Iconic Moments in Football No.45
This week’s iconic moment comes from the 1985 FA Cup Final between Everton and Manchester United.
Everton had already won the league title and the European Cup Winners Cup just three days before the Wembley final.
An unwanted record was broken in the 78th minute of the game when Manchester United’s Kevin Moran sent Everton’s Peter Reid flying with a mindless challenge.
As Moran got to his feet, he saw the match referee Peter Willis approaching. He expected a yellow card to be shown for the clumsy challenge, but was dismayed to see a red one waved by Willis in his direction.
The Irish international was devastated, and immediately grabbed Willis with both hands, trying to reason with the referee.
Moran’s argument was that he was not the last defender and so a booking would suffice. Willis sent Moran off for denying an obvious goal scoring chance.
Willis was having none of it and waved Moran away. The Irishman became incandescent with rage and had to be restrained and lead away by his team mates.
The 1985 FA Cup Final was the 104th and it’s amazing to think now that no one had been sent off before 1985. In the 35 years since that Final, four players have been given their marching orders. They are: Arsenal’s Jose Antonio Reyes in 2005, Manchester City’s Pablo Zabaleta, Manchester United’s Chris Smalling in 2016 and Victor Moses for Chelsea in 2017.
Moran’s team mate Norman Whitehouse scored a terrific goal with ten minutes to go of Extra Time, curling the ball past the despairing lunge from Everton’s goalkeeper Neville Southall. It was the only goal of the game and gave United their sixth FA Cup win.
A year after lifting the FA Cup, Ron Atkinson was sacked by Manchester United. He was replaced by Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson. He did rather well in his time at Old Trafford, or so the story goes…
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