Everton’s 1994-95 Premier League campaign began in dismal fashion under Mike Walker, going winless in 11 games.
Walker was dismissed in the wake of a 0-0 draw with Norwich City — in came Joe Royle, and Everton won 4 of their next 8 league matches. The rest, as they say, is history.
Everton went on to secure a safe, 15th-place finish, but in the FA Cup, they saw off Derby County, Bristol City, Norwich City, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur to set up a Wembley showdown with Manchester United.
And on 20 May 1995, Paul Rideout’s goal saw Everton claim a 1-0 victory. That remains the Toffees’ most recent major trophy.
Barry Horne started in midfield that day, playing the whole game.
And, speaking exclusively to ToffeeWeb as part of our Once a Blue Series, Horne explained how the belief was flowing through the ranks of Everton’s Dogs of War.
“There was no arrogance, so there was no overconfidence. But we knew that we could beat them. We’d beat them in the league. We’d beat all the top teams. We’d beat Newcastle on our way to the final,” he said.
“We beat Spurs, of course another Joe Royle one-liner, ‘Sorry for ruining your dream final boys’. Because the Spurs-Man Utd final was what everybody wanted or expected. We’d beaten Liverpool, we’d beaten a very good Leeds team in a sequence of results. And we’d beaten Man Utd.
“There are certain clubs, and certain teams, where if you are of an age, you can name one to 11. You know, I can name Everton teams, for example. I can name two or three Liverpool teams from different areas. That was a Man Utd team where most football fans would go; There was [Peter] Schmeichel, [Steve] Bruce, [Mark] Hughes, [Brian] McClair, the rest of the team. We had a stroke of luck that Eric Cantona wasn’t playing, but the midfield was [Pau] Ince and Roy [Keane].”
Horne admits, it was not a classic, but he believes it was the last edition of the famous competition that every major club took seriously.
He said: “It wasn’t a great game. But I think it was probably the last FA Cup where every team in it was trying to win it. Every team played their strongest team in every game, in every round. And it was two proper, historic big clubs that were competing in the final. There were no resting players for the league. There was no squad rotation, it was like everyone’s flat out trying to win it, it was still a big deal.
“But we knew, we had confidence and that confidence was founded on a fantastic run of results leading up to that point. We secured Premier League survival with a few games to spare. We’d done well, we played well, we’d beaten a lot of top teams. And then it was just on to the big one. It was a proper FA Cup final.”