Today I'm going back 37 years to 1984 and the FA Charity Shield season curtain-raiser: a Merseyside derby played at Wembley before 100,000 fans no less! I know that some of you aren't thoroughly steeped in football so it's worth explaining what the Charity Shield actually is (or Community Shield as it's now known). The game is an annual event organised by the FA where a sizeable portion of the takings are donated to charitable causes. It's by invitation only with the invitations normally extended to the previous season's League champions (in this case Liverpool) and FA Cup winners (Everton beat Watford 2-0 three months earlier). Nominally the Charity Shield should reflect the two best club sides in England but the FA Cup can sometimes throw up some unexpected winners. In the 1984 edition there could be little doubt however that the two Merseyside clubs were the best around and they would go on to prove this during the course of the season as Everton became runaway League Champions with Liverpool finishing in second place thirteen points behind on goal difference from Spurs.
This game was notable for the goal which was scored for Everton by Bruce Grobbelaar. It was something of a comedy affair that ricocheted off Grobbelaar and into the net following two attempts to do so by Graeme Sharp. Howard Kendall's Everton side that day was something of a classic and their XI read as follows: Southall; Stevens, Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Bailey; Reid, Steven, Bracewell, Richardson; Sharp and Heath. Joe Fagan's Liverpool XI was similarly something of a classic side and read: Grobbelaar; Neal, Lawrenson, Hansen, Kennedy; Whelan, Dalglish, Lee, Nicol; Rush, Wark (Walsh). Both were very strong sides indeed!
It's also worth celebrating Everton's nickname here. "The Toffees" are apparently named after a two competing toffee shops located near Everton's home of Goodison Park which were frequented by their fans on the way to the match. In fact one of the two shops subsequently created an "Everton mint" which was striped like a former Everton strip and contained toffee but the nickname had already stuck, like the toffee! so much more inventive that the Blues or the Reds don't you think?
CRB Match No. 317
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