Iconic Images: Rush resplendent, Everton despondent
Throughout LFC's 125th anniversary year, Liverpoolfc.com will retrace the club's history through the striking images that plot a fascinating journey.
Twelfth in the series depicts Liverpool’s greatest goalscorer doing what he did best to clinch the club’s first league and FA Cup double…
This wasn’t Ian Rush’s first goal against Everton - and it certainly wasn’t his last, either.
There is a pretty strong argument to say that it is his most memorable, though.
To borrow a line from the great, inimitable Brian Moore: “He knocked over a camera, and he's knocked over Everton's chances as well.”
The 1986 FA Cup final was an all-Merseyside affair between the two sides who had indisputably established themselves as the best in the country.
A week earlier, Liverpool had reclaimed the First Division title from Everton by virtue of Kenny Dalglish’s winning goal at Chelsea.
As such, the Reds went into this match chasing their maiden league and cup double while the Blues sought a backlash having been deposed from their status as champions.
Everton led at half-time courtesy of Gary Lineker, but Rush - who else? - equalised shortly before the hour, the No.9 coolly rounding Bobby Mimms before slotting home.
Craig Johnston quickly put Liverpool ahead and Rush applied the coup de gras seven minutes from time, when he started and finished a sweeping counter-attack also involving Jan Molby and Ronnie Whelan.
The iconic image above shows the immediate aftermath of that goal. Rush and Liverpool resplendent, Mimms and Everton despondent. The camera Moore refers to is splayed to the right of the goal, having been displaced by Rush’s precise half-volley.
The double was secured; another landmark in the history of Liverpool Football Club achieved.
In Rush’s own words: “As a kid, my dream was to get the winner in a FA Cup final. I didn't get that on this day but I did score two, the first to equalise, the second to make it 3-1.
“This was the first time that the two Merseyside clubs had made it to the Cup final. We were the best two teams in Europe that year and it showed. Everton were good. We were just that little bit better.”
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