Everton 5 - 0 Norwich City

18 February 1995

Scorers

Everton: Limpar 7, Parkinson 24, Rideout 56, Ferguson 63, Stuart 88

Yellow cards

Everton: Ablett, Rideout

Norwich: Bradshaw, Newsome, Sutch

Red cards:

Norwich: Newsome

Lineups

Everton: Southall 8, Jackson 9, Hinchcliffe 9, Watson 9, Ablett 8, Stuart 7, Ebbrell 9, Parkinson 8, Rideout 9 (71. Barlow 8), Ferguson 8, Limpar 9

Norwich: Tracey, Bradshaw, Newsome, Newman, Bowen, Ullathorne (63. Prior), Sutch, Johnson, Goss, Sheron, Eadie

Subs not used: Reeves, Grant (Everton), Adams, Marshall (Norwich)

Officiating

Referee: M Bodenham (East Looe)

Linesmen:

Attendance: 31,616

Overview

Comparisons with the league game (see report) made this tie more interesting.

Norwich starred well in midfield but this time Everton were awake & matched them.

Everton were 'without 3 defenders' but the back 4 reading
Hinchcliffe, Ablett, Watson, Jackson
is one heck of a good lineup and proof of Everton's strength in depth.

Limpar continued the great form and confidence.. and again there were TV cameras on the gantry. His goal was a good strike, but should have been saved. (The keeper was (Gee Mr) Tracey, not 19 yr old Andy Marshall who had 'kept in the league meeting).

Second goal was another touchline delivery, met by Rideout, parried by Tracey, and it's nice to see central midfielders being there to snap up loose balls.. it was Joe Parki's first Everton goal.. though he has had many good shots and even scored a great one a while ago at the St End but it was disallowed.

After half time, at 2-0 Norwich again tried hard. It was very important to get a third and kill the match, because a goal for them could easily revive them and their (much larger) support and they could force a unwanted replay a thousand miles away in farmer-land. At this stage, even without Ward, Norwich were quite capable of coming back, just as they did in the league game when they forced a frenzied last 10 minutes defending from Everton.

The third was handed to Everton when Limpar was brought down (no, he didn't dive :-) on the angle of the area by Newsome who had to go for his second yellow. Ref Bodenham had a good game but I thought he was talked into giving 'home crowd' cards on 1 or 2 other occasions. The free kick saw Blue shirts running patterns and queueing to head Hinch's delivery, but it was Rideout who found it and Tracey again ineffective.

Now the game was 'safe', and the display started. Everton against 10 men passed at will and opened up acres of space and dozens of chances. With Newsome gone and Polston missing, the yellows were as tough as custard. Ferguson scored the fourth with a straight run up the middle clean through, though he only just hit it low enough to sneak in after hitting bar and line.

4-0, 26 minutes left, Everton could have reached 8-0, but managed to miss their remaining chances (from Watson, Stuart & Barlow in particular) until finally a ball dropped perfectly into the path of Stuart and this time he took it in full stride and scored easily.

During the seach for the fifth, Norwich decided to abandon caution and search for a pride-consolation, and managed to mount attacks and bring saves from Southall for the first time in the game. Their luck was even sour when a free header beat Southall but hit the bar and bounced straight into Nev's arms as he lay on his back. (This preserved EFC's record of not conceding a goal in the cup).

The ghost of the 5-1 Ekoku game fled. The crowd sang the '5-0' chant for the first time since Swindon, the players, manager and fans glowed with excitement and are convinced a home draw will be enough to give them a visit to Wembley.

Don't be fooled, Norwich were terrible, and reminded me of Everton under Mike Walker.. but Everton never took their eye off the proverbial ball and fought for 90 minutes.

Player by player

Southall

Quiet day mostly, took his few saves well.

Jackson

Great. No mistakes & many wing excursions.

Hinchcliffe

Proved he can carry the leftback job and still provide goal-making service in attack.

Ablett

Very comfortable with Watson and better in the air than Rhino.

Watson

JR's man of the match. Copybook stuff.

Limpar

Matthew Le Who? Anders created enough chances for five by himself. If he can keep turning this stuff out (which I doubt), I'd be looking the championship next season.

Parkinson

His tackles were rarely needed, as midfield was dominated.

Ebbrell

One of John's best games, linking and supporting instead of just filling a shirt.

Stuart

Despite a goal and an assist, GS was not at his brilliant best. If he had been, EFC would have scored 7 or 8.

Ferguson

Got several headers in, worked & supported and will be wondering why he didn't get 3.

Rideout

One goal, one goal-resulting header, and great outfield and defensive effort.

Barlow

Worked well with Stuart. Is cursed, because he easily deserved a goal for his strike but shaved the post.

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