Seminar Notes in My Pocket – Goodison’s Finest Night, Forty Years On
Football might be ‘only’ a game to some, but for those of us there, at a time when Liverpool wasn’t the happiest place, we witnessed something special
No matter how successful your football team is, there’s always one game that stands out. Mine was forty years ago this week: Everton v Bayern Munich, European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final
It was April 1985. I was a carefree student, with no exams that year, which meant I could spend time and money watching the best Everton team in my lifetime. Problem was, I was studying in Portsmouth, 250 miles from my native Liverpool.
That great Wednesday night started on the Tuesday. I had to deliver a seminar on the Thursday, about the Attlee Labour government of 1945. I spent that day preparing and re-reading my notes and put them in my coat’s inside pocket, so that I could return from the match, go straight to the seminar room and deliver.
Come matchday, I took the morning train to London Waterloo, tube to Euston, then the train to Liverpool and the carriage full of fellow Blues from the London Supporters Club.
It was £3 to stand on the terraces. There was consternation at this, as it was normally £2.80, the price rise due to ‘making it easier to enter the stadium’. I wouldn’t tell you how much I’d pay to experience tat night again!
Goodison was a visceral, thumping bearpit that night. Everyone was desperate to play their part it making it a historical night. The game was a dour war of attrition, often brutal. The first half memorable for the roar as Southall made a great save, followed by the anguished cries as Hoeness calmy, carefully slotted in the rebound. 1-0 to Bayern.
The second half started in a frenzy. A throw in. The Bayern keeper, Pfaff, lived up to his name and spilled the ball, Sharp headed in the rebound. 1-1. Bedlam, Id never heard the stadium so loud. A constant twenty-minute noise. Then another throw-in, Pfaff faffed, crashing into his own defenders. Gray pounced and it was 2-1. The place rocked, the crush sent me ten yards one way, ten yards the other, no-one cared, we were in front.
Being in front made some of us tense, now we had something to lose. With six minutes left, a lovely intricate move left Steven free on goal, he stroked it in for 3-1, the stadium shook like never before. Everyone was on their feet singing for the rest of the game. Strangers hugged, wept with joy. We were in the final. Walking out of the ground, everyone was still singing. Liverpool 4 was full of joy.
We got back to Lime Street Station for the overnight train to London. More drinking, singing and plotting our journey to Rotterdam for the final. We got to London at 6am. Some of us went to Smithfields Market for ‘breakfast’. All the time, my seminar notes in my pocket.
I took the train to Portsmouth arriving just in time to start and drive the discussion on Attlee’s Labour government. I hadn’t slept. I was high on adrenaline and joy. It was, I was told ‘a good seminar’. I don’t know how I did it either!
I was so lucky to experience that night, so lucky to part of an occasion with almost 50,000 others in the stadium and many more listening on the radio or watching the TV highlights (no live TV in those days!)
Football might be ‘only’ a game to some, but for those of us there, at a time when Liverpool wasn’t the happiest place, we witnessed something special, full of graft, pride, joy and togetherness.
Forty years on, Goodisons finest night.
Reader Responses
Selected thoughts from readers23/04/2025 17:39:45
Cheers John. That AC Milan game was horrible. One of only two occasions I heard my Dad swear at the match. I remember Gary Jones' shirt being ripped till it hung off his back; the ref did nothing.
23/04/2025 23:30:50
A very powerful evocative read Paul.
Like you said, no Live TV, so I tuned in to the Radio.
It was an exhilarating Audio experience.
Can’t imagine what the live event must have been like.
How lucky for you and your Fellow Blues, to have witnessed History in the making.
Hands-up, all you readers who lingered, transfixed at that Action Photo at the Top of the page?
It Brought back memories of my boyhood days, buying the football Magazines, « Goal » and « Shoot « and staring at the Action Photos of Ariel Duels and Goalmouth Frenzies and often wondering, which trajectory the Ball took.
The imagination was in Over-Drive!
23/04/2025 23:58:40
It's a shame it was 'only' the European Cup-winners' Cup. That team would have won the European Cup itself that year.
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23/04/2025 16:22:12
An evocative piece of writing, thanks. After the miseries of European nights against the likes of AC Milan, Feyenoord and Dukla Prague it was amazing to see the Blues finally being able to take on the best again. I think we were all in shock, and maybe we still are!