Everton v Manchester City – The Last Time We Met The Toffees In The FA Cup

Manchester City travel to Goodison Park on Saturday for their last eight FA Cup tie with Everton. As been well documented in the media, the blues are chasing an unprecedented quadruple again, but the Toffees stand in the way of another Wembley appearance for the blues.

It could be viewed as a good omen that the blues travel to the blue half of Merseyside for a quart-final clash, as the last time we faced Everton at this stage was exactly 40 years ago, way back in 1981.

City had beaten Crystal Palace (4-0) and Norwich City (6-0) at Maine Road, in earlier rounds and secured their passage to the quarter final with a 1-0 win at Peterborough. Everton had a slightly tougher route to face the blues, beating Arsenal (2-1) and Liverpool (1-0) at Goodison Park, before drawing 0-0 with Southampton at The Dell in the fifth round. The Toffess overcame the Saints 1-0 in the replay.

Everton had already lost 2-0 at home to City on Boxing Day 1980, but were hoping for better luck in their FA Cup run against the blues. And they nearly got it.

Peter Eastoe gave the home side the lead 3 minutes before the half time interval. Future blue Adrian Heath flicked on a cross from the right that found Eastoe completely unmarked, and the striker fired home past Joe Corrigan in the City goal.

Scoring on the stroke of half-time is usually an excellent time to score and that was the case when Pau Power equalised just three minutes after Eastoe’s goal. Bobby McDonald’s cross from the left was headed down by Kevin Reeves into the path of Gerry Gow, who lobbed the ball over the keeper to make it 1-1.

Another future blue was involved in Everton’s second goal. Imre Varadi turned Tommy Caton well, the City defender clipped the striker and the referee pointed to the spot. Trevor Ross stepped up and sent Corrigan the wrong way and Everton were back in front.

But City’s path to Wembley would not end on Merseyside. Steve MacKenzie drove forward and played a short pass to Reeves. His first time pass over the defence fell into the path of the incoming Paul Power, who produced a calm and composed chip over the keeper with just 6 minutes remaining.

The replay also saw the teams share four goals, however three went to City and two of those to left back McDonald. His first with a left foot strike from outside the area, and his second coming from his head after a free kick on the edge of the Everton penalty area. Paul Power slotted home the third before Eastoe grabbed a late consolation, and City went on to face Ipswich in the semi-final at Wembley.