| CITY 4 EVERTON 0 League Division 1 29th December 1959 attendance 43,531 scorers Hayes, McAdams, Fagan, Barlow Ref Mr Horner |
…The first 45 minutes against Everton this day were among the worst l remember. Only Branagan and Hayes appeared to be enjoying themselves. The rest were non- entities. Everton on the other hand played some delightful football none doing better than Collins while Parker was outstanding in defence. lf Trautmann had not made brilliant saves from Collins (twice) and Shackleton, and if O’Hara had not fallen so often into City’s desperate offside trap, Everton would have been out of sight. Dunlop had only one shot to save, from Colbridge.
What was said or what was done in City’s dressing room during the break was not disclosed. Nor was much confidence generated when it was seen that a limping Cheetham had moved to the right wing and Fagan to right half for the second half. lf City could do nothing right with eleven fit men, what hope had they with ten passengers and one player as one disgruntled City supporter put it?
We did not have to wait long for the answer. Colbridge went close; Jones cleared off the line from Barlow; and in the 54th minute Hayes scored after Barnes had lobbed the ball brilliantly into the Everton penalty area. Three minutes later, McAdams left the Everton backs flat footed and scored a second; two minutes passed and Fagan nearly broke the net with a superb shot from 20 yards; and six minutes after that, Cheetham, who had done a tremendous amount of work on one sound leg, provided the pass from which Barlow made it four. lt was almost unbelievable, but then this was City all over.
To the end, Everton strove and suffered, but rarely were they allowed to get anywhere near Trautmann, and City recorded their first home victory since mid-October.
ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE BY ERIC TODD OF THE GUARDIAN, PUBLISHED IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 16TH AUGUST 1972