So commiserations to Everton ... and congratulations to double-winners Liverpool! That was a wonderful final. Had Everton managed to find a second goal just after the break, when Liverpool collectively lost their heads - they looked gone - they’d have surely closed this game out. They’d been much the better side for most of the first hour. And that’s without bringing up the penalty shout. But Liverpool dug in, and when they finally found their rhythm, all bets were off. Two of their goals were astonishing pitch-length sweeps. Jan Molby was imperious, Ian Rush ice-cool and deadly. They imposed themselves on the final half hour to such an extent that 3-1 doesn’t flatter them in the slightest. You have to feel sorry for Everton, who came so close to the double themselves. But this Liverpool side are worthy winners of both league and cup, and can now be found in the record books alongside the famous teams of Preston North End, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Not such a bad vintage after all, eh?
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But Kendall tries hard, really hard, to look on the bright side. “We haven’t finished the season with nothing. It’s a marvellous season we’ve had. We’ve finished second in the League and been to Wembley. Most clubs would settle for that. But it’s a shattering end to the season when you think of who won the Double.”
A dejected Howard Kendall delivers his analysis: “We hadn’t really looked in any danger, we were dictating the game. But defensively you cannot do the things we did and get away with it, because a team like Liverpool will punish you.” As for the “blatant penalty” for Nicol’s first-half challenge on Sharp? “From where I was sitting Sharp had a free header and for him not to touch it there must have been an infringement. I believe my opinion will be proved right when I see it again, just as it was two years ago in the Milk Cup final when Hansen handled. It was the same referee, too. So we could have gone in at half-time 2-0 ahead. I know it’s going to sound like sour grapes, but incidents like that are turning points, and I can’t help but mention it.”
Kenny Dalglish, still dazzling, talks! “The lads deserve every single thing that’s happened. I am as delighted for them as I am for myself. To do the Double in your first season as manager is an absolute dream, but it would be harder if you didn’t have such good people to work with and work for. The important thing is that a team like ours wasn’t going to go haywire. With somebody like Rushie up front, we always had a chance to score, and on the day we have turned out to be deserved winners. But Everton can’t have too much wrong with them if they finish second in the League and runners-up in the Cup. We have tremendous respect for each other. Both sets of fans are a credit to the clubs, and the same goes for both sets of players.”
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Alan Hansen goes up to lift the cup, a fan’s scarf tied jauntily around his neck. He joins Ron Yeats and Emlyn Hughes as a member of a very exclusive club: an FA Cup winning captain for Liverpool. Behind him, his boss and friend Kenny Dalglish beams like a schoolboy. He’s in an exclusive club too, an exclusive club of one: the first player-manager to win the FA Cup! Liverpool make it back down to the pitch and dance around for a bit. For all the league titles and European baubles, the FA Cup is a rare treat. Dalglish and Hansen, both getting on a bit, may have wondered if they’d ever get their hands on it.
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Perhaps we should put those aforementioned parallel universes to use, because that was a brilliant final, but a very strange one. In another world, Everton could quite feasibly have built a three-goal lead, in which case this game would have been a one-sided blowout. But Liverpool could quite as easily have run up five or six goals, such was their dominance towards the end. The small margins. Back in the real world, 3-1 seems about right.
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FULL TIME: Everton 1-3 Liverpool
And that’s that! The double is Liverpool’s! Kenny Dalglish raises both arms in slightly exhausted glee. Not a bad first season in management, huh?
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90 min +2: A cacophony of whistles. But suddenly they all stop, as Wembley holds its breath in the anticipation of witnessing a little bit of history. Molby hooks down the middle and Rush powers clear! He’s one on one with Mimms, and should complete the first hat-trick in an FA Cup final since Blackpool legend Stanley Mortensen scored three in 1953 ... but his attempt to wedge casually over Mimms from 25 yards is weak and the keeper snaffles. In truth, it would have been cruel on Everton had they conceded a fourth.
90 min +1: Heath races down the left and wins a corner off Lawrenson. Everton play it short, working it to Bracewell on the corner of the box. He floats a diagonal ball towards Mountfield at the far stick, but Grobbelaar plucks it off his head, in the one-handed basketball style. What showmanship! All that earlier fussin’ and a-fightin’ long forgotten.
90 min: One last throw of the dice by Steven, who tears infield from the right and keeps on going, all the way across the face of the Liverpool box. But a pass doesn’t present itself, and there’s no opportunity to shoot. Suddenly Liverpool are breaking upfield on the counter! Dalglish flicks the ball to Rush, who makes good up the middle, with only Ratcliffe holding the fort. He’s got MacDonald in acres to his right, and in truth that’s the proper pass. But the heart rules the head, and he looks for Dalglish, overlapping on the left. What a waste, because Dalglish doesn’t go for the fairytale goal everyone in red wants to see, instead trying to feed a diagonal pass through to MacDonald. But MacDonald has checked his run, and the chance is gone. Not that it really matters, because the clock hits 90 and we enter stoppage time. There shouldn’t be much; this wonderfully strange, effervescent game has flowed from the get-go like a bubbling mountain stream.
89 min: All very scrappy now, and Liverpool care not a jot.
88 min: Dalglish scampers down the right, and has his boot whipped off by Bracewell. Another opportunity to run down the clock, and it’s taken with pleasure.
87 min: Everton are going nowhere, so Liverpool’s supporters go early with their celebratory ditty: You’ll Never Walk Alone pings off the walls of the grand old place.
86 min: Reid comes through the back of Nicol, Everton’s frustration palpable. They must be wondering how they’ve let this one slip. They looked a shoo-in 30 minutes ago. Now they’re very much second best, having been totally swept away by a red tide. “Amazing that Molby has been the dominant player in this second half given the state of the pitch,” writes Niall Mullen. “Looks like Live Aid was last week, not last year.”
85 min: That was a sensational pitch-length team move. Whelan and Dalglish hug in delight, while Rush peels off to the fans, soon to be joined in his carefree cavort by Molby! Liverpool know they’re very close to the double now. That’s Rush’s 33rd goal of the season, and his second of the final. No assist for Molby this time - Whelan crafting the wonderful final pass - but he set the move alight by switching play in the centre circle, and he’s surely Liverpool’s man of the match.
GOAL! Everton 1-3 Liverpool (Rush 84)
Sheedy scampers down the middle and tries to float a ball towards Lineker on the edge of the box, but Nicol wins the header. Liverpool play out calmly from the back, Whelan curling to Johnston on the right. Johnston heads down to Rush, who spins infield and finds Molby in the centre circle. Van den Hauwe comes racing in, but Molby turns and knocks the ball past him, into the wide open space the right-back had vacated. What vision! Whelan romps into acres down the inside left, past the naughty blue balloon, and checks infield. Dalglish makes a run across him and to the left, and wants the ball; he’d be free in the box if Whelan plays the reverse pass. But Rush is sailing in from the right, and Whelan curls a perfect diagonal looper over Ratcliffe, the ball dropping gently at the feet of the striker. Rush takes a touch to sort his feet and batters an unstoppable shot across Mimms and into the bottom left, sending a camera flying. What a picture-book goal!
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83 min: Space for Steven down the right, with plenty of options at the far post. He sends a directionless cross out for a goal kick. Lineker has the distracted air of somebody still thinking about that last golden opportunity.
82 min still: Rush ferrets down the right and pulls back for Molby, who curls long in the hope of finding Dalglish at the far post for a tap-in. The cross is too high, but Dalglish is still able to gather, turn and set up Whelan for a left-footed hoick that’s always curling wide right.
82 min: What a chance for Everton! Molby faffs about in midfield and is stripped by Heath. Suddenly Sharp is heading down the inside-left channel. Liverpool are super-light at the back, and Sharp flicks a pass down the middle for Lineker, sending him clear! But Lineker’s first touch lets him down, and that allows Beglin to confidently step across, snatch the ball off his toe, turn abruptly and stride off. What calm assurance from a man who looked so nervous less than half an hour ago!
81 min: Dalglish lashes long, Everton having committed just about everyone forward in a futile attack. Molby finds himself in a footrace with last-man Mountfield. The defender’s always going to get to the ball first. Liverpool will be wishing Rush was the player haring after that.
80 min: Johnston gives Dalglish a hospital pass in midfield and Reid takes over, chipping a fine first-time ball down the left channel to release Lineker. The striker’s clearly offside, and so the flag goes up and the whistle blows. Exactly why, with precious time running out, Lineker then decides to round Grobbelaar and ostentatiously roll into an empty net, to similarly hollow cheers, is unclear. But that’s what he does. Liverpool won’t mind at all, and Grobbelaar grabs the opportunity to take an age over the restart.
79 min: Liverpool ping it about a bit, before losing possession. Reid looks to power upfield, but is stripped by Whelan, who chips Rush into space, the ball nearly bouncing off a rogue blue balloon. Rush pulls back for Dalglish, who rolls a pass across for Molby. The Danish international has clearly been taking notes off Michael Laudrup - or maybe Johan Cruyff at Ajax - because he suddenly sparks into life, sashaying through a small gap along the inside-left channel, past three blue shirts in a flash. Suddenly he’s one on one with Mimms! Just as it looks as though Ricky Villa’s mesmerising 1981 dribble will no longer be the aesthete’s cup-final goal of choice, Mimms somehow blocks. Such a shame, that would have been a glorious way to seal the deal, by the man whose two assists has brought Liverpool to the brink of glory.
78 min: Rush embarks on a couple of sorties into enemy territory. First time he races after a bouncing ball down the right, but is crowded out by Ratcliffe and Van den Hauwe. The next time he’s clattered by Van den Hauwe, allowing Liverpool to take their sweet time over the restart. The clock ticks on. The double edges ever closer.
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77 min: Everton are awarded a free kick just to the right of the Liverpool D, Hansen penalised for climbing all over Heath. They take it quickly, and look to have utterly wasted it, going nowhere. But they retain possession, and eventually a game of head tennis breaks out in the Liverpool box. A poor Lawrenson clearance allows Mountfield to tee up Sharp, who tries to whistle a bicycle kick goalwards. It’s wild and high. Nowhere near.
76 min: Sharp clumsily clips Lawrenson. There’s no malice in it, but it allows Lawrenson to stay down and eat up some time, game-management 101. Incidentally, if Everton are heading for double heartbreak, spare a thought also for Heart of Midlothian, who were eight minutes away from their first Scottish title since 1960 last weekend, before Dundee’s Albert Kidd cruelly dashed their hopes and let Celtic pip them at the death. They’ve just gone 3-0 down against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden. Misery assured for Alex MacDonald’s men. Congratulations to Dons boss Alex Ferguson, who’ll take Scotland to Mexico next month, albeit controversially without a certain Alan Hansen.
75 min: Sheedy, deep down the left, floats one in for Lineker. Hansen is forced to concede a corner with a spectacular diving header. Molby heads the resulting set piece clear. Everton are still finding some good positions, but the final ball is letting them down.
74 min: Van den Hauwe swings one in deep from the right. Sheedy tries to diddle Johnston on the left but can’t get the better of the relentless Liverpool goalscorer, who has put in some shift at both ends of the field. The newly arrived Heath takes up possession and has his first whack, but Whelan blocks.
72 min: Everton replace Gary Stevens with Adrian Heath, who came off the bench to score in the fifth round at Tottenham Hotspur, and sparked a two-goal comeback at Luton Town in the quarter-finals. More super-sub heroics coming up?
71 min: Here’s something both sets of fans can agree on: a lusty rendition of “Are you watching, Manchester?” Ah, they’ll have their time again some day. What goes round always comes round.
70 min: Everton pin Liverpool back for the first time in a while. A long throw leads to a deflected Sheedy slapshot and a corner on the left. Steven takes, but Grobbelaar, a completely different man now, rises to claim with supreme confidence.
69 min: Dalglish slaloms down the inside-right channel with regal grace, not so much evading a lunge from Van den Hauwe as ignoring it. He’s eventually crowded out by three blue shirts on the edge of the Everton box. The ball breaks to Molby, who yanks a speculative long-range shot miles to the right of goal. Some run by the 35-year-old Dalglish, though. It’s no coincidence that Liverpool’s revival this season began when the player-manager started naming himself in the team again.
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68 min: But Lawrenson loses control and immediately clatters into Reid, and that’s a free kick to Everton, 30 yards out. Reid springs up, a parcel of busy fury, and Lawrenson briefly considers engaging, but the referee steps in to nip the bout in the bud. Sheedy floats the free kick to the right-hand post, but it’s too long and Steven has no hope of getting on the end of it. Goal kick.
67 min: This is better. Mountfield goes long down the right. Sharp gets on the end of the pass and drives towards the box, with Lineker to his left. For a second, Liverpool look exposed, but Lineker strays offside, causing Sharp to delay and allowing Lawrenson to stride off with the ball.
66 min: Van den Hauwe sends one into the Liverpool box from the left. Lineker is the only man anywhere near the action, yet nowhere near the ball. Everton suddenly look diminished. Dispirited. But there’s plenty of time left yet. Chin up, chaps.
65 min: A Mimms goal kick ends up at the feet of Sheedy out on the left. He wedges a pass into the centre in the hope of releasing Steven, who looks yards offside ... but isn’t. Liverpool’s defensive line having stopped, they’re happy to see Grobbelaar racing out of his box to skelp clear. Ah hold on, the flag belatedly goes up for offside. Even so. This hasn’t been a defensive masterclass from the champions. Everton will surely get chances to get back into this.
64 min: The Everton bench look stunned. Howard Kendall and his assistant Colin Harvey both adopt the internationally recognised head-in-hand pose of great woe and despair. You can’t blame them. Everton had dominated for most of the match, and came so close to building a two-goal lead, only for this whole affair to be turned upside down in short order. The last wild and crazy ten minutes could so easily have unfolded in so many other ways. Thin lines. It’s lucky there are infinite multiple universes.
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GOAL! Everton 1-2 Liverpool (Johnston 63)
Beglin sends a long pass down the left for Rush, who faces up to Mountfield before flicking inside for Molby, striding down the channel. Molby enters the box and takes a touch to put enough distance between himself and Stevens. He fires low and hard along the face of the six-yard box. Dalglish arrives late and can’t connect. But Johnston barrels in at the far post and can’t miss, slamming into the bottom corner before leaping into the sky and performing a cute little scissor kick! He’s got his goal after all ... and it comes exactly 70 seconds after Grobbelaar stopped Sharp restoring Everton’s lead!
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62 min: So having said all that, Liverpool suddenly slip back into their pre-equaliser state of high panic. And it’s their normally unflappable captain who’s at fault! Stevens launches long down the inside-right channel. Hansen is ahead of Lineker in a footrace and gets to the ball first ... only to hook a suicidal clearance across the face of the box, the ball arcing perfectly towards the head of Sharp! The Everton striker rises above Nicol and sends a looping header towards the top left. It’s surely going in ... but Grobbelaar backpedals furiously and, arching his back and extending to full stretch, fingertips spectacularly over the bar! The keeper ends up in the net, from zero to hero in the space of six minutes! Placing a cherry on top of an elaborately iced cake, he then plucks Steven’s corner from the sky, unperturbed by the crowd gathered with a view to making trouble at his near post.
61 min: Liverpool are more adventurous now, their passing moves more ambitious in scope. A widescreen minute sees Dalglish Cruyff-turn his way out of trouble to release MacDonald into space, the former Leicester man nearly getting on the end of a long-distance one-two with Whelan out on the left. Then Molby sprays a glorious diagonal pass towards Nicol on the right; another attempted one-two, this one from closer range with Johnston, doesn’t quite come off. What a difference a goal makes!
60 min: That was Rush’s 32nd goal of the season in all competitions. Both star forwards have delivered on all the pre-match hype today. The paying punters are getting plenty of bang for their buck.
59 min: Talk about scoring against the run of play. Doubly worrying for Everton is the fact that Liverpool have never lost a match in which Rush has scored. He’s found the net in 120 games; Liverpool have won 101 of them and drawn 19. Records are, of course, there to be broken, so let’s see how this pans out. It couldn’t happen in a major final at Wembley, surely?
58 min: Soon after the restart, Liverpool, their tails suddenly up, come at Everton again, Dalglish and Johnston rampaging with purpose down the right. But Johnston crosses to nobody in particular and Everton are able to clear their lines and their heads.
GOAL! Everton 1-1 Liverpool (Rush 57)
Liverpool play out from the back. Lawrenson nearly loses possession but rides a couple of challenges before poking the ball to Beglin on the left. Beglin goes long, looking for Dalglish. Mountfield covers and passes to Stevens out on the Everton right. Stevens looks for Reid up the flank, but his pass is clanked straight at Whelan, who rolls inside for Molby. The big Dane draws three Everton shirts, then flicks the ball through them with outrageous ease, releasing Rush with a perfectly weighted dink down the channel. Rush takes one touch to round Mimms on the left, then another to smoothly roll home. Johnston, the cheeky get, follows the ball in and tries to toe-poke it over the line, but he doesn’t get there in time, it’s Rush’s goal. Despite all the farcical antics up the other end, the champions have drawn level!
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57 min: Whelan slices high into the air in the centre circle. Very strange. Van den Hauwe hits an instant pass down the inside-left channel for Lineker to chase. This time Hansen gets up a head of steam and manages to poke the ball back to his keeper just before Lineker can take control, enter the box, score number 41, and put this final beyond Liverpool. Magnificent last-ditch defence. And then ...
56 min again: A speculative Johnston hoof down the left is guided back towards Mimms by Mountfield. The backpass reaches the keeper, but only just, and Rush was lurking. Liverpool’s defenders may be lost in a fog of panic and confusion, but you can bet your last bronze centime that Rush, always a study in clarity of thought, remains sharp of mind and on the scent.
56 min: But the pressure is released when Stevens flings a long throw straight into Grobbelaar’s arms, no Everton player anywhere near. A huge roar goes up, though it’s not clear whether it’s a supportive one from the red army, or a sarcastic one from the blues. Probably a mix of both. Although there’s no ambiguity about the next cheer: it’s a full-force blue-on-red pisstake, as the still-rattled keeper hoicks a drop kick straight out of play on the left. The Everton fans are delighted with this meltdown, Kenny Dalglish less so: on the halfway line, Liverpool’s player-manager offers his keeper some beneficial advice, waving his arms in high-temperature agitation while using words such as Eff and Jeff. “He’s got to calm down, and so have Liverpool,” the ever-wise BBC sage Jimmy Hill says. “The game’s still within their grasp, but they won’t get back into it unless they keep their heads rather more coolly than Grobbelaar is at the moment.”
55 min: That was a complete fiasco, though. Liverpool are ultra-rattled and very much teetering on the brink. Everton have them where they want them ... and continue to pin them back in their final third.
54 min still: ... Beglin leaves it for Grobbelaar, who was expecting his left-back to tap it back to him. Grobbelaar is forced into acting late and charges towards the ball. Sharp slides in, but Grobbelaar wins the duel with strong hands. The ball bounces along the byline. Grobbelaar goes to collect, but Beglin’s head is now consumed by confusion, and he gets in the way, attempting a trap and pullback, sending his keeper an accidental dummy and nearly allowing Steven to nip in! Grobbelaar and Beglin do-se-do. Eventually the pair sort themselves out, and the ball’s safely in Grobbelaar’s arms. At which point it all kicks off between the flummoxed pair. Wahey! Grobbelaar is beyond livid and squares up to Beglin, chest out. There’s a full and frank exchange of views before the keeper shoves Beglin in the shoulder and wags a vicious finger at him. Why I oughta! Then a conciliatory gesture as he drops the ball at Beglin’s feet, as if to say: tap it back to me, and let’s move on. Beglin complies, albeit with a slight stutter, the poor guy clearly shaken. We don’t like to see this sort of thing. Except we do.
54 min: One near-post Sheedy corner leads to another. Liverpool can’t clear their lines effectively. Sheedy, still out on the right, launches the sort of up and under that would send Eddie Waring into raptures. Aye aye! The ball comes down covered in the old metaphorical snow, and Grobbelaar flaps at the far post. Lawrenson does well to toe-poke away from immediate danger, but Bracewell quickly scoops it back into the mixer from the left. Sharp goes up with Beglin, on the right-hand edge of the six-yard box. He can’t get any purchase on his header and it drops softly, harmlessly, between Beglin and Grobbelaar. Liverpool’s ball! Or it should be, because ...
53 min: Mountfield fires a long free kick into the Liverpool box. It’s half cleared, but Johnston handles in a fight for the loose ball and it’s another free kick, this time in a much more dangerous position, 25 yards out, just to the left of centre. Liverpool continue to invite trouble, as Everton begin to dominate again. Sheedy takes, and whistles a fierce daisycutter towards the bottom right. Grobbelaar does well to turn it around the post for a corner.
52 min: Sheedy is inches away from putting this cup final out of Liverpool’s reach! Van den Hauwe scoops a speculative pass down the inside-right channel. It’s no good, straight at Beglin, who has time to clear. But he takes a careless touch and decides to pass inside to Lawrenson, who is immediately plunged into a world of pain. Bracewell is on him in a flash, nipping the ball away from behind and allowing Sheedy to take up possession. He bursts into the box to the right of the D. He’s one on one with Grobbelaar, though Hansen is doing his best to shepherd him further right. Sheedy goes for the top left, but his shot across the keeper is always curling away from goal. Inches wide of the left-hand post. A foot the other way and Grobbelaar wasn’t getting to that. The keeper taps his temples theatrically, with both gloves, ordering his defensive charges to concentrate for goodness sake. That was a complete shambles from a Liverpool perspective; Everton’s buzzing-bee attack has sent them into one long flat spin.
51 min: Everton string a few passes together down the right, Steven, Stevens, Reid, Bracewell and Lineker all contributing to some awfully pretty triangulation. Stevens whips in from the right. Nicol is forced to blooter clear. Liverpool have been much better in attack since the restart, but their unease at the back continues to betray them.
50 min: Lineker takes down a long kick by Mimms, turns and feeds Steven on the right, all under extreme pressure from Lawrenson. Liverpool still can’t get the footballer of the year under control. He’s having a fine match, a non-stop hustle. Steven cuts inside, past Beglin, and fizzes a low shot wide right. Grobbelaar had it well covered. Up the other end, Dalglish hovers on the left, and has opportunities to put Rush and then Johnston clear with a pass down the channel. But he’s uncharacteristically ponderous and ends up with his feet in a tangle. And a manic minute ends with another opportunity for Dalglish, who slashes a wild shot left after Rush tees him up just inside the area. Probably just as well that last one didn’t go in, because the move began with a quickly taken MacDonald free kick, the ball still rolling.
49 min: It’s non-stop! Ratcliffe knocks the resulting free kick long. Sharp eyebrows it on for Lineker, with his back to goal, eight yards out. He nearly manages to turn and shoot, but Beglin whips it off his toe at the last second. Bracewell recovers possession on the edge of the D, but can’t sort his feet out to take a pop, or to feed Sheedy in space to his left. As Liverpool clear, he apologises to Sheedy with a nod and a knowing wave. Don’t be too hard on yourself, Paul.
48 min again: Anything You Can Do dept. Everton stream up the other end and put together a crisp move of their own, Sharp heading down for Bracewell, who shuttles the ball to Sheedy, rampaging down the inside-left channel. Sheedy enters the box and checks to shake off Johnston, but with Sharp and Lineker hovering on the edge of the six-yard box in split positions, he sends his cross between them and Grobbelaar claims. Then after a quick throw out, Rush, Whelan and Molby combine in midfield on the counter-counter, but Dalglish is flagged offside when put through, correctly so this time. What great end-to-end entertainment!
48 min: Nicol, to the right of the centre circle, passes forward to Dalglish, who flicks inside to Molby. An instant clip down the channel releases MacDonald, running from deep. He’s clear on goal, but the flag goes up for offside, preposterously so. MacDonald had timed his run to perfection, he was well on when Molby played the through ball. There’s a suggestion that Johnston might have been half a yard off elsewhere, but it’s unclear. Liverpool are far from happy, though that was a fluid move, one that suggests Liverpool might have shaken off their first-half rust. It’s as good as anything they’ve put together so far. A strong reading of eight out of ten on the Guardian’s patented soccer-succour-o-meter.
47 min: A throw to Everton deep in Liverpool territory down the right. Stevens launches it long, towards the near post. MacDonald misses it. So does Sharp, who would surely have turned it home from a couple of yards had he scraped so much as a toenail across it. Grobbelaar gathers as both sections of the crowd catch their breath. That was close!
And we’re off again! Liverpool get the ball rolling for the second half. A huge 45 minutes coming up. Nicol has a gander down the right and tries to release Johnston, but the ball’s wayward and it’s easily intercepted by Van den Hauwe.
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HALF TIME: Everton 1-0 Liverpool
And that’s the end of the first 45. Plenty of thinking to do for Kenny Dalglish, Bob Paisley and the rest of the Liverpool management team. Everton took a while to get going, but they eventually assumed control and have been much the better team since. Peter Reid, Kevin Ratcliffe and Gary Lineker have been the standout turns. They deserve their lead. Unless there’s a seismic shift in momentum, Everton will be drinking from the cup of redemption in about one hour’s time!
45 min: Molby hasn’t seen too much of the ball. But here’s a cameo late in the first half, as he breezes past Reid with insouciance, chips a pass down the inside left for Rush, then makes a little space for a shot from distance. It’s blocked, but Liverpool will hope to see a lot more of that from their usually-great Dane in the second half. He’s been strangely underwhelming in this first period, but his inner alpha-midfielder flickered back into life there.
43 min: Beglin plays Everton at their own game and passes long for Rush, who flicks on and panics Ratcliffe into clanking out for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece. The half is now petering out, which in the circumstances is better news for Liverpool than their dominant opponents.
41 min: Sheedy pearls a diagonal ball into the Liverpool box from a deep position on the left. It perplexes the increasingly confused Liverpool defence. Steven should take up possession on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box, but misjudges the dropping ball, and it rolls harmlessly out of play. Liverpool could do with hearing the half-time whistle.
39 min: Bracewell splits Hansen and Lawrenson apart with one simple ball down the inside left. Liverpool are fortunate that it’s Sharp and not the quicksilver Lineker, or that would have resulted in a one-on-one. As it is, Sharp doesn’t back himself in a footrace with Hansen and the move peters out. Liverpool have to sort this out, and quick. They can’t keep on like this. Everton are repeatedly causing problems with the long pass. If they score another before half time, this is surely all over, because no team has come back from a two-goal deficit in the final to win since 1966, when Sheffield Wednesday let the cup slip from their fingers against ... Everton.
38 min: More improvement from Liverpool, as Dalglish busies himself down the right and lays off inside to MacDonald, who threads a ball through a small gap in the Everton defence for Johnston. But just as Johnston prepares to take up possession and shoot, Mimms races out to smother. That’s wonderful anticipation from Neville Southall’s stand-in. And impressive work from the industrious Johnston, too, who started the whole thing off wide on the right.
37 min: Dalglish tries to unlock Everton’s gritty back line with a backheel down the left. Stevens comes across to clear with Beglin sniffing something on the overlap. Liverpool try again, MacDonald swinging in from the left, Rush chesting down ahead of Ratcliffe, ten yards out. He swivels to shoot, but Ratcliffe, sticking to his Welsh international team-mate like glud, blocks. Much better from Liverpool, though they’re still looking ragged at the back: Everton go straight up the other end, Reid splitting their defence apart with one swing of his wand-like peg from the right touchline. He’s sent Sheedy free, but fortunately for Liverpool, the Ireland international starts an over-eager run and is caught miles offside.
35 min: Nicol creams long for Rush, who can’t get to the ball ahead of Mimms, the keeper striding out of his box to deal with the situation. Liverpool have been extremely blunt in the final third. “No English players in Liverpool’s starting 11,” notes David Burns. “Very unusual.” Mark Lawrenson is a Preston lad, of course, but he’s a Republic of Ireland international, so you’re spot on. It’s the first time this has happened since the days of Queen’s Park back in the 1880s.
33 min: Lawrenson strong-arms the ever-busy Lineker under another of those dangerous long balls. Too much strength, too much arm. Free kick, 35 yards out. The set piece is half cleared, but Everton come back at Liverpool, Stevens whipping in from the right, Lineker nearly turning Hansen down the channel, the defender doing just enough to hold firm. Liverpool can’t cope with the pace of Lineker at all.
31 min: From the corner, the ball drops to MacDonald on the right-hand edge of the D. He tries to send an ambitious dipper into the top left, but it’s always sailing high and wide. A decent-enough response from Liverpool to falling behind, though.
30 min: Grobbelaar kicks long. Johnston battles on the edge of the Everton box, the ball breaking left for Dalglish, who for a split second is free! But the imperious Ratcliffe slides in to block, another measured challenge. From the resulting throw, the ball’s worked wide right to Nicol, who loops in. Mountfield heads over for a corner.
29 min: That’s footballer-of-the-year Lineker’s 40th goal of the season. Forty goals! Reid races the length of the field to celebrate with him, and so he should, that’s just as much his goal really. A world-class assist. Replays show that Lineker’s finish wasn’t perfect, Grobbelaar getting desperate fingers to the ball and very nearly stopping it. But Lineker did enough, and in it bobbled. Everton, deposed as English champions last weekend, hit back!
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GOAL! Everton 1-0 Liverpool (Lineker 28)
Liverpool attempt to launch an increasingly rare sortie into enemy territory. Bad idea! They’ve been rope-a-doped! Molby picks up a loose ball 40 yards out and rolls forward to Dalglish, whose control lets him down terribly. He attempts to ping one to Johnston but only finds Reid, who takes one touch and then quarterbacks long down the middle for Lineker, on last-man Hansen’s left shoulder. It’s a perfectly weighted pass that allows Lineker to take the ball in his stride, get a yard ahead of Hansen, and fire towards the bottom right. Grobbelaar does well to get down and save, but the ball squirts to the right, and Lineker is perfectly placed to dink the rebound home with Hansen flat-footed and the keeper prone! That, it is safe to say, had been coming. Liverpool had been warned.
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27 min: Yes, Everton have definitely wrested control. Just as the Liverpool midfield were first to most balls during the early stages, now it’s Everton who are snaffling everything up. Liverpool aren’t spending much time in the Everton half at the minute.
26 min: Bracewell and Reid faff around on the halfway line, and are hassled by Johnston and Beglin. The ball breaks to Rush, who swivels and sends Dalglish clear down the inside-left channel! Up goes the flag for offside. That looked extremely close, with Van den Hauwe almost certainly playing Dalglish on from a deep position on the opposite flank. Whether Dalglish would have finished the job had play been waved on is another argument; Ratcliffe got back and buzzed around him after the whistle, and Dalglish’s eventual shot was deflected out for what would have been a corner. We’ll never know how that would have panned out if play remained live. Both sides now have one questionable decision to moan about, though if we’re keeping a strict tally, Everton’s complaint carries far more weight.
25 min: Some space for MacDonald out on the left. He hooks in towards Rush, but it’s an easy clearing header for Van den Hauwe. Liverpool aren’t getting quite so much joy in the opposition half now, as Everton start asking some serious questions. And here’s another poser, as Stevens flings a long throw into the Liverpool box from the right. Grobbelaar comes out to claim in his trademark flamboyant style, but flaps under pressure from Sharp and Hansen is forced to lash clear. Soon after, Grobbelaar shanks a drop kick straight out of play on the right. Everton are gaining the ascendancy and getting into Liverpool’s heads.
24 min: Here he is again! Bracewell turns elegantly away from Rush in the midfield, and chips a ball down the inside left for Lineker, who immediately knocks inside for Reid and breezes off down the channel in anticipation of the return pass. Reid pokes it through, but it’s a little bit weak and gives Lawrenson the opportunity to extend his leg as far as it’ll go and poke out for a corner. That was a delightful sequence by Everton, and a little more juice on the final pass would have sent Lineker clear. The resulting corner is an opportunity for Grobbelaar to showcase his juggling skills, plucking the ball from atop Sharp’s neep and Harlem Globetrotting for a couple of seconds. Great entertainment for the whole family, though whether Liverpool’s fans appreciated his acrobatic stylings in the moment is a moot point.
23 min: Stevens strokes it long down the right. Lineker tussles with Lawrenson on the right-hand edge of the box, and nearly breaks clear. Lawrenson does just enough. Lineker is a constant menace and Liverpool are struggling to contain him.
21 min: Steven’s corner isn’t up to much, and Liverpool launch a counter. Dalglish rolls a ball wide right for Johnston, who crosses for Rush, eight yards out. Rush meets it, but the cross is that little bit too high. Leaning back, he heads harmlessly over. For all Liverpool’s slight edge in midfield, Mimms still hasn’t had his hands warmed.
20 min: Bracewell strokes a long ball down the left for Lineker, who is beginning to cause Liverpool real problems. He tears down the wing but can’t get past Lawrenson so crosses instead. A dangerous looking centre is headed behind by Nicol for Everton’s first corner of the game.
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19 min: Sheedy, quarterbacking from deep on the left, loops a gorgeous pass down the middle towards Lineker, who might have the better of Hansen today, you know. Grobbelaar, spotting the danger, runs out of his box and gets to the ball first, high-kicking as far away from danger as he can. But his clearance only slices to Steven on the right. He feeds Stevens on the outside. Stevens swings in a stunning cross. It’s over the heads of Lawrenson and Hansen. Grobbelaar starts to come, then stalls. Sharp goes up to meet it, eight yards out, but just as he’s preparing to dispatch a header into the net, he’s clipped in mid-air by Nicol’s right leg! That’s a clear penalty ... but it’s not awarded. Sharp races after referee Alan Robinson in an apoplectic rage. Liverpool have got away with one, and it’s a biggie. Shades of Robinson’s aforementioned refusal to award a spot kick against Alan Hansen in the 1984 League Cup final.
18 min: Liverpool continue to be first to most things at the moment. Rush wins a ball on the edge of the box. Nicol and Johnston try to crowbar open Everton’s back line down the right, but the flag goes up again. On the benches, Bob Paisley, filling in for Dalglish, looks relaxed. But then again so does Howard Kendall, who will note that despite Liverpool edging it so far, they’ve not forced Mimms into any sort of meaningful work.
17 min: Mountfield comes straight through the back of Dalglish as Liverpool’s player-manager is busy orchestrating a break upfield with Rush and Nicol. It’s a lovely fast-paced passing move, and Everton are opened up, but the referee opts to stop the play and give Mountfield a bollocking instead.
16 min: Signs that Liverpool fancy themselves in the centre of midfield today. First Molby makes a powerful run down the middle. He’s clipped from behind by Ratcliffe but the referee waves play-on with Johnston in possession out on the right. It’s not much of an advantage. Liverpool come again, Beglin sashaying down the inside left, where he’s sent into more space after a silky one-two with Molby. He spins away from Reid and nearly releases Johnston into the box, but the pass is blocked and the flag goes up for offside in any case.
14 min: The camera pans up to the roof, where some ingenious daredevil / intrepid free spirit / daft bugger (delete according to viewpoint) sits on the edge, a literal birds-eye view of the match. He’s got a red shirt and red-and-white cricket hat on, legs crossed in the school-assembly style. See me after class, young man. “One up for Liverpool,” quips improv legend Jimmy Hill in the BBC commentary box, a decent zinger all things considered. Incidentally, Birdman isn’t the only (presumably ticketless) fan to take absurd risks to see the game. Before the match, the BBC transmitted pictures of some brave but possibly deranged fellow scaling some railings and making a death-defying leap towards a small window 40 feet above the ground, his mates catching his desperate arm and hauling him in. What can you say? People love their team.
13 min: Dalglish releases Johnston down the right, and a corner’s won off Van den Hauwe. Johnston takes it himself, and smacks Lineker, the first man, straight in his startled coupon. Laughter ripples all the way around Wembley. Poor lad, and all that, but sometimes you just have to. The ball goes out for a throw, from which Nicol curls in towards the penalty spot. Beglin, rushing in, meets it with a super-powered header. If that’s on target, nothing’s stopping it. Unfortunately for Beglin, it’s way off, miles right. Goal kick.
12 min: Twice in a minute, Grobbelaar kicks it long, straight through to Mimms. Charles Reep will be delighted.
11 min: Beglin plays a ball along the inside-left channel for Dalglish, who spins and sends Bracewell off for his tea. Dalglish has Rush bombing down the middle, into a huge gap between Ratcliffe and Van den Hauwe. It’s the perfect scenario for their usual defence-slicing combo. But Dalglish uncharacteristically overhits his through ball, and it’s an easy gather for Mimms. Liverpool have been the better team so far. Everton have yet to settle.
10 min: Beglin, deep on the left, curls high for the head of Rush, who can’t make contact. The ball sails over the striker’s head and drops at the feet of MacDonald, who takes a touch on the edge of the box with a view to striding and shooting. However Ratcliffe, on his left shoulder, is a discombobulating presence, and a perfectly timed challenge nicks the ball away. Van den Hauwe does the rest with a line-clearing blooter. MacDonald has taken up some good positions during these early exchanges.
9 min: The pace of the game increases by one of your miles per hour to 201 mph. Two-pass moves are at a premium. A late challenge is inevitable, and it comes when Whelan knocks Reid to the floor. A free kick out on the right. Reid takes a while to get up. He’s on all fours, teeth bared, snarling away like citizen canine. No foam around the gums, which is a good sign. Stevens swings in the free kick. Hansen rises above Mountfield to clear. This is breathless.
7 min: Everton clearly think they’re onto something. Stevens knocks another long pass down the right. This time Hansen’s not on point, but Lineker’s caught miles offside. Liverpool go down the other end, Nicol scooping a ball into the box from the right for MacDonald, who stretches in the hope of poking past Mimms from a tight angle. Mountfield gets in the way and Mimms gathers.
6 min: Stevens hoicks long down the right. Hansen looks a bit uncomfortable dealing with the high pass, under pressure from Lineker, but manages to get the job done. This should be a duel to keep an eye on.
4 min: Reid clatters into Molby, and this is Liverpool’s first free kick in Everton’s final third. Johnston, Nicol and Molby look to have wasted the situation with some geometrically accurate Triangles o’Faff, but Liverpool recycle the ball and Molby dribbles down the inside left. He’s scythed from behind by Bracewell. That might have earned a booking later in the match, but you know how referees roll early doors on the big occasion. Another free kick, which is taken quickly. Nicol’s sent scampering down the right and whips inside for Rush, who heads down and wide right from 12 yards. A nice open start to this game.
3 min: The free kick’s teed up for Stevens, who fizzes the ball into the top-right corner ... of the stand behind the goal. Liverpool - who look to be playing with a flat back four, no sweeper - breathe again.
2 min: As expected, this very special Merseyside derby has got off to a fast start. Reid loops a diagonal ball towards Sharp on the left, but Johnston does well to intercept. Liverpool looked a little light at the back there. Then a long ball up the other end, where Rush momentarily worries Mountfield, but once again the danger’s snuffed out. In any case Rush was putting too much pressure on. Free kick, which is sent straight back upfield. Sharp contests the high ball with Hansen, and wins a free kick on the edge of the D.
And off we go! A huge roar of anticipation as Everton get the ball rolling. Or rather flying, as Van den Hauwe launches it forward. It’s headed straight back to Dalglish, near the centre spot. He strokes a first-time pass wide right for Nicol, who slips a ball down the flank for Johnston. For a second, it looks as though he’s got a yard on Ratcliffe; if so, he’ll make it into the box. But the Everton captain recovers, goes shoulder to shoulder, and closes the door. Had Johnston got past, he had Dalglish and Rush in the middle, with barely 15 seconds on the clock. Jackie Milburn’s quickest-goal record of 45 seconds, set in 1955 when Newcastle United did for Manchester City, stands for another year.
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It’s sunny but windy at Wembley. The 1986 FA Cup final will be underway imminently. The minute all the coin tossing and handshaking is done, in fact. Soon! Very soon! We’re up for the cup!
Here come the teams! Howard Kendall proudly leads Everton out for the third year in succession. He never won the FA Cup with his boots on: in 1964, he became the youngest player at the time to play in a final with Preston North End, but lost to West Ham; in 1968, he was part of Everton’s Holy Trinity with Colin Harvey and Alan Ball, but Jeff Astle and West Bromwich Albion did for them at Wembley, with Paul McCartney watching on sadly in the stands. Perhaps John Lennon was subconsciously thinking about poor old Macca’s pain when he penned Yer Blues later in the year. Kendall at last got his hands on the sacred pot two years ago, when Graham Sharp and Andy Gray saw off Watford.
Kenny Dalglish leads out Liverpool, taking the reds to a cup final like Tom Watson, George Kay, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley before him. Only Shanks had the pleasure of winning. Dalglish has never featured in an FA Cup final, this being Liverpool’s first appearance since 1977. The former Celt does have four Scottish Cup winners medals, mind you. He’ll become the first player-manager to win the cup if Liverpool triumph this afternoon.
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Britain’s number one.
Today’s front page.
Paint and pork product dept. Liverpool will wear red with white trim, an understated adidas affair compared to the recent jazzy pinstripe of Umbro. Crown Paints are the sponsor. Everton’s shirts are altogether more outré. They’re blue, of course ... but with a massive white bib. Le Coq Sportif have taken quite the hammering for this controversial design. Fans aren’t totally pleased with the French company’s deconstructed version of the club crest, either, but that isn’t a total eyesore so one thing at a time. Word is they’ll be back in all-blue Umbro tops next year. The Nippon Electric Company - NEC to us simple folk - are their sponsors, having replaced Hafnia, the Danish manufacturers of tinned ham that you can’t buy in the UK.
For the record ... Everton have won the FA Cup four times. They beat Newcastle United 1-0 in 1906, Manchester City 3-0 in 1933, Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 in 1966, and Watford 2-0 in 1984. Liverpool have only won it twice, beating Leeds United 2-1 in 1965, and undressing Newcastle United 3-0 in 1974. Both with plenty of work to do if they’re to catch up with Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur, who jointly hold the current record of seven wins.
The referee Alan Robinson is a Portsmouth supporter, for what that’s worth. This will be his final bow: the 49-year-old civil servant from Hampshire retires after the match, unless it goes to a replay on Tuesday evening, of course. He’s already refereed a Merseyside cup final, taking charge of the 1984 Milk Cup final and replay. “It was such a fine, sporting event,” he says. “I just hope it will be the same again!” Everton fans may demur: Liverpool eventually won that final, Robinson failing to spot Alan Hansen stopping a goalbound Adrian Heath shot with his hand. Here’s hoping there are no similarly controversial decisions today.
Everton’s XI is pretty much as we expected. How they’ll wish the injured Neville Southall could stand between the sticks, even if Bobby Mimms has proved a very capable deputy. Up the other end, all hail the footballer of the year: Gary Lineker has scored 39 goals in all competitions this season, five of them coming in the last two games. It’s fair to say he’s in form. No wonder Barcelona are sniffing around.
No great surprises for Liverpool either. Mark Lawrenson is preferred to Gary Gillespie in the centre of defence, while Kevin MacDonald wins out over Steve McMahon in the battle to be the team’s inconsistent but hard-working midfielder. Molby might play as a sweeper to counter Everton’s pace up front; he might not. But there’s been talk. We’ll see. Incidentally, Ian Rush is on 31 goals this season and counting, the sort of tally that usually lands the personal gongs; not this year, though.
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The teams
Everton: Bobby Mimms, Gary Stevens, Kevin Ratcliffe, Derek Mountfield, Pat van den Hauwe, Trevor Steven, Peter Reid, Paul Bracewell, Kevin Sheedy, Gary Lineker, Graeme Sharp.
Sub: Adrian Heath.
Liverpool: Bruce Grobbelaar, Steve Nicol, Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen, Jim Beglin, Craig Johnston, Jan Molby, Kevin MacDonald, Ronnie Whelan, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush.
Sub: Steve McMahon.
Referee: Alan Robinson (Waterlooville).
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Preamble
Since Howard Kendall’s Everton emerged from their chrysalis in January 1984 - when Kevin Brock of Oxford United underhit that backpass to gift Adrian Heath the late equaliser that saved his boss’s job - they’ve gone on a trophy tear-up. The FA Cup in 1984! The league championship in 1985! The club’s first European prize, the Cup Winners’ Cup, the same year! They’ve been the best team in England for a while now.
Plenty of success, yet they could have had a whole lot more. Liverpool rode their luck in the Milk Cup final of 1984. The ten men of Manchester United snatched the FA Cup and a Double from their grasp this time last year. Then there was this season’s title race ... well, did anyone think, when Everton won at Anfield in late February to go eight points clear of their stuttering neighbours with just a dozen games to go, that Kenny Dalglish’s side was capable of putting together a scarcely believable winning run to snatch the prize? Everton can be forgiven for wondering what the hell’s just hit them.
Thing is, this isn’t a vintage Liverpool side. But when you’ve set such lofty standards over the years, you can string together 11 wins and a draw in your last 12 matches, pip your city rivals to the league championship, and still find folk picking fault. It’s the nature of the beast. But if they were to win the first ever all-Mersey FA Cup final and become only the fifth team in history to win the famous Double ... well, that’s something that eluded the truly great teams built by Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, and we’d be forced into an instant root-and-branch reassessment of this current crop.
Everton will have other ideas. Having missed out on the league, and the chance of a Double of their own, they’ll be desperate to stop a season of wild dreams turning into a nightmare. If this match was being played three months ago, they’d be hot favourites. As it is, with Liverpool now in ominous form and high on success, it’s far too close to call. It is, to put it mildly, on. It’s on!
Kick off: 3pm.
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