ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley picks his top 10 matches at Goodison Park
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Andy Gray celebrates with Graeme Sharp after scoring Everton's second goal during their European Cup-Winners' Cup semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich at Goodison Park, April 24 1985
Andy Gray celebrates with Graeme Sharp after scoring Everton's second goal during their European Cup-Winners' Cup semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich at Goodison Park, April 24 1985
(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.
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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 final part of our five instalments...
Number 2
May 5, 1928: Everton 3 Arsenal 3
The only surviving image of Dixie Dean's 60th goal for Everton against Arsenal
The only surviving image of Dixie Dean's 60th goal for Everton against Arsenal
Bayern Munich might be ‘The greatest night,’ but history was made in dramatic fashion by Dixie Dean on what was surely the most glorious afternoon in Goodison Park’s 133-year history. Everton had already secured a third League Championship so all eyes were on their centre-forward to see if he could score his seventh First Division hat-trick of the season to break the Football League record of 59 set by Middlesbrough’s George Camsell in the Second Division a year earlier.
A report from ‘Bee’ in the ECHO from the Arsenal game attests to the “electric start” to the match that saw the visitors take a second minute lead in controversial circumstances through James Shaw “after handling the ball and getting away with it.” Dean restored parity a minute later as he “headed it to the extreme left-hand corner” after George Martin had turned Ted Critchley’s corner on to him.
Referee Lol Harper then gave another debatable decision on six minutes when he pointed to the spot after ‘an accidental collision’ when Dean was crossed by Arsenal’s “long-legged” centre-half Jack Butler. The Everton hero drew level with the record as he “was able to rise from the ground and take the penalty kick successfully and well.”
Even though there were still another 84 minutes left for Dean to break the record, time started to ebb away, and nerves jangled when Arsenal drew level 10 minutes before half-time as Everton left-back Jack O’Donnell “turned the ball over his own goal line” after a mix-up with goalkeeper Arthur Davies. Frustration was growing and “for long spells, Dean was crowded out, or received an unwise pass.”
His magic moment would come though, eight minutes before full-time. “Alec Troup took the corner kick and out of a ruck of probably 14 players, Dean with unerring accuracy, nodded the ball to the extreme right-hand side of the goal.
“There has never been such a joyful shout at Everton. It was prolonged for minutes and went on until the end of the game.
“The crowd never stopped cheering for eight solid minutes, and Dean was hugged by all his comrades, and indeed there was a threat of the crowd breaking on to the field of play. In fact, two men rushed across through the barrier of police, and the referee had to bundle one man off, and out of the way of trouble.”
Such was the mayhem, another home defensive blunder resulting in Shaw’s second goal of the game for Arsenal on 86 minutes after collecting a rebound when Davies had failed to make what should have been “an easy save,” failed to dampen Blues’ spirits.
Number 1
April 24, 1985: Everton 3 Bayern Munich 1
Graeme Sharp heads in the equaliser for Everton in their 3-1 comeback win over Bayern Munich in 1985
Graeme Sharp heads in the equaliser for Everton in their 3-1 comeback win over Bayern Munich in 1985
Some four decades after it was played this match has taken on almost mythical status, but you’d struggle to find an Evertonian who would deny that the famous victory over Bayern Munich was the greatest night in Goodison Park’s 133-year history.
Offering his reflections of the evening on the BBC series Match of the Eighties in 1997, shortly before he returned to Everton for a third stint as manager, Howard Kendall said: “The night was absolutely deafening. When I talk to Everton supporters now, when I talk to players who were involved that night, they still regard that as their greatest night at Goodison, and I most certainly do as well.”
Kendall’s half-time rallying cry to his players when they trailed 1-0 that the Gwladys Street “would suck the ball into Bayern net” and the complaints over Everton’s physical approach from visiting boss Udo Lattek of: “Mr Kendall, this is not football,” which were met with an X-rated response from the home dugout, have become engrained in the fabric of the club’s heritage.
The first leg in Munich’s Olympiastadion had finished goalless so the Blues knew they’d need to score twice to go through after Dieter Hoeness had put Bayern ahead at Goodison with an away goal on 37 minutes. It was the one moment on the night that for a couple of seconds, the raucous crowd fell silent.
Kendall’s instructions at the interval to go route one paid off as Everton turned the tie on its head with a couple of goals from long throw-ins by Gary Stevens. The headed equaliser on 48 minutes by Graeme Sharp came via a flick-on from fellow Scot Andy Gray who tapped in the second from point-blank range on 75 minutes after keeper Jean-Marie Pfaff had let the ball slip through his fingers, flapping at the delivery under pressure from Sharp.
But the beauty of that Everton team was the way they outthought as well as outfought opponents and the passage of play for the decisive third goal four minutes from the end was pure ‘School of Science’ stuff. Speaking last month on his episode of Goodison Park: My Home, scorer Trevor Steven, whose goal produced what was surely the ground's loudest ever roar, told the ECHO: “It was one of those split-second things. I just pushed the ball a little bit to the right, just to draw the keeper to the left-hand side, slightly, and then just find the bottom corner.
“But I couldn’t have hit it any sweeter. It could have gone anywhere, I’ll be honest with you, but it went perfectly where I was hoping that it would.
“I’ll forever remember the Jagermeister banner right behind the goal where the ball hits the net, so I’ve had a couple of Jagermeister ‘here’s to you’ on the back of that goal. It was never matched by anything I ever did.”
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