These days if a Premier League club wins four FA Cup ties, they reach Wembley but back in 1988 Everton needed a quartet of fixtures just to see off one opponent.
When Carlo Ancelotti’s side host Sheffield Wednesday in the fourth round of this season’s competition, the coronavirus-induced postponement of their trip to Aston Villa will ensure they’ll go into the fixture on the back of 12 days’ rest since their previous game – a 2-1 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on January 12.
However, when the Blues met the Owls in the third round back in 1988, not only did it take no fewer than three replays to settle the tie (the competition’s all-time record is six games between Oxford City and Alvechurch in a final qualifying round tie in 1971/72), Colin Harvey’s side also squeezed in a trip to Norfolk for a 3-0 victory over Norwich City in Division One and a 2-0 win over Manchester City in a Goodison Park League Cup quarter-final to complete half a dozen matches in the space of just 18 January days.
Indeed, in an era before square rotation was commonplace, eight players started all four FA Cup ties for Everton with 16 used in total.
Harvey’s relative ‘chopping and changing’ was positively bountiful compared to opposite number Howard Wilkinson’s selections.
The Steel City gaffer picked 10 players to start all four matches and used a mere 14 across the games.
As often seems to be the case when a couple of clubs from the same division are drawn against each other in a knock-out competition – Wednesday had finished 13th in the 22-team Division One table some 34 points behind champions Everton the previous season – they had met in the league just eight days before their initial FA Cup battle.
A high noon January 1st encounter at Hillsborough in front of a considerably smaller crowd than any of the cup ties would attract saw the hosts triumph 1-0 with Mark Proctor grabbing the only goal of the game.
But as New Year’s resolutions go, it was not a portend of things to come for the South Yorkshire side.
The first three of the FA Cup ties all finished 1-1.
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In the first game on January 9, Colin West’s 73rd minute effort looked to be presenting Wednesday with another single goal success but Peter Reid’s 81st minute equaliser earned a replay.
Ken Rogers, who covered all of the games for the ECHO, hailed the veteran’s efforts, declaring: “Peter Reid should be penning the scripts for Roy of the Rovers – writing himself into the starring role.
“The Everton midfield general can do no wrong at the moment, a situation highlighted by his dramatic second half FA Cup equaliser against Sheffield Wednesday.
“If there was such a thing as a football VC then manager Colin Harvey would be demanded recognition for his player/coach.
“The citation would read ‘For efforts above and beyond the call of duty.’ The legs that bear the scars of a thousand and one uncompromising battles have acquired a new lease of life and Reid – at the age of 31 – is looking the complete footballer.”
So on to Goodison Park for a replay four days later and despite two hours of football, there was again nothing to choose between the sides.
Again, Wednesday struck first through Lee Chapman on 32 minutes but fellow centre-forward Graeme Sharp restored parity on 74 minutes.
Rogers was particularly taken by the Scot’s strike which he described as one of the goals of the season and a bolt from the blue hit with stunning ferocity to break down a previously resolute visitors’ rearguard.
He enthused: “The TV companies should pay Sharp a retainer. He has been something of a screen star down the years, saving the spectacular for the cameras.
“Whenever ITV replay this particular super strike – and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of it – they should link it with the theme music from the Battle of the Alamo.”
There would then be a 12-day gap between the first and second replays for Everton to fulfil the aforementioned encounters with Norwich City and Manchester City before they returned to FA Cup battle – again at Goodison, teams would toss for who got to host second replays – on Monday January 25.
This time Everton finally drew first blood through Trevor Steven on 58 minutes but Chapman was on target on Merseyside again five minutes from the end of normal time and once more an additional period failed to bring any further scoring.
By this time, Rogers was comparing the football slug fest to vintage pugilism.
He wrote: “Everton and Sheffield Wednesday are becoming the marathon men of the FA Cup.
“These old rivals are turning this third round confrontation into a soccer soap opera that could run longer than EastEnders.
“For me, it’s not so much a football match anymore as one of those old time bare-knuckle boxing bouts in which two evenly-matched opponents beat the living daylights out of each other until one man collapses, totally exhausted and unable to beat the count.”
Indeed the capitulation would indeed arrive 48 hours later when across the Pennines, Everton finally blew Wednesday away before half-time on the day of the week after which they were named, on January 27.
The Blues five-star display was inspired by a Sharp hat-trick (5, 39, 43) and further strikes from Adrian Heath (20) and Ian Snodin (44).
Rogers observed: “Everton’s marathon men became sprint champions for the night.
“Having toiled for five and a half hours without getting the better of the Sheffield outfit, the Merseysiders conjured up an enthralling first half display which left the Wednesday hordes speechless.”
Everton didn’t have long to rest on their laurels though. Three days later they hosted Middlesbrough in the fourth round – another epic that took three matches to settle.
Their reward for that eventual victory was a fifth round showdown with Liverpool at Goodison that was settled on the day courtesy of a Ray Houghton goal 15 minutes from the end.
Fast forward to 2021 and Ancelotti’s non-league neighbours Marine were said to have restored some of the FA Cup’s old magic with the enthusiasm behind their recent third tie with Tottenham Hotspur in trying times.
However, for children of the 1980s unlimited replays it seems are, like tiny shorts, VHS end of season reviews and fans hoping that the person delivering the recorded message on ClubCall speaks a bit faster, something now firmly confined to football’s past.
