Every sports team needs that belief-affirming victory, the win that makes them feel like they belong. For England's rugby union squad, the backs to the wall win in New Zealand in June 2003 was a vital step along the path to World Cup glory. In 2005, that nail-biting win at Edgbaston saved a summer and made Ashes heroes out of those involved.
Football has produced a few examples of this. Manchester United edging past Sheffield Wednesday during Fergie Time in 1993; Arsenal winning at the same ground in 1998; Chelsea finally defeating Arsenal in the 2004 Champions League quarter final.
For Howard Kendall's Everton there was one psychological hurdle that they needed to clear as the 1984/85 season neared. After winning the 1984 FA Cup and also reaching the Milk Cup final, Everton featured prominently as journalists discussed the Division One title contenders ahead of the new campaign. But all the pretenders knew that there was one club that had to be toppled.
Liverpool may have lost the services of influential skipper Graeme Souness, yet Joe Fagan's team were undoubtedly title favourites. Going for their fourth championship in a row, it was easy to see why many clubs seemed beaten before they had even taken to the pitch against the unstoppable force. Everton were not alone in living in the shadow of their Merseyside rivals.
Winning the Charity Shield against Liverpool provided encouragement for the season ahead, as new signing Paul Bracewell slotted in effortlessly next to Peter Reid, and the Gary Stevens/Trevor Steven axis on Everton's right flank continued to bloom.
Graeme Sharp's strike that ended up in the back of the net - via Alan Hansen and Bruce Grobbelaar - was important in that it got one over on their neighbours and added more silverware to the trophy cabinet. Yet it would not be as significant as the next time a Sharp effort found its way past Grobbelaar.
The success since the start of 1984 and the win at Wembley in the season curtain raiser combined to give hope to Evertonians as the real business started. Yet this optimism appeared to evaporate immediately as Kendall's men were hammered 4-1 at Goodison Park against Tottenham before suffering a 2-1 defeat at West Brom.
A 1-0 win on a Friday night at Stamford Bridge live on BBC One got the ball rolling, and an unbeaten run in September - including a crazy 5-4 win at Watford - pushed Everton towards the top of the table. Defeat followed at league leaders Arsenal, but Kendall's men were about to work through the gears and give an indication that they were the real deal.
Six league wins in a row would propel the club to the summit of the table, yet it was the second of this run that flooded the club and its supporters with joy and belief. Liverpool may have been struggling without Souness and an injured Ian Rush, but they had not lost a Merseyside derby at Anfield since 1970, and Everton had not won a league match against their rivals since 1978.
"Liverpool had had a bad start to the season," Neville Southall explains in The Binman Chronicles. "But even though we - as a team - knew we were as good as them, for the fans there was still a hoodoo. They were our nemesis." The team believed; yet it might need a win at Anfield to convince doubting Evertonians that the tide was turning on Merseyside.
The news that Ian Rush was returning to action after a seven-week layoff would have added negativity to the minds of most of those long suffering fans; the Welshman had scored seven times in six matches against Everton, and when he raced through on goal in the first half of the match on Saturday October 20, the away contingent must have been waiting for the inevitable.
Not for the first time that season, Southall would come to the rescue. That chance aside, it would be Everton bossing proceedings, with Reid dominant in midfield, and Grobbelaar the busier of the keepers. Three minutes into the second half, came the moment that would tip the balance in favour of the blue half of Merseyside.
Everton's match winner on the day had hardly been enjoying his football that season. Dropped after scoring the winner in a league match against Coventry, Graeme Sharp had rowed with Kendall and immediately written a transfer request. After being left out of the FA Cup semi-final the previous season, this incident proved the final straw for the Scottish forward.
Coventry made an enquiry that was rejected, and eventually the 24-year-old regained his place in the team. Their relationship remained strained, however, with Sharp revealing in his autobiography that he was never fully convinced Kendall rated him as a player. Surely this was not the case. If it was, then Sharp's strike at Anfield would probably have altered Kendall's opinion in an instant.
The goal was memorable for so many reasons. Obviously the sheer brilliance makes it stand out, but its importance, and the celebrations that followed combined to make Sharp's winner a pivotal moment in 1980s football. As Stevens played the ball up to Sharp, all of this seemed unlikely. Getting in behind Mark Lawrenson, there did not appear to be any immediate danger.
"My first touch was good," Sharp writes in Sharpy: My Story. "I knew straight away that I had two options: either I could push it forward and run or have a pop. Well, I knew that I was always going to be the second favourite in a sprint with Mark Lawrenson, so I had a quick glance and then smacked it."
Smack it he did. After cushioning the ball with his left foot to take the ball away from Lawrenson, Sharp hit a dipping right foot shot over a cap-wearing Grobbelaar, before flying through the air in celebration. "What a fantastic goal," John Motson yelled. "And the Evertonians have gone berserk," as some Everton fans joined the players in a bundle of happiness.
"Everyone remembers the boy with the red hair and glasses who lost it completely and ran onto the pitch waving his arms aimlessly in the air," Sharp recalls. The legend of Frank Willmitt, aka "Windmill Man", was born.
Sharp also reveals that the Tango footballs Liverpool chose to use for home games assisted his effort. Kendall made sure his players trained with these balls in the build-up to the match. "I loved them," Sharp states. "They skidded off the turf perfectly and if you struck them right, they could swerve and move in the air."
When the final whistle sounded, Motson did not hold back in his summary as Everton's faithful mockingly chanted "Going down" to their rivals who had slumped to 17th in the table. "The balance of power may be shifting on Merseyside. Everton needed this result to prove it."
Sharp agrees. "Beating them at Anfield gave us so much self-belief. We were already a confident bunch of footballers and we knew we were contenders, but that day stamped it on us. The Mersey balance of power had just swung our way and the rest of the country now knew it."
Sharp's goal would deservedly win the Match of the Day Goal of the Season award. But it was worth much more than that. "That was the one," Reid notes in Cheer Up Peter Reid. "That was the goal that shook the football world, the result that tipped Merseyside on its axis and underlined Everton's status as the coming force." A week later, Everton defeated Manchester United 5-0. The Kendall juggernaut was showing no signs of slowing.
<< Golden goals: Mark Hughes (1985) Golden goals: Gary Mackay (1987) >>
No comments:
Post a Comment