ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley picks his top 10 matches at Goodison Park
Comments
Sport
Peter Reid tackles Bryan Robson during Everton's 5-0 win over Manchester United at Goodison Park on October 27, 1984
Peter Reid tackles Bryan Robson during Everton's 5-0 win over Manchester United at Goodison Park on October 27, 1984
(Image: Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images)
Picking a top 10 matches at Goodison Park is no easy task given the volume of potential candidates to choose from, but this correspondent has given it a go. In addition to my day job as Everton reporter for the ECHO, I have written a book called Spirit of the Blues: Everton’s Most Memorable Matches and Goodison Park’s Greatest Games, which features 100 of the Blues’ fixtures from their 133 years at England’s first purpose-built football ground.
There’s still one last chapter to write following the game against Southampton this Sunday, but alongside many iconic Everton encounters, the publication also features the five World Cup matches – including the only semi-final to be played at an English club ground – the two FA Cup finals and a game that attracted a world record crowd for a women’s club game that stood for over 98 years, which is apt given Tuesday’s announcement about how Goodison will be used in the future.
However, let’s specify that this is an Everton top 10, so those particular fixtures will not be considered here.
READ MORE: Everton hero Seamus Coleman on his fitness, future, Goodison Park and new stadium moveREAD MORE: Everton could sign 25-goal Liam Delap alternative for free after Angus Kinnear transfer claim
Goodison is still the venue that has hosted the most English top-flight matches though and while the Blues lifted their first League Championship at Anfield before Liverpool FC even existed, all their subsequent major honours have been won while at the ground. Of course, any such list is highly subjective, there can be no definitive ‘correct’ choices and people are going to feel strongly about the games you end up leaving out.
Starting from a longlist of the 99 Everton matches already included in Spirit of the Blues, I have tried to be as discerning as possible when choosing the ultimate top 10 and have attempted to give due prominence to different eras of the club’s illustrious history. Therefore, continuing our count down, which finishes on May 18 when Everton’s men’s first team play for the final time at the Grand Old Lady, here is the third of our five instalments...
Number 6
February 20, 1991: Everton 4 Liverpool 4 AET
Substitute Tony Cottee turns to celebrate with Mike Newell after scoring the first of his two equalisers for Everton in the 4-4 draw with Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round replay on February 20, 1991
Substitute Tony Cottee turns to celebrate with Mike Newell after scoring the first of his two equalisers for Everton in the 4-4 draw with Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round replay on February 20, 1991
The magnitude of what’s at stake often ensures Merseyside Derbies become wars of attrition, but this wasn’t the case on a night that produced an eight-goal thriller with Everton equalising four times and Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish subsequently resigning. Neither side was able to deliver a knockout blow, but Ken Rogers of the ECHO compared the end-to-end goal glut to one of boxing’s greatest occasions.
He proclaimed: “I have often wondered what it must have been like to have been in the crowd the night Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier took each other to the brink of human endurance, exchanging punch for punch, blow for blow in the legendary Thriller in Manila. Now I know.
“I was one of 38,000 mesmerised football fans who marvelled, gasped and marvelled again at a sporting spectacle of similar heavyweight proportions. Everton 4 Liverpool 4… it was one of those FA Cup occasions we will look back on in years to come and proudly declare: ‘I was there!’
“We used to do a lap of honour when one goal settled a derby because they were always so tight. But EIGHT – and still no result. It was absolutely unbelievable.”
Liverpool went ahead four times through Peter Beardsley (32, 71); Ian Rush (77) and John Barnes (102) but on each occasion, Everton equalised through Graeme Sharp (46, 73) and Tony Cottee (89, 114). Feeling the strain of the aftermath of Hillsborough and the weight of expectation that came with managing the most-successful English club side of the era, Dalglish would sensationally quit as Liverpool manager just 48 hours later.
With Ronnie Moran installed as caretaker boss of the Reds, Howard Kendall’s side would triumph 1-0 in the second replay a week later thanks to Dave Watson’s 12th-minute strike after some penalty box pinball only to lose their subsequent quarter-final 2-1 at Second Division West Ham United. With honours even on this famous occasion, the jury is still out on Everton’s greatest Goodison Park derby win over Liverpool.
Contenders include 2-0 in Joe Royle’s first game in 1994; the 3-0 thrashing under David Moyes in 2006; Andy King scratching the seven-year itch in 1978 or perhaps even the record-breaking 5-0 romp, way back on Good Friday 1909.
Number 5
October 27, 1984: Everton 5 Manchester United 0
Number five on the list and a five-star display in Everton’s most-successful season as revered lifelong Blue Joe Mercer who was 70 when he watched this game, insisted: “It was the best performance by any Everton side I remember.” The former Everton player, who as a manager went on to win all English football’s domestic honours plus the European Cup-Winners’ Cup with Manchester City before a stint as caretaker boss of the national team, added: “I’ve seen Brazil play in blue today.”
The players themselves could feel it. Writing in his autobiography, Cheer Up Peter Reid, Everton’s tenacious midfield dynamo declared: “This is in no way an exaggeration, our performance was the best that I was involved in as a professional footballer.”
Perhaps Evertonians should have realised it was going to be a special day when Kevin Sheedy opened the scoring on five minutes with a looping header? Sheedy’s second goal on 24 minutes was a more orthodox effort as, slipped through by Adrian Heath, he guided a low, left foot shot past Gary Bailey.
Heath then went from provider to finisher on 35 minutes as he was first to the ball in a crowded penalty area to hook in a shot from Trevor Steven’s right wing cross. In the second half, Arthur Albiston cleared a goalbound Andy Gray header off the line, but Everton’s relentless pressure paid off on 81 minutes as a powerful low drive from Gary Stevens made it 4-0 and Graeme Sharp completed the rout four minutes from the end as he headed in a Heath free kick from the left flank.
Under the headline ‘Blues title rivals in a spin’ in the ECHO, Ian Hargraves concurred Mercer was not exaggerating with his bold verdict. He wrote: “Even allowing for the natural enthusiasm of the moment, he was not far wrong.
“You have to go back to the playing days of Kendall and Harvey, whose coaching skills were behind this latest triumph, to recall anything comparable, and it certainly overshadowed the whole of the last decade.
“Manchester United arrived at Goodison as championship favourites, fairly stuffed with internationals, and having lost only one match previously. They were totally outclassed by opponents whose all-round speed and inventiveness made a mockery of United’s title pretensions.”
Other memorable victories over Manchester United include Duncan Ferguson heading in the winner in front of the Gwladys Street in 2005 to put Moyes’ men on the cusp of Champions League qualification, repeating the trick he’d first performed against the Red Devils a decade earlier; the near Valentine’s Day massacre in 1953 when a blooded Dave Hickson overcame serious injury to net the winner in a 2-1 FA Cup upset; and a 5-2 thrashing in 1927 when the visitors were single-handedly destroyed by five-goal Dixie Dean.
Spirit of the Blues is available to order now
Spirit of the Blues is available to order now
You can click here to order your copy of Spirit of the Blues