The great escapes.

[Black Belt Jones]

Is there anywhere to watch the whole Coventry game? I’d be interested in watching the last 5 minutes or so after Dublin scored. Did Coventry come close to winning it?
I was there but I don’t think I’ve seen the whole game since.

Dublin's goal sent me into meltdown - couldn't process what was happening, was staggering around asking what it meant - are we down?

Must have looked a bit odd as I was watching it by myself in a deserted pub in Bethnal Green.

 

[DOMNOLAN]

I seem to remember my Dad telling me the Wimbledon keeper got done a few years later for match fixing? Judging by our last goal, could well have been during that that game. Could you imagine staying up due to match fixing!

 

[Toast]

I seem to remember my Dad telling me the Wimbledon keeper got done a few years later for match fixing? Judging by our last goal, could well have been during that that game. Could you imagine staying up due to match fixing!

Don't think Sir Hans Segers ever got done though ?

 

[DOMNOLAN]

Don't think Sir Hans Segers ever got done though ?

Partly why I posted, was looking to see if anyone could confirm. Not complaining, just appreciating our uncharacteristic luck!

 

[The binman chronicles]

For me at the time I thought 94 was just a blip, we had still been spending and teams around us didn't have wall to wall better players (we beat man utd 3-0 at OT at the start of the season they were crowned champions FFS), the feeling was one of ecstasy after we stayed up. By going on and winning the cup the following year and getting linked with Shearer etc. It masked what was going on behind the scenes and reinforced that 94 was just an anomaly.

When it started falling apart leading up to the Coventry game, Kanchelskis, Royle and Speed had left, not to mention Ferguson later that year, we were already a club of nothingness, devoid of decent players and on a serious downward trajectory. The feeling was of gut wrenching sickness with little belief we wouldn't be in the same position the next year.

So in that terms maybe surviving 98 was the greater achievement as least with the 94 team you could see that managed correctly they were decent but the feelings involved put 94 way ahead of 98. We couldn't even beat Coventry FFS when our lives depended on it. Nearly got into a massive fight at the pub watching that game too which doesn't help.

I seem to remember my Dad telling me the Wimbledon keeper got done a few years later for match fixing? Judging by our last goal, could well have been during that that game. Could you imagine staying up due to match fixing!

I still think that shot is a lot more difficult to save than people give credit for. For starters it was more like he was going into a block challenge than trying to shoot, it doesn't give a goalkeeper chance to set himself and then the ball is in that grey area where it was just a bit too far to block with the leg but too close to the body to make it easier to go down with a hand. Look at utd's goal just before the lockdown, it was from further out and Pickford has more time to see it but it still went in. Are we saying Pickford is taking bungs? Oh wait a min, that actually makes sense now...

 

[The Binman]

Hard to imagine just 7 yrs before 94 we were champions. Dispicable.

3 yrs before 98 we'd won the fa Cup. Just horrible

 

[StreetEndBlue]

Is there anywhere to watch the whole Coventry game? I’d be interested in watching the last 5 minutes or so after Dublin scored. Did Coventry come close to winning it?
I was there but I don’t think I’ve seen the whole game since.

Shamefully, the club released a double dvd of the full matches of both the Wimbledon and Coventry games. You can find it on ebay. Just type in Great Escapes Everton.

 

[catcherintherye]

94 was a better escape but you look at the players in that team and they should never have been in that position. The 98 was absolutely horrific so it was more of a worry before that game whether we’d be able to do anything.

I said the other night to someone, I always thought we would survive Coventry. I thought we would comfortably better Boltons result. Looking back I was 11 and it was my youthful naivety really.

The other thing I get looking back, was the formative experience I had watching Everton was quite a unique one. First season 94. You had Wimbledon (barely remembered at all), 1 win from 13 games in 94/5 and cut adrift bottom into November. 96 was fine. 97 bit of a mad dogfight. 98 Coventry, 99 Sheffield Wednesday at home, in the relegation zone and losing 4 on the spin at Easter.

So essentially 5 of the 6 seasons we were in relegation trouble, and all but one of them you would have said quite severe trouble.

It seemed to teach me to accept football wasnt e enjoyable, fun, relaxing etc. It was horrible, stressful, at times sickening, depressing and painful, but sort of the making of you.

I grew up down south (my parents moved before I was born) so most friends supported Manchester United and would watch them win the league every season. A splattering of some other teams, who'd all have their moment a bit.

Watching Everton was really hard, but it kind of toughened you not just to football but to life. You didnt give up.

I think now it also gave me perspective on Everton. I get frustrated as we all do, but rarely go as overboard as most fans. I don't think it is because I'm incredibly zen as I'm not, but when you have the formative experience outlined above, it just gives you a different outlook. Nothing since that point has ever seemed particularly awful, or worth getting massively stressed over.

For those born 10 or even 5 years after me, they probably grew up with the stability of Moyes. For those older they grew up with league champions as a first experience. I think fir the good of Everton they are both better, as just being happy you are not getting relegated is a poor outlook, but it is what it is really.

Looking back I dont know how we survived. I think we probably had 5 or 6 seasons where we essentially flipped a coin and called heads correctly. We were very fortunate. At the time though, I just felt we were invincible and couldn't be relegated.

My dad would always be more terrified than me. He could probably see the danger we were in. I just always felt we would get out, as that was Everton for me. They'd want till the last minute and get out.

After Coventry we brought Smith in and spent a lot of money, and I as quite excited. That's my memory really.

 

[Black Belt Jones]

Hard to imagine just 7 yrs before 94 we were champions. Dispicable.

3 yrs before 98 we'd won the fa Cup. Just horrible

Hindsight it looks like HK was a huge anomaly really - he built our success in spite of those running the club, not because of them. Once he left there was no one in teh club hierarchy with the vision to build on it, so it was back to being average.

Maybe that's a bit harsh - it wasn't a shambolic operation or anything and stuff like signing Lineker and Cottee was big time for the period. But the fact it did in fact turn into a complete circus in the mid to late 90s suggests the roots of mediocrity ran very deep off the pitch.

 

[catcherintherye]

Hindsight it looks like HK was a huge anomaly really - he built our success in spite of those running the club, not because of them. Once he left there was no one in teh club hierarchy with the vision to build on it, so it was back to being average.

Maybe that's a bit harsh - it wasn't a shambolic operation or anything and stuff like signing Lineker and Cottee was big time for the period. But the fact it did in fact turn into a complete circus in the mid to late 90s suggests the roots of mediocrity ran very deep off the pitch.

I think this is a good point really. Kendall was brilliant but was really the right place at the right time type of guy. It's why I dont go on about Heysel much. I don't think the club was ready to build a dynasty. I think we win the European cup at least once, maybe more and maybe a couple more leagues, but then it falls away.

Kendall too unfortunately was not a great manager in the long run and would increasingly be out of place in the direction football would go.

Our big missed opportunity missed was not building on the 1970 league title winning side.

 

[Saint Domingo]

I said the other night to someone, I always thought we would survive Coventry. I thought we would comfortably better Boltons result. Looking back I was 11 and it was my youthful naivety really.

The other thing I get looking back, was the formative experience I had watching Everton was quite a unique one. First season 94. You had Wimbledon (barely remembered at all), 1 win from 13 games in 94/5 and cut adrift bottom into November. 96 was fine. 97 bit of a mad dogfight. 98 Coventry, 99 Sheffield Wednesday at home, in the relegation zone and losing 4 on the spin at Easter.

So essentially 5 of the 6 seasons we were in relegation trouble, and all but one of them you would have said quite severe trouble.

It seemed to teach me to accept football wasnt e enjoyable, fun, relaxing etc. It was horrible, stressful, at times sickening, depressing and painful, but sort of the making of you.

I grew up down south (my parents moved before I was born) so most friends supported Manchester United and would watch them win the league every season. A splattering of some other teams, who'd all have their moment a bit.

Watching Everton was really hard, but it kind of toughened you not just to football but to life. You didnt give up.

I think now it also gave me perspective on Everton. I get frustrated as we all do, but rarely go as overboard as most fans. I don't think it is because I'm incredibly zen as I'm not, but when you have the formative experience outlined above, it just gives you a different outlook. Nothing since that point has ever seemed particularly awful, or worth getting massively stressed over.

For those born 10 or even 5 years after me, they probably grew up with the stability of Moyes. For those older they grew up with league champions as a first experience. I think fir the good of Everton they are both better, as just being happy you are not getting relegated is a poor outlook, but it is what it is really.

Looking back I dont know how we survived. I think we probably had 5 or 6 seasons where we essentially flipped a coin and called heads correctly. We were very fortunate. At the time though, I just felt we were invincible and couldn't be relegated.

My dad would always be more terrified than me. He could probably see the danger we were in. I just always felt we would get out, as that was Everton for me. They'd want till the last minute and get out.

After Coventry we brought Smith in and spent a lot of money, and I as quite excited. That's my memory really.

I just remember getting excited about home draws in the new year that moved us above the little dotted line on the Ceefax page and out of the relegation zone. Then identifying a fixture about 5 games away that looked winnable and doing the maths as to whether it would be enough to stay up.

 

[catcherintherye]

I just remember getting excited about home draws in the new year that moved us above the little dotted line on the Ceefax page and out of the relegation zone. Then identifying a fixture about 5 games away that looked winnable and doing the maths as to whether it would be enough to stay up.

Are you around the same age as me mate? I'm intrigued to the extent it being a first experience made a big difference.

I am very zen about football now!

 

[Saint Domingo]

Are you around the same age as me mate? I'm intrigued to the extent it being a first experience made a big difference.

I am very zen about football now!

One of my first memories is the cup final. I remember waiting by the radio in 98 just waiting for it to end. When Dublin scored if was literally felt like the worst thing ever at that age. Swiftly followed by England losing on pens in the World Cup. Touch breaks when you’re a kid.

 

[catcherintherye]

One of my first memories is the cup final. I remember waiting by the radio in 98 just waiting for it to end. When Dublin scored if was literally felt like the worst thing ever at that age. Swiftly followed by England losing on pens in the World Cup. Touch breaks when you’re a kid.

Yes.

I'll be honest I always thought we would be ok though. I used to read ceefax but never doubted we would survive. Strange looking back.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Hindsight it looks like HK was a huge anomaly really - he built our success in spite of those running the club, not because of them. Once he left there was no one in teh club hierarchy with the vision to build on it, so it was back to being average.

Maybe that's a bit harsh - it wasn't a shambolic operation or anything and stuff like signing Lineker and Cottee was big time for the period. But the fact it did in fact turn into a complete circus in the mid to late 90s suggests the roots of mediocrity ran very deep off the pitch.

Apart from a couple of clubs who created dynasties that lasted 2 decades, it was common place for championship winning teams to break up and then that club would struggle to replicate the success while other teams came to the fore. If you think about it when you reach the top the only way is down!

As you say we bought players like Cottee and Ferguson who were, or not many pounds off British transfer records at the time. They just didn't have the effect that we were hoping and as every buy is a step down that eventually shows in the results. You also have the added pressure of the ghosts of the past, the expectations of the supporters and the fact that the current crop do not match the legends you once had. You can see this with utd now or an even better example is the Welsh rugby teams after the 70s, some of those early squads weren't bad but would wilt under the pressure.

What really amazes me is around that time we were one of the biggest spenders in Europe but we really munsoned it up. With one or two different decisions and a bit of luck we could have been up there.