Sean Graham
Everton, for far too long have suffered in the shadows of their neighbours Liverpool. The Blues have been forced to watch on as the Reds have added to their trophy cabinet for many seasons, picking up domestic trophies and the odd Champions League or five along the way!
For the Toffees there once was a time where they had success on the domestic and European fronts, winning the FA Cup in 1984, the League Championship in 1985 and 1987 and their greatest triumph in Europe, winning the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1985.
Most Evertonians always think back to their great Cup Winners’ Cup run in 1985 when the Toffees were top dogs. Their only European trophy came via victory over Rapid Vienna, 3-1, in the final in Rotterdam on the 15th May 1985. For Everton, times like these and their FA Cup win over Manchester United back in 1995 have been too few and far between, but hopefully David Moyes will change that on FA Cup final day on May 30th as they take on Chelsea at Wembley.
If this present Everton team need any inspiration, they should look no further than the Everton squad of 1984 that lifted the FA Cup and went on to European glory the following year.
Inside Futbol’s Sean Graham was lucky enough to catch up with an Everton legend recently, one who was part of that Everton team that won the FA Cup, Football League Championship and the Cup Winners’ Cup in his time with the club. He now works as fans liaison officer with the club, he is former Scottish International and Everton centre-forward Graeme Sharp.
Graeme was part of an Everton team under Howard Kendall that would show not only their rivals from across Stanley Park that they were not going to sit and watch them going on to win trophy after trophy, but that they were about to have a challenge from the Blue half of the city, and they were here to stay.
At the start of their Cup Winners’ Cup run back in September Everton were drawn against UC Dublin, and after a 0-0 draw away they could only manage a 1-0 win at Goodison thanks to a Graeme Sharp goal. Back then no one could imagine that the club would progress to the final. In the rounds that followed, Everton took care of Slovan Bratislava winning 1-0 away and 3-0 at home, and Fortuna Sittard 3-0 at home and 2-0 away as they recaptured a bit of form. Then came a semi-final against German giants Bayern Munich.
Graeme remembers that night fondly.
"The players thought that this was the final itself and the winner of this tie would win the cup. In the first match we had a depleted squad, but we got a 0-0 draw in the Olympic Stadium in Munich".
"The return match at Goodison was a fantastic night, indeed the supporters classed that as one of the best, if not the best, match at Goodison. We thought we were going into the match as favourites but soon we ended up 1-0 down".
"At half-time Howard [Kendall] said to us, keep playing the way you are at the moment. Just get the ball forward and the Gwladys street will suck one in for you."
And this proved to be the case! In a never to be forgotten second half, the Toffees battered their German opponents, in the nicest possible way of course, and goals from Andy Gray, Graeme Sharp and Trevor Steven sent the Goodison faithful wild with delight and Rotterdam bound.
"It was a battle, you could hardly get a breath as play raged from one end to another. I was speaking to Peter Reid recently and he was surprised that there was still 22 players left on the park by the end of the match!"
"Bayern could handle themselves. Reidy had a gash on his shin to prove it, but they were a fantastic team with great individual players in their side. We just out-fought them on the night".
Everton would face the conquers of Celtic (somewhat controversially it may be said), Rapid Vienna, and this would be a match that the Everton players would look forward to with relish.
"When we knew it would be Rapid in the final, we knew that we were going to be in for a tough match. A few of the lads had seen Rapid playing Celtic at Old Trafford and although we were quietly confident going into the match, we knew it would be tough."
"In the match itself we were quite comfortable winning 1-0 and 2-0 before Hans Krankel scored, then Sheeds scored a great goal to make it 3-1 and we knew that we would win it then."
The wave of excitement and joy overcame the Everton players and fans who had waited a long time for something like this to happen to their club.
"It was different class! You don’t fully realise what it means to the players, the club, the fans – those were great days for us as players and it must have been great for the fans going round Europe and even different grounds in England just knowing that we would not be beaten!"
"We had a growing confidence and belief in our team-mates and the manager".
"We thought that this could be the start of something as we were going to places like Anfield with more confidence now, whereas before we were a young side and maybe a bit in awe of Liverpool, but in those days we went there not just to compete but to win".
"We had been looking forward to this Everton side maybe going on a bit further in Europe and being able to get the chance to play in the European Cup, but that chance was denied ourselves and other English clubs after the events of the Heysel disaster as the English teams were banned for five years".
"Our first thoughts were for the people who had lost their lives in what was a terrible tragedy. That was devastating".
"When the ban came into effect, that was the break up of possibly one of Everton’s best sides and it hit us hard, just when we thought that we were on the crest of something big".
"Trevor [Steven] and Gary [Stevens] went to Rangers, Howard left for Spain and some new faces came in including Gary Lineker, but the moment had gone".
"People often ask me, do you think that Everton could have won the European Cup? I say I think we would have had a chance of beating any team with that Everton side, which was a pleasure to play in".
"We could have been handed a difficult tie in the first round, we will never know but it would have been nice to have been given the chance."
Thanks to Graeme Sharp for his time
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