Peter Reid spoke to ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley in the latest episode of Goodison Park: My Home
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Peter Reid speaks to ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley on Goodison Park: My Home
Peter Reid speaks to ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley on Goodison Park: My Home
Everton legend Peter Reid played in the Blues’ most-successful era, but he reveals that manager Howard Kendall showed his class after a couple of painful FA Cup final defeats.
Kendall described Reid, who he snapped up for £60,000 from Bolton Wanderers in December 1982, as Everton’s most important signing since the Second World War, and after lifting the FA Cup in 1984, they were named Manager of the Year and PFA Players’ Player of the Year respectively in 1985 as the Blues were crowned champions – a campaign that also brought the European Cup-Winners’ Cup – before securing a second league title in 1987.
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While Kendall, who also won the League Championship as an Everton player in 1970, remains the Blues’ most-decorated manager, Huyton-born Reid, speaking on the latest episode of Goodison Park: My Home, explained that it was after a couple of major setbacks at Wembley that he was left most impressed by him.
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After securing their first League Championship in 15 years with five games to spare, Everton added their only continental trophy to date by defeating Rapid Vienna 3-1 in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup final in Rotterdam.
However, a mere 65 hours after their final whistle in the Netherlands, the Blues kicked off the FA Cup final against Manchester Untied at Wembley. Everton were denied a ‘treble’ when they lost 1-0 after extra time to Norman Whiteside’s goal, despite the Red Devils having Kevin Moran sent off on 78 minutes for a professional foul on Reid.
The 68-year-old told the ECHO: “It was a game too far. We still had chances, it was a hot day as well.
“We’d got back into Liverpool on the Thursday morning, rested, then played head tennis at Bellefield on the Friday and travelled down. Without making excuses, because they had a man sent off, we had chances.
“Andy Gray, every time I see Andy – and he hates it – when I’ve had a bevvy, I say: ‘What about you?’ You’ve missed two.’ Derek (Mountfield) missed a couple and I hit the post.
“I don’t think I’m being disrespectful to Manchester United, I thought we were the better team on the day, and we’d beat them in the league, but great teams find a way to win, and on that day we didn’t and we couldn’t. It still kills me that one, but that’s footy.”
On the post-match incident behind closed doors, Reid added: “After we got beat, there was a little bit of a scuffle in the dressing room – without going into details – and Howard had opened the champagne. He sorted the scuffle out, and we were all looking on, thinking: ‘Oh, Christ.’
“He just got his glass of champagne, raised it, and said: ‘That, gentlemen, is why you’re champions,’ (and took a sip).”
Everton's Peter Reid with his trophy after being named PFA Players' Player of the Year for the 1984/85 season
Everton's Peter Reid with his trophy after being named PFA Players' Player of the Year for the 1984/85 season
A year later, it was Liverpool who became the first club in the city to do ‘the double’ as they pipped Everton by two points in the title race and then defeated them 3-1 in the FA Cup final. After the two teams returned to Merseyside from Wembley, a joint open top bus parade for both sets of players had been organised through the streets of the city but the prospect of riding around empty-handed while their neighbours paraded their silverware was all too much for Reid.
He said: “I thought we were the better side, even in the cup final, but it’s one of those things. We got beat, and I was hurting.
“I’d pulled the gaffer, and I just went: ‘I’m not going on that bus.’ He went: ‘You’ve got to.’
‘I said: ‘Listen, I’m not being a baby. I’ve shook hands, I’ve done this and I’ve done that, but I can’t do it.’ So, I got my mate to pick me up, I went for a bevvy.
“The gaffer was great to be fair, but he fined me two weeks’ wages. In the following pre-season, he half had a go at me, which he was right about because I was later a manager and you shouldn’t do that but I just couldn’t handle it.
“Anyway, he pulled me into his office, sat me down and said: ‘You’re out of order.’ I said: ‘Gaffer, it’s gone now.’
“He said: ‘Right, there you go, your money is going to get paid back into your bank, your two weeks’ wages, but don’t tell anyone.’ I went: ‘Wow!’
“That was the man. That’s what the club was about.
“I never told anyone. I’m alright telling it now, but that was him as a manager.”
A boyhood Kopite who ended up becoming a True Blue, Reid used to love playing in Merseyside Derbies. But ahead of Everton ‘crossing the park’ for the last time on Wednesday when David Moyes’ men go to Arne Slot’s table-toppers, he recalls how – given that like many in the region, he comes from a divided family – he once ended up getting abused from the stands by one of his own relatives.
Reid said: “It was at Anfield, and I’ve laid one on Barnsey, and the home fans are giving me jip – plenty – which, you have it. I look in the crowd, just in front of the dugout, and I go: ‘Uncle Arthur?’
“My Uncle Arthur was giving it to me, good style. That’s the way it should be when you’re at derby games.
“For me, they were the biggest games. I was fortunate to play in them during the 1980s, when they were possibly two of the best teams in Europe... well, we were.”
Goodison Park: My Home episodes currently available to watch on YouTube are as follows
Kevin Ratcliffe
Derek Mountfield
Michael Ball
Dr David France
Graham Stuart
Derek Temple
Leon Osman
Alan Irvine
David Moyes
Anders Limpar
Kevin Sheedy
Ian Snodin
Tony Cottee
Alan Stubbs
Joe Royle
Martin Dobson
Peter Reid