Articles
Blues' nightmare
Liverpool Echo - Monday 23 November 1970
DEFENSIVE COLLAPSE WAS UNBELIEVABLE
By Mike Charters
The cracks that have been visible In Everton's defence all season burst wide open in a nightmare 15 minutes in the derby game at Anfield on Saturday. During that spell, Liverpool rapped in three goals to win an incredible match, snatch the glory and reduce Everton, who had built up a two goal lead deservedly, to a defensive shambles. No wonder Everton manager, Harry Catterick, said: "We threw the game away.' This was an unbelievable collapse by the defence and there's been some straight and hard talking at Bellefield today trying to sort out just what went wrong. But that should not take the credit away from Liverpool's burst of power and spirit which gave them one of the most remarkable triumphs in the long history of Merseyside derby games. It needed guts and an indomitable will to win to come back from being two down, with only 20 minutes to play Liverpool showed that in abundance. When Everton scored twice early in the second half, they were playing with an assured command. They were the better team. Royle, Whittle and Morrissey were testing the Liverpool defence, there was midfield control from Ball, and the defence looked sound enough. Even in the boredom of the first half. It had been Everton who created what few goalmouth incidents there were. Royle, Hurst and Kendall made scoring attempts. Liverpool's only strike in that 45 minutes was a header past the post from Toshack.
Incredible
Everton's defence, at that stage, had coped so comfortably with Toshack and Heighway that it made their eventual collapse all the more Incredible. Everton seemed to have the game safely tucked away with a sweetly-taken goal from Whittle and a powerful header by Royle, both from fine work by Morrissey. They deserved to be in front because what thrust and penetration we had seen had come from them. Then this remarkable young man Heighway chanced the scene with two deft touches of skill. He beat Hurst on the touchline, cut along the goal-line—where was the challenge from other Everton defenders —and clipped a shot inside Rankin and the near post just when everyone expected him to pass back to Toshack. Within minutes, he had beaten Wright to cross accurately for Toshack to out-jump Labone and head high into the net. Then Lindsay made another fine centre for Toshack to head the ball across to Lawler, who hit a fine winner. Everton had been the better team for 70 minutes, but it was the last 20 which made all the difference. Heighway, and indifferent defensive covering, had shattered the Blues. But don't let the explosive happenings of the last half hour overshadow the fact that, for an hour, it had been one of the dullest, untidy scrambles that a derby game crowd has seen for years. The battle for midfield mastery was tough, over physical at times, with the referee handing out lectures to Hughes and Smith. Spectators will remember the five goals, and the fantastic switch in the game's fortunes in that pulsating last half hour. But it was a non-event, in a football sense for two-thirds of the time. The last stage made up for all the earlier safety-first, negative play. To Labone, Ball and Keith Newton, on the Everson side, it was the nightmare of England's World Cup defeat by West Germany all over again. The turn of events was just as dramatic and—ln that frenzied Anfield atmosphere—just as memorable.
Copyright - Liverpool Post and Mercury - Transcribed by http://www.
DEFENSIVE COLLAPSE WAS UNBELIEVABLE
By Mike Charters
The cracks that have been visible In Everton's defence all season burst wide open in a nightmare 15 minutes in the derby game at Anfield on Saturday. During that spell, Liverpool rapped in three goals to win an incredible match, snatch the glory and reduce Everton, who had built up a two goal lead deservedly, to a defensive shambles. No wonder Everton manager, Harry Catterick, said: "We threw the game away.' This was an unbelievable collapse by the defence and there's been some straight and hard talking at Bellefield today trying to sort out just what went wrong. But that should not take the credit away from Liverpool's burst of power and spirit which gave them one of the most remarkable triumphs in the long history of Merseyside derby games. It needed guts and an indomitable will to win to come back from being two down, with only 20 minutes to play Liverpool showed that in abundance. When Everton scored twice early in the second half, they were playing with an assured command. They were the better team. Royle, Whittle and Morrissey were testing the Liverpool defence, there was midfield control from Ball, and the defence looked sound enough. Even in the boredom of the first half. It had been Everton who created what few goalmouth incidents there were. Royle, Hurst and Kendall made scoring attempts. Liverpool's only strike in that 45 minutes was a header past the post from Toshack.
Incredible
Everton's defence, at that stage, had coped so comfortably with Toshack and Heighway that it made their eventual collapse all the more Incredible. Everton seemed to have the game safely tucked away with a sweetly-taken goal from Whittle and a powerful header by Royle, both from fine work by Morrissey. They deserved to be in front because what thrust and penetration we had seen had come from them. Then this remarkable young man Heighway chanced the scene with two deft touches of skill. He beat Hurst on the touchline, cut along the goal-line—where was the challenge from other Everton defenders —and clipped a shot inside Rankin and the near post just when everyone expected him to pass back to Toshack. Within minutes, he had beaten Wright to cross accurately for Toshack to out-jump Labone and head high into the net. Then Lindsay made another fine centre for Toshack to head the ball across to Lawler, who hit a fine winner. Everton had been the better team for 70 minutes, but it was the last 20 which made all the difference. Heighway, and indifferent defensive covering, had shattered the Blues. But don't let the explosive happenings of the last half hour overshadow the fact that, for an hour, it had been one of the dullest, untidy scrambles that a derby game crowd has seen for years. The battle for midfield mastery was tough, over physical at times, with the referee handing out lectures to Hughes and Smith. Spectators will remember the five goals, and the fantastic switch in the game's fortunes in that pulsating last half hour. But it was a non-event, in a football sense for two-thirds of the time. The last stage made up for all the earlier safety-first, negative play. To Labone, Ball and Keith Newton, on the Everson side, it was the nightmare of England's World Cup defeat by West Germany all over again. The turn of events was just as dramatic and—ln that frenzied Anfield atmosphere—just as memorable.
Copyright - Liverpool Post and Mercury - Transcribed by http://www.
