later Amo did collect a reward. Limpar was found free on the wing again, and he floated a perfect pass to Amo, who in full unbroken stride chested the ball down to his feet took it into the box, created and angle and buried a goal. Only the class of his previous miss made this look second rate, because it was a dream pass and dream control-&-score goal.

Newcastle did recover a little bit, and managed to hold a bit of possession and mount rather soft-looking attacks which mostly ended up with long- range rubbish or towering Everton clearances. But they also manged to shore up a bit at the back.

For second half, Limpar started to play more central, and this got a quick return when he buzzed over to the LEFT, backheeled to a Hinchy overlap and Amo had yet another simple 2-yard header to convert from the cross.

Unfortunately that was about it. The game got bogged down in midfield, and even Beardsley's talents could not prize big enough holes in a commanding blue defence to be any real threat. The Toon army were very quiet. Meanwhile Everton's few attacks seemed to lack the magic wand element and broke down. Some of their close passing even showed TOO MUCH confidence, and they lost it 2-3 times by trying to be too flashy. But thee lid really went on the entertainment when Amo was tripped near the corner flag and eventually had to go off with a twisted ankle. This left Tony Grant, a midfield playmaker, up front, and although he and Stuart managed to get free a couple of times, they hadn't the bite to run in some easy bonuses like Amo had against spurs.

It's hard to believe this is almost the same team, and even the same season that had 3 points from 11 games under Mike Walker. It's hard to believe Joe's only been here a bit over 6 months.

TEAM PERFORMANCE = 9 Lost their way a bit in the second half, esp. after Amo left, but the semi-final commitment was still there!