Flashback: Blues Sink Seagulls On South CoastKevin Brock’s back pass…. a stellar League Cup final performance against Liverpool and ensuing Wembley FA Cup success over Watford… and Graeme Sharp spectacularly ending the Toffees’ 14-year wait for victory at Anfield.
All these episodes have been justifiably cemented in Everton lore for their catalytic effect on Howard Kendall’s mid-1980s trophy gatherers.
Kendall was in charge at Goodison Park for three seasons before he brought tangible success to the Club, the former midfielder meticulously laying the foundations for that dizzying period when his team had a rightful claim to the title, ‘best in Europe’.
Equally, during Kendall’s formative years at the helm, certain matches, seemingly run-of-the-mill affairs at the time, acted to shift his side’s mindset towards a place where, no matter the prevailing circumstances or opposition of the day… they expected to win.
Everton’s most recent encounter with this weekend’s opponents, Brighton & Hove Albion, for example.
It is more than 34 years since the Toffees met the south coast team. From the wider football community’s viewpoint, the occasion was lent its relevance by Brighton’s ongoing attempt to keep two plates spinning: the Seagulls, a canny, gnarled outfit, were one week away from an FA Cup semi-final clash with Sheffield Wednesday but embroiled in a relegation scrap.
They would win the former battle – and come up short in the latter, with the three points Everton dramatically seized from the Goldstone Ground serving to inflict a particularly hurtful blow to Brighton’s chances of survival.
The manner in which the Blues triumphed in the face of adversity on that day in April 1983 remains embedded in Kevin Richardson’s consciousness.
Richardson partnered Alan Ainscow in the Toffees’ engine room and remembers how Everton overcame a visit from the ghost of injustices past to win the match and further fuel belief this was a team on the cusp of something special.
“That referee,” says Richardson, infuriated all over again, as he recalls Clive Thomas allowing Gordon Smith a second crack at his 89th-minute penalty, after Blues goalkeeper Jim Arnold had repelled the Albion striker’s first effort.
“It was unbelievable. I think a few of the lads were quite annoyed with him. He made some really poor decisions in different games and that is why a lot of players got onto him. I do not know if he was trying to exert his authority on the game or was refereeing it as he saw it.”
Thomas, of course, was the official who inexplicably scrubbed out Bryan Hamilton’s last-gasp ‘winner’ against Liverpool in the 1977 FA Cup semi-final.
Hamilton would admit on the 25th anniversary of the match at Maine Road that he was yet to receive an explanation for the Welsh referee’s maddeningly baffling decision.
Liverpool won the semi-final replay 3-0.
In Brighton six years later, Everton would not be denied. Kendall’s team was wired to consider the concession of a late equaliser as the platform for a grandstand finish.
Everton had initially led through Kevin Sheedy’s strike two minutes before half-time. Again, Richardson’s recollection of the goal, from a distance of more than three decades, is pretty impressive.
“Sheeds nicked it off the full-back – I cannot remember if the pass went to him from the goalkeeper or the centre-back – but Brighton were trying to play out from the back,” says Richardson.
“Sheeds read the pass and nicked it off his foot; with his momentum, he was moving so quick – I have never seen Sheeds run so quickly to close anyone down – he got his foot in and the ball just rolled into the goal from the edge of the box. He did not have to touch it again.”
Brighton had knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup two months earlier, beaten high-flying Tottenham the previous week and would take Manchester United to a replay in May’s Cup final.
The Goldstone Ground was an inhospitable environment for away teams, who had to contend with Brighton’s parochial support and a combative Albion side featuring a host of competitive animals, including pugnacious trio Jimmy Case, Steve Foster and Tony Grealish.
It was centre-half Foster, pushed up front and the focus for a Brighton aerial bombardment as the hosts desperately pursued an equaliser, who won the controversial penalty.
“I think it was Higgy (Mark Higgins) chasing him and I don’t know if he touched him or not, but Foster went down and got the pen,” says Richardson.
“Jim saved the first one – he used to do his homework on penalty takers and had a good record saving them.
“But the referee said he had moved before the kick and ordered a retake.
“Smith went the same way and Jim wasn’t too far off that one either, but it snuck in.”
Richardson was joined in the Everton team at Brighton by Kevin Ratcliffe, Sharp, Sheedy and fellow Academy graduate Gary Stevens, a formidable quartet who would win two league championships and the European Cup Winners’ Cup with the Blues.
Midfielder Richardson had signed on at Goodison as a trainee in 1978 and was given his first-team debut in the 1981-82 campaign, Kendall’s first in charge.
Everton finished eighth in that 81-82 season. The victory they eventually secured at Brighton was one of six in their final eight games of 1982-83 on the way to clinching seventh spot.
Initial progress under Kendall was steady rather than speedy, then, but Richardson sensed this Toffees’ side, simmering with intent and ambition, was nearing boiling point.
And Everton’s reaction to being dealt a rough hand by Thomas and Smith only served to heighten that belief.
“Brighton started piling forward a bit and hitting longer balls, trying to put pressure on us,” says Richardson.
“But we were still playing and Adrian Heath broke through at the end.
“He was one-on-one with the goalie (Graham Moseley), who saved it. Somebody had a shot on the rebound and the ‘keeper kept that out as well.
“The ball came back out and bounced between bodies… and Sheeds was there to put it in. That was in the last 30 seconds.
“It was a good game. We looked to control it from the beginning but the way it developed we went all out for the win and just killed them off right at the end.
“The manager was identifying the right players for his team, he was looking at character as well as ability.
“We had a real variety age-wise: youth, some slightly older players and then the experienced ones. There was a good blend and balance.”
Everton would repeat their seventh-place finish in 1983/84, progress coming in the shape of the FA Cup won with a comprehensive 2-0 success over Watford in the final.
By that time, says Richardson, Kendall had adjusted his transfer policy. The manager’s initial recruitment – he brought in seven new players ahead of his maiden term in charge – was undertaken with an eye on putting Everton back on a firm footing following two underwhelming seasons.
With that original goal achieved, Kendall bought with a mind to establishing his team at the top of the English football tree.
“You could see right from the beginning how Howard wanted to develop things,” says Richardson. “When he took over, he brought in players like Alan Biley, Alan Ainscow, Mickey Thomas, Mick Ferguson and Jim Arnold… for security, just to stop the way things had been going.
“Then he built on that. We had some good youth players there: Kevin Ratcliffe, Joe McBride, Steve McMahon and Paul Lodge – and he gave them a go. And there was me and Gary Stevens who were apprentices together.
“Gradually, players like Sheeds, Paul Bracewell and Trevor Steven followed.
“Howard was building a good team. And bringing in Andy Gray and Peter Reid added those old heads with a bit of experience, to offer guidance and a bit of steel.
“They were fantastic characters and still had a lot to offer the game. They wanted to play despite the injuries they had suffered… because they just loved the game and were winners.
“They battled and scrapped. And if they weren’t having a good game by their standards, they would still be working so hard.
“That was a great attribute individually – but also for the team.
“When we went out on the pitch, every one of us would fight as hard and as desperately as we could, for ourselves but more for the team.”
Richardson eventually left Goodison for Watford in 1986, winners medals from the 1984 FA Cup and following year’s First Division and European Cup Winners’ Cup among the belongings he loaded into the removals van for the journey south.
“When you have a lot of players with character and ability you will not go too far wrong – and with Howard gathering good players and putting together the team he was, you had to be on your toes.
“And, eventually, he had a team full of internationals – then there was me and Alan Harper,” laughs Richardson, modestly neglecting to mention the England cap he collected under Terry Venables in a 5-0 thumping of Greece in 1994.
On Sunday, Everton will face Brighton at the Sussex club’s modern Amex Stadium, the Goldstone Ground razed to the floor 20 years ago.
Erudite Albion manager Chris Hughton ended the club’s 34-year top-flight exile when he led them to promotion from the Championship last term.
For Richardson, though, the match is all about Everton. The Blues are 16th in the embryonic Premier League table but within striking distance of the top six. And their former midfielder has his fingers crossed that this weekend’s trip to the seaside can have the same galvanising effect as that visit back in 1983.
“Chris has Brighton going quite well and things are progressing nicely for them,” says Richardson.
“But I think Everton have bought good players, although they need time to settle.
“Those players are lucky to be at a club as great as Everton, with how the fans are… if you are doing the business they are right behind you. I have experienced that.
“The players just have to give everything they have got and work their socks off for the team.
“If they play with that effort and, perhaps, score early – it will give everybody a massive boost.
“I had a great time at Everton. I was lucky that I enjoyed all the clubs I played for. I always look out for their results and want them to do well.”