I was 15 in 1995, watched the whole day on the BBC, Neville Southall rolled back the years, Stuart should have scored but thankfully Rideout was on hand for the rebound.
I didn`t ever think that would be the end of it, league champions in 87 and runner up in 89, I do not remember these 1st hand but I remember fellow Evertonians were saying after the 95 win we were coming back, we then won the Charity Shield with Vinny Samways goal. But that was it, a flash in the pan and as we moved in to the 2000`s we came runners up in 2009 but even after we went ahead I didn`t really believe we would win that game.
The 2010s came and went and now here we are in the 2020s, nearly 30 years on from our last trophy, I`ve seen every failure like going out of the UEFA CWC in 96 to Feyenoord, Regi Blinker scored the only goal in the second leg, I believe after that he went to Sheffield Wednesday.
Even in the season after our FA Cup win we finished 6th and it felt like we were coming back but that was soon extinguished, really those following seasons there was a belief we could get back to challenging, remember it was less than 10 years since our last league win. It soon became evident that was a false dawn.
Didn`t really get that sort of belief until 2005 when it started to become clear we could qualify for the Champions League, don`t forget we had finished 17th the season before but I felt even if we could get through to the group stage that would elevate the clubs profile, but we all know what happened the following season. Even though we got knocked out, rightly or wrongly, by Collina we went in to the UEFA Cup and even I thought we could go deep in to the competition but we got smashed 5-1 in the 1st leg of the 1st round by Dinnamo Bucuresti, another false dawn.
Since then as the decades and years have gone by I`ve just got used to being an also ran, even Ancelotti came in and although I was excited to see what he did I never felt he was going to bring Everton back to the elite which only 6 clubs are members, I suspect it will be 7 when the Saudi`s can get their money in to Newcastle.
After 30 years I just think it is too late for us now, we founded the Premier League with 4 other teams, they went on to commercialise whilst our chairman decided to run Everton like how it was in the 80s, football and football finance moved on and we got left behind, in part because our owners was never wealthy enough.
We had our chances, we had moments that would have made a difference but ultimately the club is no longer a respected football club and the sad reality is that 6 or 7 clubs will dominate, our only hope is that when there is a season they don`t win something we are there to capitalise.... This club will never be back winning trophies for whatever time I have left on this planet and I suspect they never will.
Apologies for the essay.....