Everton v Southampton 16/11/96 3.00Everton (5) 7 Southampton (1) 1 FT Stuart 12 Ostenstad 39 Kanchelskis 22,35 Speed 30,32,72 Barmby 57 Everton's £5.7million record signing Nick Barmby scored his first goal and set up three more while Gary Speed grabbed a hat-trick as the Merseysiders halted Southampton's impressive recent revival with an astonishing 7-1 rout. It was the biggest triumph of manager Joe Royle's two-year reign as Everton boss, bringing back happy memories of the day he scored four goals in an 8-0 victory over Southampton 25 years ago this week as an Everton centre forward. It was only Barmby's second appearance for Everton, but he linked up with and inspired his team-mates as if he had been playing alongside them for years. Everton took the lead after just 12 minutes, Graham Stuart turning the ball home at the far post after Andrei Kanchelskis narrowly failed to connect with Barmby's cleverly angled pass. Then Tony Grant cleared up a rare moment of panic in the Everton box and raced up field in time to play a telling part in a sweeping Everton break battling to work the ball back to Stuart. Stuart found Kanchelskis who calmly switched feet and drilled a low shot past keeper Chris Woods. Barmby then provided the perfect through ball for Speed to spring the offside trap and fire a blistering shot home from 20 yards after 29 minutes. Two minutes later Barmby exchanged passes with Kanchelskis and chipped to the far post where Speed stole in to head home from close range. Then Kanchelskis could scarcely believe his luck as he headed Andy Hinchcliffe's cross tamely goalward but the luckless Woods slipped and allowed the ball to pass over him and cross the line. Southampton's Egil Ostenstad put a temporary damper on proceedings after 39 minutes, poking a low shot home under the dive of Everton keeper Neville Southall, who was substituted at half-time allowing Paul Gerrard to make a second-half debut. After 57 minutes, Barmby grabbed the goal he so richly deserved, finishing off Kanchelskis's low centre after the flying Ukranian was released by Grant's beautifully weighted pass inside the left full-back. Then Speed completed his hat-trick, heading home after 71 minutes from the latest of a string of Hinchcliffe corners. Everton's dominance was so complete as to border on the arrogant at times, the home crowd cheering them to the rafters as they played keep-ball and toyed with their demoralised opponents. And Duncan Ferguson did not have to get off the substitutes' bench...scary! 
Everton: (4-4-2) Southall (Gerrard, 45), Barrett, Hinchcliffe, Unsworth, Watson, Stuart, Speed, Barmby, Kanchelskis, Parkinson, Grant. Subs not used: Ferguson, Branch, Short, Allen. Southampton: (5-3-2) Woods, Dodd, Lundekvam, Van Gobbel, Monkou, Slater, Magilton, Ostenstad, Charlton (Heaney (Neilson, 45), 8), Le Tissier (Watson, 56), Berkovic. Subs not used: Beasant, Maddison. Attendance: 35,669. Referee: M Riley (Leeds). |
