The Kippers came from far and wide, to mingle with their heroes from past glories. From the far flung corners of the Northwest of England, four members of that victorious team travelled to share their wit and wisdom with the adoring Kippers. They were: The Manager – Howard “The Gaffer” Kendall The Skipper – Kevin “The Rat” Ratcliffe The Scorer - Graeme Sharp and last but not least The Substitute – John Bailey. The venue was the salubrious surroundings of the Taxi Club Walton. The occasion, a night re-living one of the greatest nights in our club’s history, “The Bayern Munich European Cup Winners Cup Semi-Final”. It could have sold out three times over but the lucky 200 patiently awaited the arrival of their guests. The drink was flowing and the talk was all about the Toffees. A little later than scheduled and to the strains of the mighty Z-Cars, the guests were individually introduced to the assembled Kippers. One by one, they were greeted with deafening applause as each in turn walked the length of the room to take his seat at the top table. The most fervent applause being afforded to the Gaffer. The applause eventually subsided and Gary (not the EFC player) Jones, the incomparable MC for the night, set the scene for the nights events. The format was simple. The DVD of the game would be shown on the giant screen and at strategic moments during the game, the assembled panel would be asked to provide comments, anecdotal evidence or in John Bailey’s case quintessential scouse humour. The crowd listened intently, as the guests set the scene, with Ratters re-calling that it took the team bus 20 minutes to get from Bullens Rd to the players entrance, such was the sheer number of people milling around the ground at 6:30 that night. He recalled that he had never experienced anything like that before or again since. The buzz around the ground was infectious and the Gaffer suggested that with support like this, there would be no way that this game would be lost.

As an aside, this was the first time any of the players had actually viewed the game in its entirety and could be seen wincing, groaning and laughing as they re-called the incidents that the passage of time had somehow clouded. The DVD player kicked into action and it was “game on”. It wasn’t pretty football in the first half but it was played at a relentless pace. Sharpy poured scorn on the suggestion that players of that era would struggle in today’s premiership and offered the argument that certain premiership players from today’s game would have jibbed it after 15 minutes play in this bruising encounter. Their goal was greeted with derisory groans and the MC asked for Howard’s comments on how his planned team talk had been affected. Howard replied that he could not have asked for any more effort than had been shown by his team, re-iterating that he viewed the Bayern team as being the best in Europe and that there was no shame in conceding to this fine side.
After a short intermission, the second half commenced with the crowd on the night of the game and the assembled Kippers in full voice behind the team. The Toffees went straight for the jugular and pounded the German side’s goal with barrage after barrage of attacking play. Howard felt at half time that if we continued to play as we were, that the “Gladwys Street would suck the goals in” and they proved him right.

The equaliser was greeted by a deafening cheer as Sharpy turned triumphantly to his team mates after “glancing” the ball into the Bayern net. This was an opportunity to good for the MC to miss and he paused the DVD mid celebrations. “Sharpy, are you still claiming that one” he joked. “That’s what the history books say” came the wry reply. It was all Everton now, as they pressed forward for the all important second to cancel out the German’s advantage, courtesy of the away goals rule. It wasn’t long in coming. From another long throw, the Bayern defenders contrived to baulk each other and their flapping keeper. The ball bounced invitingly in front of Andy Gray, who obliged by turning the ball into the empty Bayern net. Goodison and the Taxi club erupted in sync and those old familiar feelings of the mid to late nineties were with us once again. We defended stoutly and the midfield stood strong. Sharpy and Andy wore down the German defenders with fair and foul challenges. The Germans were no mugs in that department either and I suggested that if the game had been played in modern times, that we would have ended up with two a side at the end of the game. However, the British bulldog spirit proved too much and the by the time Tricky swept in the third, it was apparent that the Germans had been battered into submission. The celebrations had begun and the songs from the terraces were of Rotterdam and our first European final.
It was left to the Gaffer to sum up the team spirit and the mood of the night with the following anecdote. At the conclusion of the game, the Bayern coach (Lattek) approached the celebrating Everton bench. With real venom in his voice he said to the Gaffer “MR KENDALL, THAT WAS NOT FOOTBALL, THAT WAS WAR”. He was greeted with 20 or so simultaneous replies from the Everton bench of “FUCK OFF”. The Taxi club erupted in laughter at that one.
The night was concluded with thanks to the Kippers that had attended and special thanks to the guests for one of the most entertaining nights put on by the BlueKipper team. All four guests rounded off the evening by endorsing their feelings for our great club and stressing that the privilege was theirs as representatives of this great institution, the most heart-felt coming from John Bailey who has to be up there as one of the greatest Evertonians of all time. Howard was asked if he felt that we could have won the European Cup the following year, to which he replied “We had the potential to yes; we had a team of world class players but who knows. The worst thing about it was that we were denied the opportunity”. He did firmly believe that we were the best team in Europe at that time.

During the course of the night there were some exceptionally funny moments, which I felt could not go un-mentioned:
1 – Howard’s reply to the MC’s suggestion that Augenthaler should have received more sympathy after “accidentally” running into Andy Gray’s elbow with his face. “That was only phase one, keep watching he needs to get the other side of his nose plugged in a minute”
2 – Howard’s story about being approached by a Dutch commentator during the final in Rotterdam. The story went as follows; “We are 2-0 at this stage and I’ve turned round to find this Dutch reporter poking a microphone under my nose and asking how it felt to be winning manager in the European Cup Winners Cup final. Just then, Krankel gets one back for Rapid, so I turned to the commentator and shouted FUCK OFF YOU. No sooner than I said it, Sheeds goes down the other end and slots the third. I turned to the commentator and said, come here lad you’ll do for me”. Again the place was in hysterics.

It was a great night and hopefully the first of many more to come. If you didn’t manage to attend, don’t miss out on future nights as they will become part of the Everton folklore I’m sure.(12/03/04)

Thanx to Steve Battle (Sunlink) for the report.