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Striking Memories
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I've just been watching The Big Match Revisited on ITV4. They featured a game between Everton and Bristol City from 1979 at Goodison. The game was played on an awful frozen pitch and there was little to admire from either side but we ran out as eventual 4-1 winners.
The highlight of the game was undoubtably a brilliant man-of-the-match performance and wonderful hat-trick from Andy King and this led me to draw comparisons to our present fortunes. After the game Gordon Lee spoke about how King had been converted to striker from midfield and how his best asset was his goalscoring, reading of defenders and uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time ? sound like anyone we know?!!
An interview with Andy also demonstrated his cheeky personality and I couldn't help but draw comparisons to our Timmy. My questions are, how good was Andy King, how does he compare to Timmy, and how do you get the best out of a player with their rare skills ? use them in midfield or play them as a striker?
Ben Howard, Posted 12/02/2009 at 10:24:24
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When Everton had played Man City on Boxing Day there had been nearly 47,000 there. Fickle Evertonians... not in my day (lol). Andy King was never a striker though, he was always best arriving from midfield.
Like Stewart, a cockney boy who seemed to take to the club as though he’d been born locally.
As for Andy King, he was one of my first heroes, I had heard all about him from my elder brother who had seen him in his first spell. When he was sold to QPR in 1980 for £450k Tommy Docherty said he had signed a million pound player. He never settled in west London & was signed by WBA a year later to replace the departing Bryan Robson.
He never really settled there either & in the summer of 1982 he asked Kendall if he could train at Bellefield to improve his fitness. He impressed sufficiently for Kendall to sign him in exchange for Peter Eastoe. He was put straight into the side for the 82-83 season which was the 1st season I started going regularly, I remember him being outstanding as a goal scoring midfielder. In fact, he was the highest scoring English midfielder behind Robson in February that year having already scored 13 goals from 32 games.
Unfortunately in March he sustained a bad injury in a challenge with some muppet called Iain Munroe in a match against Sunderland which ruled him out for the remainder of the season. Although he was back as a regular for the start of the 83-84 season, he was never the same player. The emergence of Richardson & Steven during the revival in 84 saw him dropped from the first team although he did manage a substitute appearance in the Milk Cup Final replay at Maine Road.
He left Goodison for the 2nd time time at the end of that season following rumours of a row with Kendall, he was just 28. He went play in Holland for a couple of months before returning to the lower divisions with Wolves & Aldershot. As a manager he took Mansfield to the 3rd Div play offs in the mid nineties.
As a comparison with Cahill, I think King had more flair & more natural ability, however, as with so many players of that ilk he probably lacked the self discipline & work rate needed to succeed at the top level consistently. This is where Tim could be considered to be the better player & is the reason that he is still a regular at Everton at the same age that King was leaving.
As for Tim Cahill he?s probably not half the player that King was technically but theres no denying he?s our talisman and has proved it time and time again, popping up with big goals on the big occasion. Given his record against The Shite and performances since being moved up front, I'd say the guy is definitely our most valuable asset without question.
COYB FTRS
He was kept out of the England team by Glenn Hoddle who was similar in style - but even more gifted. The two played together at England U21 level but they would not have been compatible at full international level.
I had forgetten that he left Goodison in the early 80’s only to come back. My memory is that he lost his No.7 shirt to the young and upcoming young Steve McMahon (when he was a blue!) who had similar skill but could also tackle.
I last saw Andy King come on at the ’84 semi final at Highbury for a few minutes (if memory serves me correct or it may have been the Milk Cup final in the same year). A shadow of his former self. Amazed to learn (now) that he was only 28 - but in those days that was considered old. Players were not as well looked after back then and careers much shorter.
1: How treacherous that pitch was... would never have been played today. Oh for the good old days when we just got on with it without any of the histrionics from the current crop of prima-donnas.
2: Those perms and after-match-interview ties as big as Mike Tyson?s fist!
3: How shite Norman Hunter was. Caught at least three complete sir shots with that fabled left foot of his (and he was well & truly duffed-up by that irritable midget, Francis Lee, in a game at derby). A legendary Leeds wanker.
4: How good Joe Royle was. Even though he had clearly had his day, his touch and aerial prowess were there for all to see. One of my all-time heroes.
5: How good Bristol City were. They could have easily been a couple of goals ahead and more than matched Everton. But, like all teams at the top, we rode our luck, got a lucky break or two and they gave in.
6: What a wonderful player Martin Dobson was. So cultured and always looking to play a great pass. Never hurried or wasteful and a gentleman player too. A true Evertonian.
7: What a sound team Everton were, with class in all departments. Latchford and Thomas were the best at what they did. Wood was great in goal until he suffered a crisis of confidence and never recovered and even Billy Wright looked lean and mean. Pity we had Gordon Lee at the helm to spoil everything. What an Evertonian he was NOT.
8: What a mean ground Goodison was in those days. With the Park End fully colonised, I was on the Goodison Road Paddock for the match and remember talking to some of the handful of City fans who were there, trying to look anonymous. They were horrified we?d identified them, but we kept a protective eye on them for the rest of the game. They were about as inconspicuous as a Ready Brek kid!
9: Forget all this Premier League propaganda. The gap between the ?haves? and the ?have-nots? was not half as insurmountable then as it is now and every team had a chance on the day. That Everton team could have survived against today?s overpaid popstars with ease.
10: I really am getting old...
The £35 000 we paid for him from Luton seems a snip now, and I believe he ended his career at Aldershot, of all places.
I think he scored 40 goals in his first four years here, which is impressive for a midfielder, but had a better goal to game ratio when he was at QPR before he arrived.
WHO REMEMBERS ALAN WHITTLE? I wish he was here now.
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1 Posted 12/02/2009 at 14:15:30
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He will always be a hero for THAT goal against the red shite, (remember the bizzie pushing him off the pitch during the post match interview? must have been a koppite.) and also Tiny Tim for scoring so many against them.