A SHARP PAIN AT ANFIELD
FOR 14 years, Merseyside remained resolutely Red.
Everton had won at Anfield in March 1970 on their way to becoming crowned champions, but, for more than a decade after that, trophies went to Liverpool.
Liverpool went into the 1984/85 season as champions of England and Europe – and unbeaten for 14 years against the Toffees at Anfield.
Howard Kendall (below) was in the Everton side that won 2-0 there in 1970 and spelled out his plans to topple Liverpool when he returned to Goodison as manager in 1981.
Asked his ambition, Kendall said he wanted to “catch up with Liverpool – and surpass them”.
Although the Blues lifted the FA Cup in 1984, Liverpool were still the team of the season, winning the title and European Cup.
Everton beat them in the Charity Shield at Wembley at the start of the 1984-85 season, but the 90 minutes that changed everything was at Anfield two months later.
They were looking for a third straight win, while the Reds were enduring a rare sticky patch, having failed to score in their previous three games, but, in Ian Rush, they surely had the cure.
He returned from a cartilage injury, but by half-time it was looking like it would not be his afternoon.
First, Alan Harper nipped the ball off Rush’s boot just as he was squeezing the trigger and then Neville Southall saved comfortably after his Welsh team-mate found himself one-on-one with the keeper.
At the other end, Bruce Grobbelaar was at full stretch to keep out a Gary Stevens free-kick in the first half, but three minutes after the break he couldn’t get near a scorching shot from Graeme Sharp.
As the Scot remembered: “It bounced up and I thought, ‘Why not?’.”
Sharp put everything into a shot that flew over Grobbelaar, dipped under the crossbar and sent the Evertonians in the crowd wild with joy. And they might have had more. Peter Reid sliced his shot wide after a defensive mix-up left him with only Grobbelaar to beat and striker Adrian Heath couldn’t keep his shot down after Harper sent him through.