Higgins suffered badly from injuries and missed almost two years circa 83-85, before he was released and later made a short lived comeback with Man Utd before being forced into premature retirement.

As for Jim Arnold, I believe a young lad called Southall eventually pinched the gloves off him and went on to become one of the best there ever was between the sticks.

:-)

I must admit I came across it by chance and it was a flash back encounter, as a 36-year-old I grew up watching and listening to that team of the mid 80s. Always loved Adrian Heath, Sheedy brought back nice feelings.

ps: Sharp's goal was onside!

I remember this game well, it was the first time I'd seen more than 20-odd thousand inside Goodison. I was in the Street End & the atmosphere was great, seem to remember the gate was about 42,000.

There was quite a bit of hype around this game as it was the first time in 3 years that Spurs had lost an FA Cup game outside of London. We played Man Utd in the quarterfinals in the next game & put up one hell of a performance before losing late on to a Frank Stapleton winner. Kendall identified that game in his autobiography as the game that told him he was on the right track.

Mark Higgins was a classy centre-back & captain who picked up a bad pelvic injury in the autumn of 83, I think it was a League Cup game against West Ham. He never played for Everton again & missed out on the best period in the clubs history. His misfortune gave Derek Mountfield his big break.

Kevin Ratcliffe rated him alongside Dave Watson as his best partner & there were rumours that Bobby Robson had considered him for an England cap on a tour of Australia in 1983. I went to his testimonial at Goodison in Oct/Nov 1984 where a combined Liverpool/Everton team took on a combined Manchester City/Utd team. He attempted a comeback with Man Utd in 1986 but wasn't that successful; I think he later played for Stoke & then Bury.

Jim Arnold followed Kendall from Blackburn in 1981, he probably had his best game for us in the FA Cup quarterfinal against Utd mentioned above. He got back in the team in the November 82 after Nev was dropped after the 5-0 defeat against the Shite. I think he left for Wolves in 1984 after Nev had established himself as the Number One at Everton, & arguably in the world.

Mark Higgins had injuries and quit in the 1984/85 season. He had a testimonial game at Goodison and it was a game with a Merseyside 11 playing a Manchester 11. I and many others attended only to be insulted when the following season, he turned out against us for Manchester United. Nothing was ever mentioned about the money made or being given to charity and that then ended my attending testimonial games.

The game itself was a great day and we got Man Utd away in the next round with about 20.000 Blues making the short trip to Old Trafford. After missing a good few chances, Stapleton scored a fluke of a goal in the 95th minute. We still wonder where the referee got all the injury time but there you go. It's called being an Evertonian.

Jim Arnold was a decent keeper and when Big Nev got his chance, there was only one outcome.

Incidently, I was watching one of these programmes the other week, maybe the same season and we'd just moved into 5th place after a home win against Notts County with a crowd of just over 14.000 watching.

Yes I saw it repeated today, it was great to see the boys doing so well. It was a bit of a shock to see Andy King still playing, my memories of him seem to be confined to that goal against the Reds back in 1978!!

Regarding Higgins and Arnold, both were replaced with better players... :-)

Saw it from the second half onwards, Inchy looked about 14.

A very young Jim Rosenthal co-anchoring as well!!

Paul-
King's best time was in the 70s. He left us for QPR and then came back a few years later.

I was a match day mascot for the home game against Watford in October 1983, and Mark Higgins was still the captain then. (We won 1-0.)

Thanks for the answers about Higgins and Arnold. I know it's a sign of getting old, this almost neurotic yearning for the past. For me, though, it just was better. I'm not describing it how I would like to but watching the highlights of that game was very poignant. Still, I would like to think that younger Evertonians will some day look back at, say the 4-4 at Old Trafford, and think the same.

Watching that game, and the Watford/Villa game before it, reminded me why I was a football addict when I was younger. I thought I had just grown out of it but no, modern football is just dull.

That was proper 90 mile an hour football. Players get the ball and leggit, players without the ball leggit with them, defenders tackle hard, and hardly anyone winges. Loved every second of it.

...and the wife liked Inchy's shorts.

Stephen Jones,

I too was in the Street End. It was the first game I'd been to alone without dad; it was coming up to my 13th birthday. Quite a stretch remembering, though I do recall rating Arnold if not quite my first goalie idol – Dai Davies – when I was about five.

I also remember we won 2-0, great atmosphere, except I was not a fan of the booing of Spuds' Argie player, Ricky Villa (the Falklands war was less than a year gone), and that I thought "We're the first to beat Spurs in the Cup for three years: it's ours! C'mon!"

I can't remember if I watched TV or listened to the radio, but we battered Utd at mudbath OT (what a shocking pitch they had) in the quarter final, only for them to counter-attack in injury-time and score the only goal of the game.

Inchy became my biggest idol. The sod who clattered him about 18 months later should rot; what a classy player was Inchy.

Old games like this should be sold in the club shop. Get the full 90 mins footage off ITV or BBC, put them onto a disc and market them as classic games. Don't over-price them about 5 quid each ) and just see how many of them get snapped up by fans who want watch them. Just make sure they're different from the ususal stuff everone already has (4-4 with the RS)... then again, there's another thread on here about marketing Everton... I won't hold my breath.

Andy Crooks, I am laughing here because I was also willing us to win, even though the game was played almost 30 years ago. Don't remember it really, sure I wasn't there for some reason but that was how well we played without Reidy who was injured, so you could see the potential with just a couple of new players; the rest is history.

I also enjoyed the other games although Watford should have been 3 or 4 up before Villa took over and stuck 4 past them. The best moment for me, in light of all the phoney injury feigning and winging nowadays, was a player who had his head split open by an elbow. He didn't even get a free kick, his bonce was pouring blood and after a cursory inspection by the ref, he got up and played on!! Luis Suarez, take note.

Slightly picky correction to Stephen (128). Spurs had won the Cup the previous two seasons but hadn't played a game outside London during either cup run. This, then, was their first "away" tie for two years, and we stuffed them.

I travelled up from university to watch the game, and if I remember correctly, on the Sunday, to complete the weekend, the RS were beaten by Brighton at Anfield (with "Shithouse" Case scoring for the Seagulls)

It sticks in my mind, because in my excitement at the commentary, I managed to write off my Dad's car, losing it on a bend, on Speke Hall Avenue.

I got on the train back to uni PDQ!

"I went to his testimonial at Goodison in Oct/Nov 1984 where a combined Liverpool/Everton team took on a combined Manchester City/Utd team." - God was it that long ago?......I am seriously getting old. Wasn't the score something daft like 8-7 or 7-6?

Remember the period well, Mark Higgins was class-pity about the injury. Jim Arnold good but how could any keeper stop Nev!! I honestly feel we are getting on track now barring accidents and financial problems we can be a match for anyone this coming season.

I remember the Mark Higgins Testimonial mainly because of watching two little boys arguing with each other. They were at the match together, one Evertonian one Liverpudlian. They must have been about 8. The Evertonian lad was shouting at his mate "He's NOT giving up the game just because he's crap......."

Talking of centre backs of that time, who remembers the headline on the back page of The Echo: "You're too Fat Skipper" when Kendall dropped Billy Wright for being a porker?

Tony 7-6 if my memory serves me well. I remember 2 guys sat behind me pissing themselves when they saw Molby for the 1st time and how fat he was, and the Street end singing the Postman Pat song to Ian Rush

Andrew Ellams, what was that Postman Pat song for Rush? Do you remember of a pink panther one as well?

From the mists of time, I seem to remember Phil Neal being picked out for particular attention from the St End because he was shite & we had, (in Gary Stevens), a far superior right back on the verge of greatness. Only 13 at the time, but seem to remember piss taking by the blues of the highest calibre.

Brian Denton,

Great thing about Toffeeweb is how one specific post can fire the emotions & memories of fellow blues. We started this thread with a specific match & individual memories or opinions have followed.

Mark Higgins was made Captain of Everton due to Billy Wright failing a 'fatness' test in 82-83. According to Kendall, he was weighed as part of a normal fitness regime & told to lose weight over a certain period when he would be weighed again. However, when he weighed in heavier than before, Kendall stripped him of the captaincy & handed it to Higgins.

He would hand over the black arm band to Kevin Ratcliffe following his injury in the Autumn of 1983. Billy claimed to have been for a particularly big meal the night before he was weighed. When Kendall explained his problem to Tommy Docherty, the Doc said..'What did he order??.. Lead?

I think Billy Wright left on a free transfer to Brum in 1983.

I watched the game too and like yourself had no idea of the result and found it quite exciting. One thing I did notice on the shirt was the badge? It didn't seem to look like the tower that currently occupies our team shirt???