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John Gidman, named in Don Revie’s England squad last week, must still be thanking the strange quirk that persuaded Everton manager Billy Bingham to switch Gary Jones from the left flank to the right at half-time.

Jones destroyed the young England hopeful every time he had the ball. He scored twice In a 12-minute spell although the second was no fault of Gidman’s and generally made life very uncomfortable for the whole of the Villa defence.

Had it not been for the determination and class of Chris Nicholl, Villa would have been dead long before the controversial 36th minute penalty that helped Everton take command. But from the Press Box the penalty Incident seemed controversial only because the two managers later disagreed about it - a common enough occurrence that puts controversy around 99 per cent of all penalties.

When Ken McNaught moved forward for a Mick Buckley corner, Villa striker Andy Gray followed him. They both jumped for the ball and as they came down Gray seemed to wrap his leg around McNaught’s ankle and pull. Referee John Homewood consulted a linesman before giving the penalty. When John Burridge saved Jones’s first attempt he ordered it to be retaken because Burridge moved before the ball was kicked and Nicholl was half way to the six-yard box before Jones had even started his run-up.

Villa manager Ron Saunders wasn’t too worried about the retake. He was just annoyed that it had been awarded in the first place. “They both fell down in a heap. Nobody pushed anybody and the referee waved play on straight away. It wasn’t until one of their players saw the linesman’s flag that they started to appeal and the referee was far nearer the incident than the linesman.”

“A clear-cut penalty,” said Bingham. “The only reason the referee spoke to the linesman was because he was partially unsighted and couldn’t see exactly what had gone on. But the linesman had no doubts. Slack marking Villa might, perhaps, claim a degree of ill-luck around the whole affair, but luck had ridden with them earlier when Everton failed to take advantage of some appallingly slack Villa marking at free kicks.

Strange, then, that Gidman was marking Jones tightly when Mike Lyons floated a perfect 24th minute centre deep into the Villa penalty area. Gidman misjudged the pace of the ball and jumped too soon. Jones waited a fraction longer and when Gidman came down he went up and nodded it gently wide of Burridge and into the top corner of the net.

But Gidman had some consolation in the second half. Free of the elusive Jones, he had far more opportunity to play a constructive role and in the 87th minute he set up the chance from which Nicholl headed Villa’s goal.