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Everton 2-0 Liverpool 18th Sept 1993 EPL


Barclays English Premier League, Sat 18th Sept 1993, Goodison Park, 15:00pm

Everton 2-0 Liverpool FC

Referee: David Elleray   H-T: 1-0   Att: 38,157

Match Report

Liverpool's plight highlighted by ruthless Everton Peter Ball watches as Souness's troubles are compounded by a listless performance in Merseyside derby

ANYONE attracted to Goodison Park by visions of mayhem, after Liverpool reacted to the fracas with Blackburn Rovers last week by signing Julian Dicks, was disappointed.

Instead, two other former West Ham United players dictated events, Mark Ward and Tony Cottee scoring the goals as Everton won a most unusual Merseyside derby much more comprehensively than the 2-0 scoreline suggests.

Liverpool have now lost four of their last five games. More worryingly for Graeme Souness, their manager, was that they were lacking real spirit. ``We were second to everything,'' he said.

He did not exaggerate. Perhaps all the bad publicity of the week had inhibited them but, instead of revealing themselves red in tooth and claw, Liverpool were more like slow, elderly and well-behaved tabby cats to Everton's lean and hungry terriers.

The tone was set in the first ten minutes. By the time it was up, Everton had had two players spoken to, and one, Ebbrell, booked. The midfield battle had been comprehensively won, even though Whelan and Redknapp later went into the book for belated resistance. By then, Everton were sweeping forward with some delightful one-touch football at high speed.

``I never thought I'd see the day when Horne, Ward and Ebbrell dominated a Liverpool midfield,'' one Liverpoolfollower said sadly, but thus it was, Horne even winning over his critics at Goodison with his best game for the club.

``He had a difficult start getting accepted,'' Howard Kendall said. ``It's the school of science. They like to see midfield players putting their foot on the ball and hitting defence-splitting passes but, in this 100 miles an hour football, it just shows the advantage you get from someone willing to work hard and put their foot in and win the ball.''

With Everton channelling almost everything down the left, where Beagrie and Hinchcliffe tormented Nicol, Dicks hardly made a tackle, let alone a ``tackle'', to use the professional euphemism. Instead, he revealed his cultured side, passing and crossing the ball well and hitting the only potent shot Southall faced all afternoon.

But even aside from his share of responsibility for Everton's second goal, as Cottee robbed him and beat Wright and Grobbelaar to end Liverpool's secondhalf recovery, whether Dicks deserved the accolade of ``outstanding'' from Souness is questionable. Liverpool's only outstanding player was Grobbelaar, who made two exceptional saves and was blameless for both goals, if not for his reaction to the first, when he exchanged slaps with McManaman in Liverpool's most spirited moment of the afternoon.

The genesis of the goal was riddled with error. The totally ineffectual Walters sliced a clearance to give away a corner; Hinchcliffe hit in a poor corner, McManaman cleared weakly for Ward to pounce and flash the ball past Grobbelaar, leaving the goalkeeper fuming on his 34th appearance against Everton, a Merseyside derby record.

``The reason I went to him (McManaman) was that all he had to do was put it out of play,'' Grobbelaar, still angry, said. ``It's a professional league, you do things the simplest way, and the simplest thing was to put it out for a corner.''

His reaction seemed excessive but it emerged that his frustration extended beyond the humiliation on Saturday to Liverpool's recent form. ``It's getting to me now,'' he said. ``They wanted it more than we did and that's the top and bottom of it. Where's the passion? If people don't want to play for Liverpool, they should jump in the Mersey.''

One or two may soon be tempted to. ``There will be changes on Wednesday,'' Souness promised. ``We've got to sort it out and make sure it doesn't happen again.''


 TEAMS
 Everton  Liverpool
 Southall Grobbelaar 
 Jackson Dicks 
 Hinchcliffe Nicol 
 Ablett Wright 
 Ward Clough 
 Cottee Rush 
 Horne Walters 
 Beagrie Whelan 
 Holmes Redknapp 
 Ebbrell McManaman 
 Rideout Ruddock 
 Substitutes
 Radosavljevic Stewart 
 Kearton Rosenthal 
 Angell Hooper 
 Substitutions
 Rosenthal for Walters 52'
 Stewart for McManaman 65'
 Radosavljevic for Beagrie 81'
 
 
 
 Goals
 Ward 27'
 Cottee 85'
 
   
 Yellow Cards
 Ebbrell
Clough 
 
 Whelan
 
Redknapp 
 
 Red Cards
   
   
 Referee
 David Elleray
 Attendance
 38,157

 Head to Head - Everton