THE FA CUP 3RD ROUND
Frantic 4-4, and Kenny was gone!
WHEN it comes to the FA Cup the rivalry between Liverpool and Everton is just as intense as the league encounters – and often more dramatic.
The 1991 fifth-round clash might have been a slow burner, 0-0 at Anfield, but what followed at Goodison in the replay is often described as the most exhilarating Merseyside derby ever.
A seesaw 4-4 draw which triggered the shock departure of Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish less than 48 hours later.
Ian Rush scored one of the goals on a night in which Dalglish’s side had taken the lead four times only to be pegged back for a second replay. Rush recalled: “Kenny didn’t say much in the dressing room. You just thought he was disappointed that we had squandered the lead four times.”
Two days later he was gone, after his resignation.
The Scot was shattered by trying to hold the club together in the aftermath of the traumatic events of Hillsborough in April 1989.
“Kenny admitted that before the Everton replay he had been lying on his hotel bed believing he had to get out. The alternative he believed was to go mad,” added Rush.
Dalglish said:
“After we took the lead for the final time I knew I had to make a change to shore things up. I could see what had to be done and what would happen if I didn’t. But I did not act on it. That was the moment I knew I was shattered. I needed to get out, away from the pressure.”
The local paper labelled the 4-4 draw as the ‘Greatest Merseyside derby in history’. Considering two previous FA Cup meetings had been in finals at Wembley in the 1980s, both won by Liverpool, one after extra-time, it was high praise.
Everton edged that 1991 second replay 1-0 at Goodison but Liverpool hold the upper hand in all-time FA Cup clashes, winning nine to Everton’s seven.