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Twenty-four years ago today Everton faced Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium in the penultimate Zenith Data Systems Cup Final.

The Blues lost a brutal clash 4-1 after extra-time. Few mourned.

A year later the Nottingham Forest beat Southampton in the last ever Zenith Data Systems Cup final. Even fewer mourned its passing.

But that Cup final, watched by a healthy 67,688 fans, heralded the end of a period in football history when some of the strangest competitions were launched – and folded.

Here we look back at a few – and our local involvement in them.

The Screen Sport Super Cup

With English clubs banned from European competitions in the wake of the Heysel disaster, the Football League hatched a brainwave to fill the fixture list – and the gap in the competing clubs’ bank balances. It was called the Screen Sport Super Cup.

And it was dreadful.

The six clubs scheduled to compete in Europe - Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Southampton and Norwich were invited.

So insead of facing Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Juventus … Everton lined up at Carrow Road against Norwich City while Liverpool played Southampton.

The six clubs were split into two groups – with Everton and Liverpool conveniently kept apart – and initially there was interest.

Everton won a thriller 4-2 at Old Trafford in front of 33,859 fans, while Liverpool’s opening group game against Southampton – a 2-1 win - attracted 16,189.

But by the time Everton played their semi-final against Spurs only 12,008 bothered to watch the second leg at Goodison Park, while Liverpool’s second leg against Norwich was watched by 26,696 in a send off for the real Cup Final four days later.

The fixture planners couldn’t even squeeze the two-legged final into the 1985/86 season – so it had to be held over until the start of the following season.

Liverpool won 7-2 on aggregate, yet perhaps the only significance were the five goals Ian Rush plundered to mover closer to Dixie Dean’s derby scoring record.

The Screen Sport Super Cup was swiftly consigned to the record books too.

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The Mercantile Credit Football Festival

But for Johnny King’s Tranmere, the tournament hatched to celebrate the Football League’s centenary in 1988 would have fallen flat on its face.

Qualification for the ‘Festival’ was unique. Points gathered between dates in January and March were totted up – and the leading teams in all four divisions were then invited to Wembley to face each other.

Even though the Football League had survived a century using the 90-minute format, the organisers thought 40-minute games would increase excitement.

It didn’t.

All it meant was an unusually high level of 0-0 draws, something that contributed towards a dramatic slide in the number of people turning up to Wembley to watch the games; one that saw figures declining from 40,000 on the opening day to just 17,000 for the final.

Tranmere did provide some excitement, though, defeating FA Cup holders Wimbledon and a Newcastle team containing Paul Gascoigne to reach the second day.

Everton did win a rare penalty shoot-out, against Wolves, while Liverpool drew 0-0 with Newcastle and lost on penalties.

The Mercantile Credit Centenary Trophy

Failing to learn the lessons of the failed Festival, the Football League launched a Centenary trophy in 1988/89.

Everton went out in the opening match to a Peter Davenport goal at Old Trafford, while Liverpool walloped Nottingham Forest 4-1 in their opening game then lost a semi-final to Arsenal – the only match which attracted more than 25,000 supporters.

The Full Members Cup

The Full Members cup ran for seven seasons between 1985-1992 and was a competition to fill the vacuum left by the loss of European football.

Yes bizarrely it was initially open only to clubs who hadn’t qualified for Europe! The Screen Sport Super Cup was the vehicle for those clubs.

Once the Super Cup died, the so-called ‘Big Five’ clubs were then invited to the Full members in its various guises - Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United and Everton – yet the Toffees were the only club who opted to enter.

Quite why is a question which still remains unanswered.

It clearly wasn’t gate receipts.

The 7,914 which saw Everton beat Newcastle 5-2 in December 1986 was a high mark.

If anything could be said to illustrate just how sad a competition this was, then it’s the quality of the sponsorship.

The Full Members Cup became the Simod Cup (training shoes apparently. The kind your well meaning Grandma buys for you from St John’s Market when you really wanted Adidas Gazelle), then the Zenith Data Systems Cup (an unglamorous computer firm).

Everton twice reached the final – the Simod Cup in 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup three years later – but lost both to Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.

In the days before squad rotation, Chelsea and Manchester City faced off in the 1986 final at Wembley, just 24 hours after playing league matches.

They shared nine goals, five of them scored by Chelsea, whose 1986 title charge fell away at Easter as their players tired …..

Fans had quickly tired of the tournament and after 1992, with English clubs already back in Europe, it was abandoned.

The Watney Cup

The Watney Mann Invitation Cup (sponsored by a leading brewery of the day) was a pre-season knockout tournament, contested by the two top-scoring teams from each of the Football League’s four divisions.

But this didn’t include anyone that had been promoted or qualified for Europe (essentially anyone good).

The tournament did have some high points, such as the occasion when lowly Halifax Town beat a pretty full-strength Man Utd side 2-1. And it made a bit of history too, when Man Utd beat Hull via the first penalty shoot-out ever seen in England. George Best took the first penalty and then Denis Law became the first person to miss one.

But it was still a tournament greeted with indifference by the fans. Low attendances ensured that the Watney Cup was wound up after just four seasons. As a sad indictment, Derby County, who won the trophy in 1970 don’t even include it in their roll of honour.

The Texaco Cup

Another great idea. Let’s pit some English teams not good enough to qualify for Europe against some teams from Scotland. But not the good ones like Celtic and Rangers.

And let’s throw in a few Irish sides too? That was the thinking behind the Texaco Cup, which debuted during the 1970 season.

Everton were invited in 1973 but lost 1-0 over two legs to Hearts.

Texaco abandoned the competition in 1975, when the cup became the Anglo-Scottish Cup. It limped on for a few more years but with the English sides increasingly being drawn from further and further down the leagues it was eventually put out of its misery in the early 80s.

FA Cup 3rd/4th Place Play-Off

The FA thought it was a good idea at the time … a third and fourth place play off between the losing semi-finalists. After all, it works at the World Cup finals. But while Everton and Stoke City served up a five goal thriller at the bizarre venue of Selhurst Park on Friday May 7, 1971, a paltry crowd of just 5,031 quickly disabused the FA of the notion. A tankard awarded to one of the Everton players after the match currently sits in the Everton Collection. Perhaps fitting, it has a dent in it.

Anglo Italian Cup

Originally launched in 1970, the Anglo-Italian Cup did what it said on the tin … intermittently until 1996.

Swindon Town were the first victors in a match that was abandoned early due to violence. During its time the tournament had a reputation for violence between fans, but it returned as a semi-professional tournament in 1976 and was known as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup and Gigi Peronace Memorial before it was abolished again in 1986.

The tournament was re-established in 1992 as replacement for the Full Members Cup – when Tranmere enjoyed a couple of seasons of participation.

The trophy was a 22-inch high gold Loving Cup mounted on a wooden plinth.

But the tournament was never really loved and hasn’t been seen since.