The Zenith Data Systems Cup

[Deggo]

The 6-2 game against Villa really rammed home the feeling that Everton were going to cause me so much pain, remember looking so forward to seeing us on the television (big thing those days) they absolutely battered us.

I should have just jumped ship after that

Someone of us had the pleasure of getting off at 5-0 and missed our goals

From what I remember we were that depleted with injuries Stuart McCall played right back

 

[ToffeeDoug]

How do you even lose 4-1 after extra time?!?!

Because we missed a sitter at 1-1 (Warzycha from memory) and barely had 9 men able to stand up in ET as our team had taken a right battering off Ian Wright's elbow, forehead etc. Keown had his first top-class Everton game that day, which was ages in the waiting, he stood up to the thuggery and never flinched. Keown left the pitch injured, shirt covered in blood, lip splattered over his nose, and he got a fantastic reception off the Everton fans as he walked back towards the tunnel to get treatment in the dressing room. It was the making of him as an Everton player.

Earlier in the day, I got off the train at Victoria Station, to find about 20,000 Palace fans in the area outside the station, and me on my tod in an Everton shirt. Reasonably friendly banter, cough!!

 

[ToffeeDoug]

I was due to go to the Simod Cup Final vs Notts Forest, a Sunday at the end of April, but missed it. The previous day was the start of our club cricket season and I had my most of my front two teeth knocked out! Missed the game, trying to find dental treatment somewhere over the Bank Holiday weekend, not easy!

 

[ToffeeDoug]

Was that not the Rumbelows Cup 1/4 final game?

Yes it was the League Cup, Gary Stevens?

 

[Groucho]

The memory that these competitions will invoke in a lot of people, is that we really should have been playing European games at the time.

 

[ToffeeDoug]

The memory that these competitions will invoke in a lot of people, is that we really should have been playing European games at the time.

I remember a lot of Everton fans being pretty blase and humdrum about a day out at Wembley, having had so many in recent years that meant so much more, that we had about 15,000 there for the ZDS Final in 1991, compared to about 40,000 Palace fans there.

 

[Merseyzig]

I went to the ZDS final in 1991, I had begged my dad to let me go and he got me a ticket (he quite rightly thought it was a stupid competition) and arranged for me to go on a coach with friends of his. I was so excited, but the abiding memory is the abuse we got from the Palace fans outside after the game. And how bad Mike Milligan was.

 

[BoysInBlue]

Simod Cup Final 1989 - Notts Forest 4-3 Everton - Sunday April 30, 1989 (46,000 at Wembley, many Blues were saving their money for the FA Cup Final a few weeks later):



ZDS Northern Area Final 2nd leg: Everton 3-1 Leeds - Thursday March 21, 1991 (12,603 at Goodison, which tells you all you need to know about how bothered the fans were about this. The match was live on the BSB Sports Channel on Sky):



ZDS Final 1991 - Crystal Palace 4-1 Everton - Sunday April 7, 1991 (52,460 at Wembley):



Full game if you're really interested, with Palace-biased commentary:



We didn't enter the ZDS Cup in 1989/90 or 1991/92.

 

[MassBlue]

I was at school at the time, and I remember the basic deal was: it was an important competition while we had a chance of winning (remember, we were up against Liverpool during their good years), but then it was a Mickey-Mouse cup that didn't count for anything as soon as we lost.

 

[royvernon39]

I saw the Palace final. One thing that stands out for me was how Bright and Wright absolutely
frightened to death Radcliff and Watson. It was painful to watch. It reminded me of how Fashanu, Jones etc scared the Blues to death in a game at Wimbledon.

I also recall arriving and somehow got mixed up with about 200 young blues who looking for some aggro
but on arrival inside and seeing the big, empty spaces in the stands decided to watch the crap footie instead.

 

[James Patrick]

Awful simply awful - remember one game we were mean to play Barnsley away and I drove over only to find out it had been called off due to a frozen pitch - (i'm sure I'm not dreaming this ?)

 

[McMagic]

I can remember a lot of bitterness between us and Chelsea, real nasty! It is still there, but I may be wrong about the cup competition, wasn't there a Freight Rover cup at the same time? Were Liverpool invited into these cups? Or were they banned for instigating all these 'Mickey Mouse
Cups?

 

[muddy mudguard]

I was there! It was [Poor language removed]!

 

[BoysInBlue]

I can remember a lot of bitterness between us and Chelsea, real nasty! It is still there, but I may be wrong about the cup competition, wasn't there a Freight Rover cup at the same time? Were Liverpool invited into these cups? Or were they banned for instigating all these 'Mickey Mouse
Cups?

Freight Rover was the lower league cup for the 3rd & 4th divisions, that eventually evolved into the Johnstone Paints trophy today.