EVERTON 0 CITY 1
League Division 1
31st October 1981
Attendance 31,305
Scorer Tueart(68)
Ref D Lloyd
City Corrigan, Ranson, McDonald, Reid, Power, Bond, Caton, Tueart, Hareide, Boyer, reeves – sub Hutchison(79)
Everton Arnold, Stevens, Bailey, Higgins, Lyons, Lodge, McMahon, O’Keefe, Ferguson, Ainscow, McBride – sub Sharp(78)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
ERLEND CLOUSTON WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 2ND NOVEMBER 1981
Manchester City’s slither down the table was inelegantly arrested at Goodison Park on Saturday. Arrested is perhaps the word. In an impressive display of sustained beligerence four City players were booked Power, Ranson and Tueart for illegal tackles. Bond Junior for dissent.
Howard Kendall, Everton’s manager, spent much of the post-match conference biting his tongue. “ You don’t need me to say what 30,000 people saw.” Bond senior of City preferred the Russian navy option. It was just a case of bad navigation. “It’s what the game is blanking all about, competing for that little ball.”
Everton’s supporters heckled Bond bitterly as he left his seat in the stand. One suspects that the demonstration owed as much to frustration as to outrage. The Goodison faithful have had worse straws to cling to than three wins on the trot and an unbeaten home record. Now they were being made to look average again.
City just about deserved their win. They had marginally more pace coming at too many angles for an unsure Everton defence. In midfield the harassing tactics of Reid, Power and Tueart forced Everton square or down attacking channels comfortably blocked by Caton and Bond.
Worryingly for Kendall, neither McBride nor Ainscow achieved any sort of penetration on the flanks. It was not until nine minutes from the end that Ferguson got a decent ball to lay off and then 0’Keefe lashed wide.
Earlier Corrigan had saved spectacularly from Lyons and 0’Keefe (twice), and Caton’s unobserved fists had beaten down a McMahon header. At the other end Boyer, Reeves and Tueart all had chances to improve City’s miserable recent League scoring record before Tueart, with 20 minutes left. lost his marker once more and speculatively back-headed Hareide’s speculative cross over Arnold.