1981 FA Cup Sixth Round: Everton v Manchester City

Forty years is a long time in sport. It's a long time in life (sadly, I know this for a fact). When Everton take on Manchester City in the FA Cup Sixth round at Goodison Park this weekend, the tie will see two Champions League winning managers lock horns, as their (rotated) multinational squads strive for a place in the last four at Wembley.

The past is indeed a foreign country. When the two teams met at the same stage of the competition in March 1981, the situation was understandably different. Two mid-table teams clashed in high intensity matches at Goodison Park and Maine Road, on far from perfect playing surfaces and in front of packed terraces. The 1981 tussles would be a very domestic affair that were not for the faint-hearted.

For Manchester City, the chance of reaching an FA Cup semi-final was the latest part of the changing fortunes of the club under manager John Bond. Appointed in October 1980, Bond had steered the club away from the relegation zone, reached a League Cup semi-final, and was now on the brink of repeating the feat in the FA Cup.

If Bond was on the way up, then the same could not be said of his opposite number. Gordon Lee had been in charge at Everton since January 1977, and although he had reached a League Cup final and two FA Cup semi-finals in his time at the club, a decline in league form was increasing the pressure on Lee to deliver.

Everton's route to the last eight had seen them drawn against First Division opposition in every round. Defeating an Arsenal team that had not lost outside Wembley in the competition since 1977, local rivals Liverpool - match winner Imre Varadi receiving a pie in his face - and Lawrie McMenemy's impressive Southampton after a replay, a home draw against City handed Lee's team the chance to match their run to the semi-final the season before.

Bond had led City to wins over Crystal Palace and Norwich, beating his predecessor Malcolm Allison and former employer respectively, before a narrow win at Peterborough continued the revival. The trip to Goodison Park would be the biggest test in the cup run, with Everton confident of adding another scalp on their home turf.

"I don't have to motivate anyone for this game," Lee admitted. "They will be going flat out." Anyone who witnessed the pulsating match would be left in no doubt about the commitment of both teams. Here was evidence of what the cup meant to clubs; neither was prepared to take a backward step in an archetypal cup tie.

"The game began as a sort of cock fight confined mainly to a narrow corridor drawn either side of the halfway line," Leslie Duxbury wrote in the Guardian. The midfield scrap was relentless; Everton's Trevor Ross, Asa Hartford and Steve McMahon battled with Gerry Gow, Paul Power and Tommy Hutchison to gain supremacy.

Hartford, Hutchison and Everton's Peter Eastoe would be booked, with Gow, John Gidman, Ross and Eamonn O'Keefe lucky not to go into referee Peter Willis' book. In amongst the mayhem, City took control, with Steve Mackenzie striking the crossbar and Jim McDonagh denying Kevin Reeves.

 

 

However, it would be Everton that struck first in the 43rd minute, O'Keefe flicking on a Varadi cross to Eastoe who chipped past Joe Corrigan. Crucially, City responded just before the break, Gow finishing smartly from a cushioned Reeves header. But it did not take long for City to shoot themselves in the foot.

Just three minutes into the second half, centre back Tommy Caton was penalised for a tug on Varadi in the box, and although Everton had missed two spot kicks the week before against Crystal Palace, Ross made no mistake. 

As the minutes ticked by, it appeared as if City would be cruelly denied. "Tactically, City were better than us and dominated," Hartford revealed. "And when Trevor Ross put us ahead from the penalty spot, Peter [Eastoe] turned to me and said: 'Our luck's in'." But City's new found determination under Bond saved the day.

A delightful pass from Reeves sent Power through on goal with just eight minutes remaining, and his flick over McDonagh sent the City players into ecstasy and turned the away end into a sea of bodies (limbs, as the kids may or may not call it today). There was still time for Kevin Ratcliffe to be sent off for a headbutt on Hutchison, but as the final whistle sounded, all involved could try and get their breath back.

"Most of the afternoon was a deeply entertaining and marvellously exciting ebb and flow," Duxbury wrote in his match report. Just four days later, the two teams would meet again. "There will be one hell of a battle out there," Bond said prior to the replay. "I would like to see some meaty tackles and players being put on their arses. Tackling is as much part of the game as good shots and saves."

A crowd of 52,791 had crammed into Goodison for the first match. The Wednesday replay would see a further 52,532 come through the turnstiles, City's highest attendance at Maine Road in eight years. After four pitch inspections by Willis, the match went ahead, although the boggy playing surface did little to encourage free flowing football.

With players sliding about and trying to keep their feet, both keepers were kept busy. Corrigan saved from John Bailey (in for the suspended Ratcliffe) and Joe McBride, the latter playing his first match in two months in place of flu victim O'Keefe. With McDonagh denying Power twice, as well as Reeves and Hutchison, the match drifted to the hour mark with the teams still level.

All of a sudden the match sprung into life, via an unexpected source. Full back Bobby McDonald, who had arrived from Coventry with Hutchison early in Bond's tenure, scored twice in three minutes to put City firmly in control. Amazingly, he almost claimed a hat trick, thwarted by McDonagh's tip on to the crossbar. 

It didn't matter, though. When Power slotted home after a superb through ball from Tueart in the 84th minute, the tie was over. Eastoe netted the very definition of a consolation, as the City bandwagon moved on.

"I don't know if I believe in fairy stories, but this seems like one now," a jubilant Bond declared. "It's hard to think of anything better happening to us." Looking forward to the prospect of taking on treble-chasing Ipswich, it appeared as if the very likeable Bond could do no wrong, as he led City to their first FA Cup semi-final since 1969.

Unfortunately the same could not be said about Lee. The hangover suffered after the cup exit would hasten his move towards the exit door; eight defeats in their next ten league matches - including five on the bounce after the City replay - and just one win, signalled the end of Lee's stewardship. The task of turning the Everton ship around would fall squarely on the shoulders of Howard Kendall.