Penalty row as giants draw
from "Press Association"
Everton paid the penalty for one of the worst pieces of refereeing of the season on Sunday in the Merseyside clash of the giants. The Blues came close to their first ever FA Cup win at Liverpool and undoubtedly would have grabbed that historic victory but for the failure of referee Neil Midgeley to award one of the most clear-cut spot kicks imaginable.
After 39 minutes man of the match Pat Nevin burst into the penalty area and sped towards the goal only to have his legs whipped away from him by Gary Ablett. Mr Midgeley was the only man at a packed Anfield not to see the incident as a penalty and understandably protests broke out as he signalled a goal kick. Graeme Sharp was the only Everton player booked for protesting but he merely got punished for saying what everyone else knew to be true.
Everton were so much on top in the first half that they deserved to be ahead at the interval.
The reason for their dominance was both the success of manager Howard Kendall's decision to play Martin Keown in a sweeper system and due to the loss of Steve McMahon from the Liverpool midfield.
Just 14 minutes into the Fifth Round tie McMahon committed a foul jump tackle on John Ebbrell but came off worst. The England player was helped off the field, taken to hospital for an X-ray, and was replaced by Barry Venison. That allowed Everton to assume command of the midfield and Liverpool were put under increasing pressure as the half wore on. So much so that skipper Glenn Hysen almost paid the ultimate price when his poor back pass was only robbed from the grateful Sharp by alert keeper Bruce Grobbelaar.
Neil McDonald's shot also forced Grobbelaar into action before Keown got forward to see the keeper produce the goods yet again in the final seconds of the first half when he made solid contact with a header.
But if Everton held the upper hand in the first 45 minutes Liverpool edged the second half on points, although it was not until the final 15 minutes that they looked like breaking the deadlock.
Ray Atteveld and Kevin Sheedy were both booked before Everton's Neville Southall pulled off a sparkling save from a Jan Molby powerblast after the Dane had been set up by John Barnes.
From the resulting corner David Speedie's spectacular volley again brought the best out of Southall.
It was Speedie's final effort, the recent 750,000 pound signing being substituted by Peter Beardsley just five minutes later.
And it was Beardsley, four minutes from time, who almost became the latest in a long line of Liverpool heroes. Barnes weaved his magic on the left and set up Beardsley whose first time shot clipped the foot of Everton's post with Southall, for the only time, well beaten.
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