THE WEAKEST LINK!

Wednesday 31 March 2004, 10:10

Everton hero Andy Gray has revealed that he believes that the Achilles heel of the all-conquering side of the mid-1980s was the strike force - consisting of himself and the club's top post-war goalscorer, Graeme Sharp!

Gray is set to return to Merseyside next month for the first-ever official reunion of the squad from the 1984-85 season on April 22, at the Crowne Plaza hotel, along with a whole host of Everton stars from that era, including manager Howard Kendall.

The event is being co-ordinated by Sharp, the Club's Fans' Liaison Officer, and Ted Sutton, Head of Everton's Football In The Community Office, who will benefit from the proceeds of the sold-out charity dinner.

Although born and bred in Glasgow, Sky Sports pundit Gray has extremely fond memories of his time with the Blues and believes that the club's most successful side tend to get forgotten about.

"I certainly believe that the Everton team, which almost won the treble, deserves far more credit than it ever received," he said.

"We beat one of the best teams in Europe to get to the European Cup Winners' Cup Final and were desperately disappointed that we were not allowed to go on and try and do what our neighbours had done across the park and have a go at the big one - the European Cup. We're sure that we would have gone close."

"Our goalkeeper, Neville Southall, was, I am utterly convinced, the best goalkeeper in the world at the time. And in Gary Stevens, Kevin Ratcliffe, Derek Mountfield and Pat van den Hauwe, we had a back four as pacy as any in the country.

"Peter Reid and Paul Bracewell were the heartbeat of the side, and while modern pundits rave about the goalscoring threat of Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg, in Trevor Steven and Kevin Sheedy we had two wide midfielders who scored 15 goals a season - each - regularly.

"Thinking about it, the weakest department of the whole side was probably up front with myself and Sharpie!"

Speaking in response to Gray's comments, Sharpy replied:

"I've spoken to Andy about it and he's claiming to have been misquoted, but I'll certainly be having words with him at the dinner next month! It's going to be a great opportunity for us all to meet up again and it's also for a very good cause.

"The proceeds for the evening will be split between Football In The Community and the Weston Spirit, with whom we work closely on a number of projects. We are delighted that, one month before the event, every table has been sold."