Tales from Grandad's Tool Shed
Everton – January 1984
Published by Eccles on May 22, 2008
“It was true. Keith Peacock had pulled off a stunning coup and signed 30-year-old Northern Ireland International Terry Cochrane on a free transfer from Middlesbrough. Cochrane was class, pure and simple. A diminutive figure at 5′ 7″, he was an outside-right in the old tradition. He had beautiful balance, he could beat men inside and outside, centre the ball with either foot, and had an eye for goal.
He played to the gallery too, with both his socks rolled down, and if there was a choice between doing the simple and doing the outrageous, he’d do the outrageous. He had a healthy disrespect for officials, often glaring at them and putting his hands round his eyes signalling that he thought they needed glasses. And he wasn’t averse to telling them exactly what he thought of some rubbish decision either, so occasionally he took an early bath. It didn’t surprise us that he’d fallen out with then Middlesbrough manager Malcolm Allison (not difficult I would think). They were prepared to write off a £238,000 fee, but how much were Gills paying in wages and signing-on fees? Who cared, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
“Terry Cochrane made his first appearance in a Gills shirt at the home game against Preston on Saturday, October 8th. In more normal times this would have meant a huge increase in the gate, but now, with football sliding into the doldrums, it meant an increase of less than 500 on the previous Saturday’s match with Brentford. It was a sad fact and reflection on the times that the gates rarely crawled above 4,500, but those who did show up were treated to football and thrills that they would never forget. Take the 3,725 who were there at the Preston game. They saw a thrilling first half of attacking football, with Terry Cochrane giving us a taster of what we were in for, giving his markers a torrid time. With two minutes to go before half time, Dave Mehmet swept the ball out to Cochrane on the right. He killed the ball dead, then pushed it forward a bit, and from the corner of the box sent over a looping dipping shot which deceived the keeper completely and nestled itself in the back of the Rainham End net. Brilliant. Mark Weatherly wrapped up a 2-0 win in the second half, Terry Cochrane left the field to a standing ovation – the bloke hadn’t played a full game for weeks and was knackered – and all was well with the world.
“Gills sparked into an eight match unbeaten run. We had two thundering Cochrane-inspired wins in deepest Lancashire, 3-2 at Burnley (Cochrane, Cascarino and Mehmet – that would become a familiar ring) and 2-1 at Wigan (Cochrane and Weatherly), and sandwiched between them we finally got back to giving Exeter a thumping at Priestfield, 3-1 in a midweek match. We followed those up with a 1-1 draw at Orient, a fiery 3-3 draw at Priestfield with Millwall and a 2-0 win at home to Lincoln. We were in good form, and confident of extending our unbeaten run further with the away match at Walsall on Saturday November 12th. We lost 3-1, but the result was completely overshadowed by tragedy.
“On the way to the match Club Chairman Doctor Clifford Grossmark was taken ill in his car, and although his driver turned round and took him immediately to hospital, he had died on the way. The news started to filter through during the afternoon, and although the players weren’t told until after the game, they must have got an inkling that something was seriously wrong. The Doctor was only 69, which by Club Chairman standards in those days was not particularly old, and many could not imagine the club without him. He’d been Chairman for 22 years, and had dominated every aspect of the running of things. I’d crossed swords with him on several occasions as you know, but I’d never suggest that he wasn’t anything other than a Gills fan through and through. My vision and his were different, that’s all.
“I’ve always felt that there was a window of opportunity from the end of the Second World War to about 1968 when we could have made the leap from being a small time club to being established in the Second Division. We were pushing on towards that in the 1950′s when Charlie Cox Senior was Chairman, got to fourth in the Third Division South in 1954/55, and wanted to bring Alf Ramsey in as manager. Who knows? But Charlie Cox died and the impetus fizzled out. We had a second chance on the Doctor’s watch when Freddie Cox was manager, but he was allowed to leave, and from that point we were consigned to being a small club. Although Doctor Grossmark always fought Gillingham’s corner brilliantly, like in the aftermath of the Swindon matches when we faced all sorts of censures for having a referee assaulted and players arrested, and when he became the first Chairman to make a poaching accusation stick after Len Ashurst walked out to manage Sheffield Wednesday, it was always from the angle of us being a little club against the big boys. Whether he ever saw Gills as being one of the ‘big boys’ I don’t know.
“At the Doctor’s memorial service Brian Moore said ‘In the boardroom he was a world champion in pessimism. The opposition were always bigger, better, more determined and certainly more skilful than our team’. That’s the way football fans always look at it I suppose – however good things are, something will always go wrong. But should a Football Club Chairman be a pessimist, or do you want someone who is happy-go-lucky and an optimist? That’s certainly what we got with Charlie Cox Junior, son of W. S. C. Cox who had been Chairman in the 1940′s and 1950′s. Charlie had been Vice-Chairman for over twenty years, but he was quite different to his father and to the Doctor. His business situation was cloudy. He’d inherited a thriving pub and catering empire – the Central Hotel at the top of Featherby Road, the Livingstone Arms, the Army and Navy at Chatham and a few others places were all part of the portfolio – but over time they’d all sort of relaunched under different management. He’d got some racehorses though – I won some money on one of them once – and of course he bought me a drink at Newport when we won the Fourth Division Championship. A lot of people thought that Doctor Grossmark’s ideas and policies had held the club back and, with Keith Peacock, our excellent squad and Charlie Cox as Chairman, we’d soar. I wasn’t so sure. I kept recalling a very rare interview that Doctor Grossmark once gave, when he talked about how he and Vice-Chairman Charlie Cox worked together. The Doctor said ‘I do the day to day work and Charles Cox does the fund raising. He’s the optimist of the partnership and I’m the very guarded pessimist. I spend my time reining him in!’ Interesting comments, and time would tell.
“The first game at Priestfield after Doctor Grossmark’s passing was against Rotherham, and for the first time since Winston Churchill died in 1965 we had two minutes silence before the game. Note SunBoy, the correct TWO minutes silence, not this one minute short-hand version you get at games nowadays, practically every other week it seems. And impeccably observed too, with the players properly lined up as a team either side of the officials in the centre circle. Not this arms around shoulders, holding hands and all in a ring modernist rubbish, which looks like one of ‘em might have forgotten to do up his flies. This mark of respect was absolutely spot on, and as the Doctor always liked things neat and tidy I think he would have approved. Whether he would have approved of some of what went on in the game I’m not sure.
“After a very quiet start, Mark Weatherly buried Terry Cochrane’s cross, and Dave Mehmet scored a fabulous second when he pulled Cochrane’s chip down, turned and hit a curling shot round the keeper all in one movement to put us 2-0 up after half-an-hour. I think he’d have enjoyed that. But then the referee began to make some shocking decisions, started booking everyone in sight, and then there was a right royal Burgess/Hickson type punch-up and Jeff Johnson and one of their blokes got sent off a minute before half-time. Tempers didn’t cool much after the break, and with Gills spending a bit too much time trying to settle a few scores, Rotherham pulled it back to 2-2. I thought we were going to lose, but the unflappable Mark Weatherly put us back in front, and Dave Mehmet sealed a 4-2 win thrashing home a loose ball near the end. Phew! A match that had just about everything, I’d say.
“We pushed on with a 1-0 win at Port Vale, but the Friday night the week before Christmas we lost 2-0 at Scunthorpe. What a farce that was. Ian Botham played for them in central defence, he lived up that way and wanted to get fit for England’s winter cricket tour. How could our boys go full tilt against him? You could imagine the headlines couldn’t you – England’s Star Out Of Tour Following Good Kicking By Gillingham Cloggers. I’d have given him one, though. Botham’s never got a good word to say about Kent and wants to take a chain-saw to our lime tree. Treasonable. Still, his cameo provides a good footie trivia quiz question – name the three England captains who’ve played for Scunthorpe. Most people get Kevin Keegan and Ray Clemence. Botham usually stumps them!
“Boxing Day we were home to Southend. Gave them a goal start and then a 5-1 hammering, best Boxing Day win we’d had in years, but the following night we lost 3-0 at Bristol Rovers in torrential rain. And New Year’s Eve we lost 1-0 at home to Wimbledon. It was a typical big-booting, cynical, boring game which became their hallmark over the years. As we moved into 1984, we were mid-table on the fringes of the promotion race, and still in the Cup. We couldn’t have imagined what thrills would await us in the next few weeks.
“In the First Round of the Cup we’d been drawn away to AP Leamington, one of those really tricky ones. They fancied turning us over, and in front of a fierce crowd of just over 2,000 we snatched an early goal from Phil Handford, and clung on against some ever increasing physical challenges. Second Round we got what everyone wants – home to non-League opposition. It was Chelmsford, and after a first half when we slowly ground them down and had only a Peter Shaw goal to show for it, in the second half the dam burst sensationally. Steve Bruce, Mel Sage, Mark Weatherly, Dave Mehmet and John Leslie all got in on a 6-1 romp. Later that evening, we were drawn at home in the Third Round, to Brentford.
“The match was played on Saturday January 7th 1984. We were poor in the first half and Brentford took the lead. Keith Peacock shook things up at half-time, bringing on Tony Cascarino as substitute. He was coming back from injury. We kicked towards the Gillingham End in the second half. Terry Cochrane equalised in the fifty-sixth minute with a brilliant overhead kick and we looked on for a win. Then, in the 70th and 76th minutes – disaster. Brentford caught us on the break, David Fry was beaten by a shot that hit the post, and the odious Terry Hurlock whacked in the rebound through a ruck of players. Even worse, Gills were caught horribly short again with only Steve Bruce to stave off three attackers. He and Fry were passed out of the game, and Keith Cassells rolled the ball into the empty net.
“We were 3-1 down, and that was the signal for hundreds of fans around the ground to walk out, taunted by the smattering of Brentford fans in the Main Stand boasting about who they’d be playing in the next round, wishing us better luck next year etc. Nauseating! But always remember the old adage ‘never ever ever walk out on the Gills’ because some day something incredible might just happen. And in this match, with nine minutes to go, it did.
“Russell Musker got the ball on the halfway line, drifted past about three players and from twenty yards out hammered it into the top corner. Roche, their keeper formerly with Manchester United, was beaten all ends up. We pushed forward for the equaliser and a pass by Kamara under pressure took almost the whole of our team out of the game. It was three against one in the Rainham End area and David Fry somehow beat the ball away. It fell to Cassells, and Steve Bruce somehow got back to hook it off the line. Now suddenly with two minutes left Mark Weatherly was away. He held off two defenders, and as Roche came off his line Mark lobbed him and tied it up at 3-3. But that was only the half of it. With the crowd getting right behind them, Gills stormed forward again straight from the kick-off. They were going for it. Come on Gills! In the goalmouth melee that followed someone hacked the ball away for a corner. Terry Cochrane dropped it onto Steve Bruce’s head, that got blocked and the ball ran loose to John Leslie. From my seat in the Main Stand, I could see there was only a tiny space near the top corner where he could put his shot – and he did. Around me, as soon as it left his foot you could see it was a goal, and the place went completely and utterly barmy. Brentford couldn’t believe what had happened to them, and from kick-off they charged up the field like the Light Brigade. But we soon broke their attack. Suddenly Cas was clean through on his own, and he buried it. And then the whistle went. 5-3 to the Gills!
“Have Some!”
“Just by looking at people’s faces after the game you could tell who’d seen the most amazing nine minutes in Gillingham’s history, and who’d given up on them and gone up the pub. And amidst all this mayhem it sank in that we were in the Fourth Round, and there were some pretty big names in with us. I sat here in the toolshed listening to the draw on the radio Monday lunchtime. There wasn’t long to wait. The third tie drawn was:-
“Number 13.…Everton…will play….Number 14…Gillingham.
“I don’t think anyone could complain about that. A chance to make some money, and to play one of football’s aristocrats, because without doubt that’s what Everton were. One of the 12 founder members of the Football League, other than a couple of seasons in the 1950′s they had always been in the top flight. Goodison Park was one of the best grounds in the country, the only ground in England other than Wembley to have hosted a World Cup semi-final. So where Pele and Dixie Dean had once played it would now be Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino. Did their fans even know who Gillingham were? They might do after this tie had been played. We’ll see.
“But first we had some League business to attend to, and for once the gathering excitement about a big match didn’t faze us. We were home to Sheffield United, who were second in the table and who had hammered us 4-0 in the opening game of the season. We returned the compliment, ripping in four ourselves inside fifty-five minutes. Then I think we must have felt sorry for them, because both John Sitton and Peter Shaw put through their own goal. Blimey – but we hung on for a 4-2 win. The following Saturday our game at Oxford was frozen off, and with snow and ice forecast we began to fear that the big game might be postponed. No worries, Everton had undersoil heating – something we don’t normally expect to find at our usual haunts like Chesterfield and Doncaster. Saturday January 28th 1984 finally arrived, and the two special trains, fleets of coaches and cars set off early for the long journey to Liverpool. There were over 4,000 Gills fans in the crowd of 22,380, and we were determined to give it everything.
Our team was:-
David Fry; John Sitton; Brian Sparrow; Steve Bruce; Mark Weatherly; Peter Shaw; Terry Cochrane; Jeff Johnson; John Leslie; Dave Mehmet; Tony Cascarino. Sub: Russell Musker.
“Gills kicked towards our end in the first half, and looked relaxed and confident. It was Everton who were employing the strong-arm tactics – no more so than after twenty-five minutes when Neville Southall dived at Mark Weatherly’s feet to gather the ball and then cynically rolled over onto his outstretched leg, putting our leading scorer out of the game and out for the rest of the season. It was a body blow for Gills, and Everton started to turn the game their way, but Gills came again towards half-time and twice nearly grabbed the lead. Steve Bruce saw his header from Terry Cochrane’s corner cleared off the line with Southall nowhere, and then from Dave Mehmet’s corner Bruce’s header smacked against the bar, rebounded onto Mountfield’s forehead and then back over the top.
“It was passionate singing and chanting to lift the team for a second half which was likely to be a rearguard action played out in front of us. Gills were under the cosh for most of it, but Everton over-elaborated and a Gills defender usually stepped in to clear. Steve Bruce was magnificent, keeping Andy Gray shackled, and still finding time to clear a shot from Adrian Heath off the line. As Everton got more desperate, their fans started to turn on them, and boos were mingling with our cheers as dogged defending broke up yet another attack.
“Not that Everton had it all their own way. With about fifteen minutes left, John Leslie hit a shot across goal from well out which had Southall stretching, and with a minute to go Tony Cascarino had Southall stretching again with an almost identical effort. It was impossible to say from our end how close the shots actually were, but these were heart-stopping moments. Everton were roundly booed off at the end, but we knew nothing of this at the time. Our end was just deafening cheering and singing from 4,000 happy souls, a glorious 0-0 result and everything to play for at Priestfield on Tuesday night.
“The media started to wake up to the fact that there was a potential giant-killing on offer, and even better some blood-letting too. Despite their pedigree, Everton were not having a good season, and with arch-rivals Liverpool dominating the First Division Championship again, Everton manager Howard Kendall was under real pressure. If they lost at Gillingham he was history. For us, it was now 76 years, in 1908, that we had had our only success against a team from the top flight, and we’d waited long enough. I really thought this would be our night. 15,339 were in hoping to see history made. Mel Sage came in for Brian Sparrow, who was nursing a knock, and Russell Musker was starting in place of Mark Weatherly, otherwise the team was unchanged.
“And in the first minute, John Leslie got round the back of the Everton defence and crossed low, and they were all over the place before Peter Reid hacked the ball into Gordon Road. Blimey, this actually IS going to be the night, but from then on for the rest of the first half, Everton really put together a display of passing and movement that had Gills under fearful pressure. Fortunately, they couldn’t shoot and we hung on, with slowly increasing confidence, to half-time.
“In the first minute of the second half Terry Cochrane smacked a fierce shot against the post with Neville Southall beaten and with Gills now really carrying the game, a Dave Mehmet diving header went just wide and then Southall pushed a stinging drive from Leslie round the post. So the pattern of the second half, and half-hour of extra time, developed. Everton keeping possession for long periods but basically doing nothing with it, and Gills looking highly dangerous when they broke forward themselves. Southall at that time was the best goalkeeper in the country, and at Priestfield he needed to be. He was by far the busier, and was really tested.
“When the game went into extra time, everyone thought that the top division side would finally clinch it, and with two minutes to go they almost did, swarming round Gills’ goal for a corner. And then came the moment in our history when time stopped. Mel Sage cleared the ball under pressure. It went straight to Tony Cascarino, just inside his own half, and he was completely and utterly on his own. In the Main Stand, everyone immediately leapt to their feet at the realisation that here was the most golden of chances. Then, with the enormity of what was about to occur in the next few seconds sinking in, everyone stood mesmerised. 15,000 people held their breath. In a strange silence, Cas galloped halfway the length of the field, towards the Rainham End. Southall stood frozen at the edge of the box, but with the crowd on its feet willing him on, poor Cas took the ball a bit too close to the goalkeeper, had to blast it rather than a chip, and Southall blocked with his legs. The clearest chance had gone.
“There was still time for Kevin Sheedy to hit the post at the other end, and for Steve Bruce to block the rebound. Then it was all over. 0-0 after extra time. There would now be a second replay, and unlike the last occasion when we had played Maidstone, we were quite happy to toss a coin for venue. Chairman Charlie Cox called correctly, and we were back at Priestfield again the following Monday. In between times we had a League match at Brentford, and unusually not only did we comfortably beat them 3-2 it was the third win against them that season. It was a good tuning up for what was now a Cup Tie that was getting national attention. Could Gills do it? I had my doubts. I always think with giant-killings that your best chance is in the first match, and then it gets progressively harder. I know that didn’t apply when we played Maidstone, so you never know. An even bigger crowd of 17,817 piled into Priestfield on a night when a howling gale was blowing straight down the pitch into the Rainham End. The obvious thing was for the side winning the toss to kick towards the Rainham End in the first half, break the deadlock with a couple of wind-assisted goals, and hang on in the second half.
“Brian Sparrow was back in for the injured John Sitton. Gills won the toss, and attacked the Rainham End, much to everyone’s glee. But they kept over-hitting their passes, and everything was being blown into the crowd. Neville Southall was again on good form, saving well from Tony Cascarino, Steve Bruce and John Leslie. Finally, after four hours and three games, there was a goal, and it went to Everton. In a breakaway, Andy Gray headed down a cross, and Kevin Sheedy scored from close range. Then Adrian Heath scored, and then Sheedy again. 0-3. It was all over.
“The thought of Everton now taking advantage of the wind in the second half and really making us pay was not pleasant, but they gave us the respect of worthy opponents and coasted through the rest of the match. The only memorable things about that half were wondering whether the cameraman who was suspended in a cradle over the Gordon Road Stand and being blown about alarmingly would actually be sick, and a storming chant of ‘Gillingham! Gillingham! Gillingham!’ near the end showing our appreciation of the team’s efforts overall, and our traditional defiance.
“Cascarino! And He Must Score!”
“We’d had probably our best ever cup campaign since 1908. We’d played six games, and had some unforgettable moments. We’d scored goals, and we’d made some money. Cas’ miss almost certainly saved Kendall’s job and Everton went on to win the Cup, the Cup Winner’s Cup the year later, and two League Championships in three years. And that illustrious history would have been completely changed if Cas had scored that one-on-one. On the debit side, some of our young stars had been given national exposure and shown what they could do. Steve Bruce had been magnificent against Andy Gray, and no-one could see us being able to hang on to him much longer.
“We were now able to concentrate on the League, as they say, and because of postponements for Cup games and due to frosty or snowy conditions, here we were at the beginning of February and we’d only played 23 games. We had half a season to play in three months! A huge ask, but if we made a good fist of it, we could easily snatch a promotion spot. Unfortunately, injuries and general fatigue caught up with us, we couldn’t keep a settled squad going, and we dropped too many points. As was often the case with Keith Peacock teams, we stumbled in the vital ten games left area, and came strongly at the finish when it was too late. Of the twenty-three matches, we won eight, drew seven and lost eight – perfectly symmetrical if nothing else.
“We had our moments. In a midweek match at runaway leaders Oxford, our team picked itself – whoever wasn’t injured got a game. Phil Cavener scored for us after 42 seconds, and somehow we held out for a 1-0 win, giving Oxford their only home defeat of the season. Steve Bruce was once again magnificent, holding us together while Oxford forced an incredible 28 corners during the game! Beating Bolton 1-0 at Burnden Park with a Tony Cascarino goal, and doing the double over them, was pretty tasty too. Here was one of football’s mighty giants falling through the Divisions, and little Gillingham were helping them on their way. And pooping on Wimbledon’s promotion party May Day Bank Holiday Monday was quite enjoyable too. Plough Lane had a huge, for them, crowd of 6,009, and they went ahead after just nine seconds. We faced a furious aerial bombardment for the rest of the half but didn’t conceded again. At half-time Keith obviously told our boys to keep the ball on the deck and play football. Wimbledon found their hoofing and strong-arming trumped, had nothing else to offer, and we strolled through to a 3-1 win with goals from Steve Bruce, Cas and John Sitton.
“But we had some disappointing results too. A 4-0 midweek defeat at Lincoln in front of a paltry 1,500 people was as drab as it gets, but back to back Easter defeats 3-1 Good Friday at Southend and 2-1 Easter Monday home to Bristol Rovers ran it close. The defeat by Rovers should have been worse, because a shot from them clearly flew into the top corner of the Gillingham End net and bounced out again. The referee gave us a goal-kick, claiming the ball went outside the net, which was rubbish. A 1-0 home defeat by Burnley at the end of March with a late goal was disappointing. We didn’t know at the time that we were starting a football league record, and it would be 62 consecutive home games, in all competitions, before we would fail to score at home again.
“Three wins and a 1-1 home draw with Scunthorpe in the last four games saw us lift into eighth place with 70 points. Sheffield United got the third promotion place with 83 points, so we were some way away. The season had been dominated by the Cup exploits, and we needed to translate them into league performances if we were going to challenge for promotion to the Promised Land. Keith Peacock was playing the right kind of football though, and it was a big disappointment that only an average of 4,000 came along to see it. Gates at some of the away games were barely half that. If that didn’t show the football authorities how seriously in trouble the game was, then they’d soon find out in the worst of ways possible.”
Eccles
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