MAY 25, 1984: FA Cup Final. Watford 0, Everton 2 (Sharp 37, Gray 51).

DID they freeze? Was Wembley too much? Did experience pay? Were they robbed by another cruel refereeing decision? Did they pay for missed chances or were they outmanoeuvred by an Everton side which had plainly done their homework? These were the questions on many lips after Watford lost in their first-ever FA Cup Final appearance on Saturday.

Some sections of the national Press reached for the cheap and easy angles, blaming Watford's style and its failure to succeed at the top level, while saner mortals pointed to the missed chances which, had they been taken, would have changed the pattern of the game.

Had Watford scored first, those who came to crucify the Hornets with their pens would have had to look for other angles than nailing the Hornets to the cross of long-ball football.

But in the final analysis it was an amalgam of everything which caused Watford's downfall on this historic day. Only three Hornets played up to real form, while two more froze, a couple of others played below par, another fluctuated between the impressive and the subdued, and the rest were only intermittently effective.

Credit must go to Everton who played with greater fluidity and continuity. They switched neatly from 4-4-2 to 4-2-4 with midfield men Trevor Steven and Kevin Richardson moving out wide when Everton attacked, and these two in fact upstaged the fancied Watford wingers.

Everton also closed the game up well when they had moved two goals ahead, catching Watford offside and telescoping the opponents' offensive alternatives. It was not the most constructive of policies and did not enhance the possibilities of second half entertainment, but it was extremely effective against a side which needed a break to rekindle belief.

"We did not have the experience to combat it," Graham Taylor later remarked on the subject of Everton's offside.

Neither for that matter did they have the personnel, as Taylor was to acknowledge. Those who feel that a decision at Kenilworth Road had a considerable influence on the Cup Final, have a strong case.

Watford went into the match with two question marks over their line-up. The majority of fans would have preferred to have seen a fully-fit Steve Sims at centre half on the grounds of superior experience, and Wilf Rostron at left-back. Yet ironically Steve Terry put in an outstanding performance, vying with Les Taylor for man-of-the-match tag.

Neil Price was later to shake his head in bafflement as to why he did not play his normal , tough tackling game. In effect the Wembley nerves froze him into submission, playing more of an escort role to Everton's Trevor Steven.

So, in effect, 50 per cent of Watford's enforced team changes proved successful, but the side plainly missed Rostron. He would not have been so circumspect in dealing with Steven and his forward forages may well have forced Everton's right flank into a more defensive approach, and given the wiles of John Barnes more scope. But more particularly, Watford needed the effervescent Rostron on the left when trying to unravel the Everton offside trap in the second half.

The skipper's runs from deep positions was sadly lacking.

Of course, had both teams had a fully-fit squad, the Hornets may have had problems on the right as they faced up to the clever Sheedy, but ultimately that contribution from Rostron was a costly loss.

Price in fact knew beforehand that he was unlikely to complete the game, for Watford had prepared with a 12-man squad and the arrival of Paul Atkinson at some stage, was pre-planned. But the young full back was not helped by the failure of Kenny Jackett to impress in midfield. If the Welshman did not have the experience of international and First Division football under his belt, one could say that the Wembley nerves got to him.

Further up on the left flank, John Barnes caught the eye, but I found incongruous some of the rave reviews he received in the national papers. He was brilliant at times but was very subdued at others. Towards the end, he tried to retrieve the game on his own, but overall it was not a great day for him.

In attack, Watford had a lop-sided approach. I looked forward to the match with some confidence, feeling that Nigel Callaghan, so long underrated by the Watford faithful, would use Wembley as his platform and prove to be a match-winner. I could not have been more wrong. Callaghan put together probably his worse 90 minutes of his Watford career, totally in the grip of nerves and the Everton approach, which had Richardson closing him down so tightly that Bailey was virtually a free man at the back.

With such limitation in service, George Reilly did well, winning some telling headers, helping to create one of Watford's best second half openings. Beside him Mo Johnston was subdued and had little scope for his goalscoring knack - putting away perhaps that one real chance, albeit offside, and muffing two half chances with his first touch.

In midfield, Les Taylor ran Steve Terry close - in fact he covered considerably more ground as is his brief, and led the team with a shining example of commitment. Further back, David Bardsley was not as assertive as usual, but in mitigation, his injury did cost him the opportunity of much of the pre-match practice.

The youngest man on the field was Lee Sinnott, who had a fairly good afternoon and deserved more praise for his performance than was accorded by the critics. When all is said and done, Terry and Sinnott handled the vaunted threat of Gray and Sharp with considerable success and, while both the Everton players scored, neither Terry nor Sinnott could really be blamed.

And lastly there was poor old Steve Sherwood, who like a man with a criminal record, is hauled in for questioning every time there is a crime in his genre. He did not really have a shot to save all afternoon, yet earned the headlines for a supposed blunder.

When the ball bounced across the line in the 51st minute my instinctive reaction was that it would be disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper and Terry. From my view, it looked as if Gray pushed Terry into Sherwood.

The referee, perfectly positioned, felt otherwise, but repeated viewing of the incident on video does no more than confirm that Sherwood actually had the ball in his hands a fraction before the collision with Gray. That in essence is enough.

I felt sympathy for the view that nine out of ten referees would have disallowed the goal, but after watching the incident again, I feel that had George Reilly "scored" such a goal and had it disallowed the claim would be that the goalkeepers are over-protected. But at Wembley it seemed an injustice. Sherwood, once again the victim of an incident that Mr Hunting did not see, as he was at Brighton some 18 months ago when Michael Robinson head-butted him.

It was certainly the last thing Steve Sherwood needed but the crucial facts of the incident were revealed by the main participants. Andy Gray admitted that he had made no contact with the ball, agreeing totally with the goalkeeper who said the Everton striker headed his hands. In other words, it was a foul and the goal should have been disallowed, even though seeing the incident from the referee's position enables me to sympathise to a degree with the referee's decision. But what still remains in doubt is whether Gray pushed Steve Terry on the way to the collision with Sherwood.

The important fact was that the goal killed Watford and the enthusiasm of their fans. It also killed the game.

From then on the conviction and belief drained from the Hornets and TV critics had a point when they claimed that Watford did not show the passion and fire usually exemplified by a Graham Taylor team. Watford seemed mesmerised by the offside trap and found themselves hemmed in. The distribution was extravagant, the quality of the balls poor and there was all too little movement off the ball. It was indeed a disappointing end.

MATCH FACTS:

Attendance: 100,000. Receipts: £915,000

Referee: John Hinting (Leicestershire)

Corners: Watford 2, Everton 14

Free kicks: Watford 15, Everton 21 (including 11 for offside)

Goal attempts on target (off target): Goal attempts on target (off target): Watford 6 (4), Everton 3 (13)

Watford goal attempts by: Barnes 3, Taylor 2, Johnston 2, Jackett, Price and Callaghan, 1

Everton goal attempts by: Reid 4, Steven 3, Gray 2, Heath 2, Richardson 2, Sharp 2, Stevens 1

Watford: Sherwood; Bardsley, Terry, Sinnott, Price, Taylor, Jackett, Callaghan, Johnston, Reilly, Barnes. Substitute: Atkinson for Price after

58 minutes.

Everton: Southall; Stevens, Bailey, Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Reid, Steven, Heath, Sharp, Gray, Richardson. Substitute: Harper did not play.

March 27, 2002 09:00