It was the spectacular goal that swung the pendulum in Everton’s favour during the title race that culminated in their last League Championship, but has Wayne Clarke still not watched it back?
As long-range strikes go, they don’t get much more special than Clarke’s 35-yarder against Arsenal, which he netted on this day in 1987. While Everton are currently battling just to remain in the top flight and avoid what would be the club’s first relegation in 72 years after narrowly avoiding the drop last season with the joint lowest equivalent points total in their history, the mid-1980s were a golden era for the Blues when they were still able to compete for the biggest prizes in the game, even in the face of great adversity.
Blighted by injuries throughout the season, Everton went into March three points adrift of leaders Liverpool but a sequence of seven consecutive victories saw them charge to the summit after the Wolverhampton-born striker’s arrival. Arguably their most impressive result during this spell was a 1-0 win at Highbury on March 28 which gave Howard Kendall’s side the belief they could reclaim the title they’d won two years earlier – especially given that the Reds crashed to a 2-1 home defeat to Wimbledon on the same day.
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The Blues secured the three points thanks to a pinpoint long range effort from Clarke who calmly placed the ball into Arsenal’s net after keeper John Lukic had scuffed a clearance under pressure from Adrian Heath. Speaking some 11 years ago for the 25th anniversary of Everton’s ninth League Championship, Clarke claimed to have never have watched the goal back since – because he doesn’t need to.
He told the ECHO: “I knew he (John Lukic) was out of his area. My first thought was to have a good first touch and I knew exactly what I was going to do and put it in there. When it went in, I suppose a little bit of it was down to good fortune but if I’m honest it just seemed to take an eternity to drop in.
“Believe it or not, that’s the only time I’ve seen the goal. I don’t know why I’ve not watched it, I’ve just not had access to it. I can relive it now in my mind though so nothing can take that away.”
Clarke netted five goals in 10 games for Everton that season having joined from Second Division strugglers Birmingham City and puts a big part of his success down to the warm welcome he received at Goodison Park. He said: “All goals for me are important but it was good that the lads took me on board and really welcomed me.
“Obviously there was the goal at Highbury. I think everyone knows the course of that season changed on that day because Wimbledon went to Liverpool and beat them 2-1 and it gave us a bit of a gap. The hat-trick against Newcastle was pleasing being a new lad coming into the club and showing the home fans what I could do.”
Clarke added: “It was a great period in the club’s history and I just happened to play a little part in it. I played with some great players. When I first came to the club and looked around the dressing room there were some big names in there. There was Reidy (Peter Reid), Neville (Southall), Raters (Kevin Ratcliffe), Trevor (Steven) and Gary (Stevens) – all international players. A lot of people could have forgiven me for thinking ‘what am I doing here?’ I was looking forward to being part of it.
“I was having a great season at Birmingham City before that – I was on 19 goals and ready to break Trevor Francis’ record as the last player to hit the 20-goal barrier, I was going to smash that. So I was coming in full of confidence and I carried that on when I came to Everton.”
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