I'm sure some of the older contributors can help you out with a word-picture of that other famous injustice...

In short, the semi, where Duncan MacKenzie absolutely toyed with the whole red team, was poised at 2-2 when Bryan Hamilton scored the winner off his hip from the six yard line.
The RS team were absolutely gutted, they knew they were beat, and not one of them claimed any infringement.
To the amazement of everyone in the ground, Thomas disallowed the goal, and gave a free kick to Liverpool for handball.

We lost the replay 3-0.

Thomas was later to quote that he "summized" that hamilton had handballed.
Summized meaning he saw fuck all the tit

Apparently Thomas wouldn’t give any reason after the game except to say he "saw an inffringement".

However, in his autobiography, he stated that the reason he blew the whistle is because the way the ball came off Hamilton the only thing he could have done was handball it - in other words, he didn’t see anything!

I am still traumatised by this and to the dismay of most of my friends fall into a rant about it whenever derby matches are imminent or discussed! I was in the kippax that day with thousands of delirious blues who celebrated the "goal" for what seemed like ten minutes before we realised that welsh cnut had dissallowed it because "an infringemnet occurred"! The ball was pulled back from the deadball line, there were shite defenders on the line and Hamilton nudged the ball in with his hip. Nothing wrong with it but our chance had gone. In those days we never fancied our chances in derbies so we all knew the replay would not go our way. I was 18 then and cried tears of rage. I still remember it like yesterday and its the reason I hate derby days now. Its also the reason why I have come to expect days like this saturday. Too many refs give the shite the benefit of the doubt but Clive Thomas was simply a cnut!

Keiran, this incident is featured on the official ’History of Everton’ video which was released circa 1988, I presume you would be able to get it on DVD now. It also features the 1962 league derby , the first since Liverpool had been promoted, guess what? we had 2 goals disallowed & had to settle for a 2-2 draw. There are numerous other incidents such as Alan Hansen’s blatent hand-ball in the 84 league cup final that denied Adrian Heath a goal, Steve Nicol’s foul on Graeme Sharp in the 86 FA cup final which should have resulted in a penalty. Not that I dwell on these things of course..................oh yeah nearly forgot Hutchison’s goal that never was in 99 & while we’re at it, Gary Ablett’s foul on Pat Nevin FA Cup, Anfield 1991 no penalty given..... the list is endless.

And I still can’t believe Gerrard stayed on the pitch after trying to destroy Naysmith’s legs/career...he didn’t even get booked!

clive thomas was notoriesly dodgy and in my opinion a complete cheat.
the highest bidder won the game
best example of that is the sweden v brazil (i think) game where he blew the full time whistle as the ball was going in the net from a corner
absolute disgrace

Kieran, although I was at the far end of the ground,I could see no reason to disallow Hamiltons "goal", and television replays couldn’t establish any infringement of the laws of the game. Some years later I read an account by one of Thomas’s linesmen, he said he had questioned the decision, only to be told" watch the television tonight there was an infringement". Later still Thomas is reported as saying, "Although I didn’t see a handball offence, there was no way Hamilton could have controlled the ball without using his hand". As a lifelong follower of the game I have always believed that if the referee hasn’t seen it, it hasn’t happened.The Liverpool players knew it was a goal, Ray Clemence even thumped the ball upfield for play to be restarted. While I acknowledge that every club has its share of dodgy decisions, we appear to have more than our fair share when playing against Liverpool, and I’m sure there are many more to come. I know it’s of little consolation, but theirs was a hollow victory on Saturday, and I would rather be a "Blue" in defeat than a "Red" in any circumstance. At 17 years of age Kieran, lets hope you have many opportunities to see the balance redressed, I’m afraid it’s too late for me to gain an "Equaliser" in the dodgy "Derby decisions". My advice for what it’s worth is keep the faith, and try to enjoy your football, it is an important part of our lives but despite what Bill Shankly said, it’s not a matter of life and death.

With clive thomas in mind thought you might like this I wonder if Clattenburg would behave the same way.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1496665,00.html

Funny that!
I met Bryan Hamilton during Euro 96 and asked hime about this incident!
He basically said that the goal was disallowed for nothing and Thomas’ official reasoning was that "he saw an infringement of the rules of the Football Association". Hamilton said if you look at Ray Clemence’s face it’s clearly a goal as Clemence appealed for nothing and would have surely been begging for handball!
Apparantly Thomas said to his two linesman "we’ve got to get our stories straight about this"

You could always try YOUTUBE. Put for instance - fa cup semi 77, or something similiar. Even better see if a friend has the this is everton home video (released 1988), which shows footage of the game as well as countless other moments spanning a century. I remember the game although its a little blurred now, but yes with thomas in charge we never really stood a chance. Lets not forget its the same idiot who blew for full time as the ball was in the net following a corner at world cup 78.

Think of the additional trophies and accolades we could have had over the years had we not been done over by stupid muppet officials, whose unbiased and impartial stance on games is frankly laughable. thomas, poll, styles, riley, and more recently, yes you know - him.

I was at that game, and it still hurts.

However, there is a huge, and disturbing difference between Thomas and Clattenberg. Thomas was schoolmaster from Treorchy who received only expenses and a nominal fee (£10?) for each match. Clattenberg is a full-time employee of the Premiership, (ca. £50,000 pa plus expenses). Like any employee he has a vested interest in the success of his firm.

The Premiership’s success is driven by the sale of TV rights overseas. The value of those TV rights is not unconnected to the success of teh "BIG Four", who (at least for now) have the greatest support in (eg) the far east.

None of the red-shirts in Bangkok or Shanghai has the slightest interest in seeing Derby, Bolton or Everton winning anything. Ergo nor does the Premiership, nor its employees.

Having refrerees as paid employees of the Premiership is akin to making the FSA a wholly owned subsidiary of a consortum of banks, or the Trading standards Authority financed by Tesco and Sainsbury. It stinks, and as such, Clattenberg has the same incentive to give Liverpool a break as does any employee of a multinational.

Clive Thomas was a fool. But he was at least his own fool.

try lookin in the red army vault of jammy bastards

Michael Coffey,

Never thought of it like that!

If you’re right the game’s fucked and so are we!

Kieran let me take you back to April 1977 and what was to become the biggest issue of my life. It even outweighs my now ex-wife running off with her then ex-boyfriend such is the mental scar it has left indelibly in my mind. She obviously wasn?t worth it.
I too was 17 and lived my life for my beloved Everton to get a sniff of Wembley. Every Monday lunchtime cup draw spent praying for a home draw or a Plymouth away tie. The Friday before each round playing my 1966 match commentary LP on our old record player. Seems a bit silly now considering the Millwall and Fulham home debacles of the time.
Anyway I digress. It was Wembley or Bust for me. Tell me ma, me ma.
Semi Final of the FA Cup and it?s the then supposedly mighty Liverpool at Maine Rd. Six years since we?ve beaten them. Now?s our big chance.
Marvellous. Scary. Went to Manchester in a motorhome type thing with 12 Bootle bucks in it, only one of whom was red.
Sitting behind the goal on a wooden park bench that passed muster as the Platt Lane stand, next to the most obnoxious older RS fan it was ever my misfortune to come across up to that point in my life. Met plenty more since, some unbelievably even more obnoxious again.
Two minutes to go, get in there, Brian Hamilton?s hip deflects one in. No way back this late in the game. We?re there. Celebrate or what. Having been on the receiving end of the old git next to me?s comments for 88 minutes I let him have it. Tommy ?Big Mouth? Smith left on his backside in the mud by Duncan McMagic, hadn?t been able to snap the ?fancy dan? in two as promised.. Clemence punching the ground with anger and disbelief and realisation they were out. Then what, the old git jumping all over me, screaming and laughing. What! What?s happened. The Treorchy Tosser is what happened. The Treorchy Tosser called Clive Thomas. Disallowed it. Why ? ?
This where it gets horrible. Thomas was quoted after the game as saying it was disallowed for offside. When it was pointed out to him that tv shows it wasn?t offside he then comes out and says it was handball. ( Apologies to all historians if I have got these two comments the wrong way round but happen they did). When it was again pointed out to Thomas by the journo?s that the pictures show clearly that it wasn?t handball either and he gets pressed for further clarification, he gets extremely huffy.
Then he comes out with the immortal line. Quote ? It was an infringement of the laws of the Football Association?. When queried as to which law he just parroted the same line and p*ssed off into the South Wales sunset. Not one thought for this heartbroken Blue. As is the way against the supposed big teams in the cup, you only get one shot at them. Sure enough we couldn?t reach the heights again and normal service was resumed again on the Wednesday with a 3-0 defeat in the replay, watched from the Kippax this time. Cry on the way home, oh yes I did. Cup LP put away for another year.
I was speaking with a red participant of the day, one Jimmy Case, in the pub next to Winchester Cathedral after Bally?s funeral in April. That 1977 day came up during the conversation ( no it wasn?t him who raised it funnily enough) and 30 years later I was able to claim justification for the crucified mind I have carried around ever since that time. Casey agreed quite openly that there was nothing wrong with that goal and they all thought they were out. I?m sure he wasn?t just humouring me as I was surprisingly rational during our conversation. I mean, I never mentioned Geoff Nulty once.
Oh how I hate Liverpool. Pity that my dad and two brothers are red really.
But more to the point I hate, and always will, Clive ?Dreambreaker? Thomas.
Treorchy Tosser !

I will say it again G14 should be G18 but anyway they control more of the game than people think go to thier website or google it and see what these greedy bastards have tried to do over the last 7 years, they even have asked for profits for the 18 clubs from world cups and european championships. They have done secret deals wiith TV companies to make sure they get their brand all over the world why the fuck do you think you can watch a Premiere league game in any part of the world live, they could easy stop it if they wanted to. The FA are shit scared of the G14 and UEFA conspire with them. So basically we are fucked when it comes to issues like this. Can anybody think of any other reason why these clubs have formed this G14, other than to protect their interests and that includes every aspect of the game including officals. The rich will get richer.

You’ve all forgotton how much it pissed down that day before kick off?

I’ve only ever seen storms like that abroad, like an electric storm. I was soaked through for the 90 minutes. In a nutshell, I was on the Kippax that day just about parallel with Hamilton . It was a goal, it came off his hip, Thomas initially said it was offside, then changed his story to ’an infringement’ for about 5 seconds after the ball hit the net, was the most amazingly ecstatic moment I have ever experienced in football (remember, we were 2-1 down at one point) and as one earlier poster pointed out we just didn’t have a sniff of beating the RS in those days, in fact if I remember correctly, Riochs goal when we were already 3-0 down at Analfield the season before was our first in about 6 seasons. To have that momemnt taken away from us like that left me indeliby scarred for life and so began a lifetime of even more intense hatred of the RS and a particular dislike of Welsh schoolteachers.

The incident is shown on the everton history video and is up thier with poll disallowing hutchisons goal, mcallister moving the ball forward 10 yards before hitting his free kick and hansen handballing on the line in the milk cup final.

This and the Clive Thomas cock up are just a couple of examples of major referreing decisions agaionst Everton in favour of the Reds.

I remember an wven worse one in the Milk Cup Final in 1984/5 when Hansen blatantly handled a goalbound Heathy shot that would have won us the Cup.

Inevitably Liverpool won the replay 1-0 I believe, with Souness getting the goal at Maine Road.

We just have to make doubly sure when we play them! More 3-0s

Stephen that was season 1983/84. Just before the semi-final win over southampton if im correct. And as i remember it in the first game we were the better side and should have won without the replay, settled by that souness goal, which was incidentally worthy of winning any game. The 84/85 tournament ended up with a norwich v sunderland final.

Yawn....

Ah bloody hell lads, I was just starting to cope with saturday’s blasted result and now I read all these recollections from days gone by and all the anger has just boiled over again. I’m Welsh but dear god how I hated that pillock Thomas after that game. I wanted to renage my Welshness and become a scouser but my old dad, bless ’im, said that I could be a Blue but not a scouser. I only wear red on election day and St David’s day and that’s just red socks - nothing visible to the naked eye! It took years for me to put all that shit behind me.....satuday just opened the wounds, bugger bugger bollocks - pass me the tablets please. Now we need a few wins to purge us of all this hurt and please please Blues, turn it on on Thursday night to ease our pain after saturday. We love you Everton, we do.......

I remember that Welsh bastard only too well, but how many remember that the first thing Thomas did on retiring was write book about his "controversial" time as a referee?
Entitled "Give a little whistle" it recounts all the errors that made him one of football’s most detested officials. Makes you wonder if he had thought it all out beforehand, doesn’t it? You know, make so many contentious decisions that you’re seldom off the back (or front) pages and you’re book will sell that much better. What an arsehole. The fact that he’d pissed on the dreams of thousands of fans bothered him not one iota.

Samantha,

You are right. As soon as I sent in the comment I checked it out and the final was played in March 1984.

I was right behind the goal when Hansen handled and was also at Highbury for our FA Cup semi-final win over Southampton, which hearalded a great era in Everton’s history.

I lived in London at the time and reckon I saw Everton play at Wembley around 8 times in various FA Cup Finals and Charity Shields.

Great times which I hope we can get back.

I was 16yr old standing on The Kippax. Believe me when I tell you you that you dont want to know.It was worse than Lescott being wrestled by crutch secreation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!