Everton 2-0 QPR. 6th May 1985
These days such a fixture glut could never happen. A mountain of kvetches and moans from managers would pile sky high on the FA’s doormat. In Everton’s case they played through the brick wall of games, and were simply unstoppable.
On Saturday May 4th Everton beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0. The following Monday, they faced QPR. On the Wednesday they welcomed West Ham, and on Saturday May 11th they travelled to Nottingham Forest. Four games in a week at the brutal business end of the season, and remarkably they won three and lost one.
Mountfield’s opener came after 24 minutes. Sheedy and his immaculate left-foot sent in a corner which both Andy Gray and Pat van den Hauwe touched, but which Moutnfield finished, the ball bouncing off the underside of goalie Peter Hucker’s crossbar. Mountfield was a defender by trade, but that goal was his 12th of the season, a staggering number.
Everton’s second of the game was Graeme Sharp’s 30th of the season. Bracewell and van den Hauwe combined on the left side and Sharp rose to score with his head, neatly echoing Alex Young’s hang-in-the-air header against Spurs in 1963.
Against QPR Everton took the First Division Championship with five games to spare. A shaking and boisterous Goodison sang “Hand it over, Liverpool!” as goals from Derek Mountfield and Graeme Sharp gave Everton, in probably their greatest incarnation, their eighth league title.
