ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley picks his top 10 matches at Goodison Park
Legendary future managers Berti Vogts (left) and Howard Kendall (right) both scored in the first leg between Everton and Borussia Monchengladbach before a first ever penalty shoot-out in European competition settled the return match at Goodison Park
Legendary future managers Berti Vogts (left) and Howard Kendall (right) both scored in the first leg between Everton and Borussia Monchengladbach before a first ever penalty shoot-out in European competition settled the return match at Goodison Park
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.
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 fourth of our five instalments...
Number 4
November 4, 1970: Everton 1 Borussia Monchengladbach 1 AET, 4-3 on penalties
Manager Harry Catterick encourages his Everton players as they gather on the pitch before their historic penalty shoot-out win against Borussia Monchengladbach in the European Cup at Goodison Park on November 4, 1970
With just six wins from 19 penalty shoot-outs over the years, Everton’s record in football’s nail-biting tie-break format is not great but the Blues do hold the distinction of being victorious in the first one in European competition with their understudy goalkeeper the hero – and it came against German opposition too!
The new format having been brought in to replace the infamous coin toss that had been used twice in the previous season’s European Cup competition with Celtic progressing against Benfica and Galatasaray against Spartak Trnava through such an unsatisfactorily arbitrary method.
The penalty shoot-out with Borussia Monchengladbach came about due to a couple of 1-1 draws between the sides. The first leg at the Bokelbergstadion saw Howard Kendall’s 47th minute effort cancel out Berti Vogts’ 35th minute opener.
Back at Goodison Park, Johnny Morrissey fired the Blues ahead after just 23 seconds before Herbert Laumen restored parity on 34 minutes.
The ECHO described the action as a match of guts, glory and heart-stopping drama as Michael Charters wrote: “The Goodison legend persists that the 6-4 FA Cup replay between Everton and Sunderland 34 years ago was the greatest game ever seen on the ground.
"Well, if it was more exciting, more dramatic, more tense or more compelling than the epic at Goodison in the European Cup against Monchengladbach, then it must have been the greatest match of all time.”
Charters acknowledged that the new format was better than the old system, but it was tough on the players involved. He said: “I suppose the idea of deciding a European tie by taking penalties is as good a compromise as anyone can think up, at the moment.
“It is certainly better than tossing a coin. But the strain it imposes on the penalty takers and the goalkeepers – as well as the spectators – is unbelievable in its intensity.”
Charters then recounts the shoot-out, blow by blow.
“The tension reached heights I have not experienced before at Goodison as Joe Royle’s penalty was saved by (Wolfgang) Kleff. Then (Klaus-Dieter) Sieloff put his side ahead, only for Alan Ball to make it 1-1.
‘Laumen, scorer of Gladbach’s goal, pushed his shot well wide… still 1-1. Morrissey put Everton in front 2-1, (Jupp) Heynckes made it 2-2.
“Kendall, (Horst) Koppel and (Sandy) Brown made the score 4-3 with one penalty to come. Ludwig Muller, a great figure in the Germans’ superb defence, hit the ball hard enough, Andy Rankin (only playing because regular number one Gordon West was injured) dived to his right, pushed the ball away and was promptly engulfed by the ecstatic congratulations of his team-mates.”
Number 3
A ten-goal thriller that went to extra time left many old timers who witnessed this fourth round replay claim it was Goodison Park’s greatest-ever cup tie.
What was also remarkable about this incredible game was that despite the ding-dong scoring, home captain Dixie Dean did not find the net on this occasion in over two hours of play.
By the end of this contest it was already being dubbed a classic. George Green, long-time cartoonist for the ECHO, dubbed it “The match of a hundred thrills” drawing a couple of stunned fans with one proclaiming: “Oh it’s the best ever” while his neighbour adds: “It’s much better than that.”
Writing as ‘Bee’, the ECHO’s Ernest Edwards said: “I would like to ask whether there has ever been a greater display of skill in the mud in any league or cup match. We all keep the memory cells filled with noteworthy sporting occasions, and this latest 6-4 game will top the lot by reason of its two goals in two closing minutes, by the ordering off of a manager of the visiting side, by the multitudinous moments of dramatic thrill and art.”
Jackie Coulter opened the scoring on 14 minutes: “The first time Everton’s Irish eyes began to smile, a goal was the result, a delicious effort made by one of Alex Stevenson’s dodging runs.” Coulter then scored again to put the Blues 2-0 up after just over half an hour with “a shot that Jimmy Thorpe could not move to.”
Bert Davis pulled a “grand” goal back for Sunderland four minutes before half-time but when Stevenson added a third for the hosts from four yards out on 74 minutes, many thought the game was won. Jimmy Connor made it 3-2 on 78 minutes with “a fine goal” before a last-minute equaliser from Bobby Gurney, Sunderland’s all-time leading scorer, “an overhead effort”, took the tie into extra time.
The additional half an hour, which started with Sunderland manager John Cochrane being ordered off the field, brought four more goals with Coulter completing his hat-trick two minutes in to restore Everton’s lead before Connor netted his second on 96 minutes to make it 4-4. With legs tiring and the light fading, Albert Geldard eventually got the Blues across the line by bagging a late brace with goals on 111 and 119 minutes.
‘Bee’ wrote: “It is very wonderful that these trained athletes could last two hours of mud-plugging and kept the game as lively as it had been in the first ninety minutes of play.”
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