As a regular feature during this football-free period we will be taking a look back at Everton games that have been played ON THIS DAY through the years…
Today… Another Wayne Clarke winner, Spurs are hit for four and Catterick’s men earn a quarter-final replay.
One week after scoring a famous Merseyside derby winner, Wayne Clarke was at it again ON THIS DAY in 1988. The Blues, who were third in the First Division table, went to Vicarage Road to take on a Watford that were bottom.
Kevin Sheedy scored the opening goal on 31 minutes but Gary Porter levelled for the Hornets early in the second half.
Clarke netted the decider just before the hour mark with his 11th goal of the season.
The victory kept Everton in third place in the First Division table.
The Toffees were in a rather worse position ON THIS DAY in 1977. Indeed, the game at Goodison Park against Tottenham Hotspur was, somewhat surprisingly, a clash between two teams in the bottom seven of the top flight.
Everton were, nonetheless, in decent form. The Spurs match was manager Gordon Lee’s 13th in charge and only two had been lost.
Lee made two changes to the team that had drawn 0-0 with Liverpool the previous week – bringing in Duncan McKenzie and Ronny Goodlass to replace Roger Kenyon and Jim Pearson.
Everton simply swept Spurs away. Bob Latchford opened the scoring after just two minutes, Andy King converted a penalty kick after 26 and Martin Dobson made it 3-0 before half-time. Mike Lyons added another one four minutes from the end of the game to seal a fabulous 4-0 victory.
Everton finished ninth in the First Division table, while Spurs finished bottom and were relegated.
The Toffees were in FA Cup quarter-final action ON THIS DAY in 1966. Everton had been drawn away to Manchester City, who at the time were chasing promotion to the First Division.
More than 63,000 fans packed into Maine Road but neither side could break the deadlock and the tie ended 0-0. That was a fifth consecutive clean sheet for Gordon West, pictured below, and the replay three days later at Goodison also ended goalless. Harry Catterick’s men would eventually win the second replay at Molineux.
Finally, ON THIS DAY in 1982 Mikel Arteta was born in San Sebastian. We wish our former midfielder a very happy 38th birthday and we wish him well as he continues to recover from his recent illness.
