Everton 4 - 1 Ipswich Town

31 December 1994

Scorers

Everton: Ferguson 26, Rideout 70, 74, Watson 90

Ipswich: Sedgley 14

Yellow cards

Everton:

Lineups

Everton: Southall 7, Jackson 8, Burrows 6, Unsworth 7, Watson 7, Horne 6, Parkinson 8, Ebbrell 7, Hinchcliffe 7, Ferguson 8, Rideout 8

Ipswich: Forrest, Yallop, Vaughan, Wark (46. Whelan), Linighan, Mason (71. Slater), Slater, Palmer, Sedgley, Thomsen, Kiwomya, Guentchev

Subs not used: Kearton, Limpar, Barlow (Everton) Baker (Ipswich)

Officiating

Referee:

Linesmen:

Attendance: 25,659

Overview

New Year's Eve.

In come Ipswich. A glance down their teamsheet revealed only two names worth raising a compliment to, Steve Sedgley being one of them. Only one thing was more unlikely that Ipswich would win.. that Everton could afford to lose.

Everton started like a premier team going after a non-league side in sudden death extra-time.. they created two scoring opportunities before Ipswich ever got a foot on the ball in the first 5 minutes. Affter that another 10 mins rolled by and Everton's possession was not creating clear enough chances to get the lead.

Then EEK! Ipswich broke, threaded a beautiful through ball Beardsley style through the defence and took the goal calmly under a charging Southall. Were Ipswich & their new manager about to turn their year around?

Still - it was very early day.. only 20 minutes gone, and.. but wait!.. the nightmare was getting VERY scarey. Everton lost their shape and confidence and half a dozen passes went astray to roll out of play. Hinchcliffe's passes and corners seemed to have reverted to the crap he used to produce pre-Walker. What seemed like an hour, but was only about 10 minutes passed before Everton were relieved by Ferguson continuing his scoring run in front of the Street End. Rideout hit a post before the half, but they went in at 1-1. The result was not yet good enough, but the chances created had been so numerous that it would take a miracle of Leicester-at-Old Trafford proportions to stop Everton getting at least 1 more.. preferably two in case of another breakaway goal.

Although it took a nerve-wracking 25 minutes for Paul Rideout to actually get that go-ahead goal, once scored, the match ended, because Ipswich clearly had had their hearts broken at losing the chance of 3 away points whilst Everton were bubbling over with confidence, and added a third shortly afterward. For once they went for the kill rather than trying to sit on a 1-goal lead, and kept at the throat all the way to the end as evidenced by Watson's last minute fourth.

The cold clear skies seemed warm and happy. The nightmare so close to becoming reality only about an hour ago had been chased away. Joe's blues had proved boxing day a fluke and got back on with their revivial.

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