"THAT Welshman who’s not on my Christmas card list”

It’s probably one of the kinder descriptions Ronny Goodlass has come up with to describe Clive Thomas, the referee who dashed the Wembley dreams of both him and all his fellow Evertonians.

And although 32 festive seasons have passed since Thomas denied Everton a winning goal in a thrilling semi-final with Liverpool at Maine Road, it still hurts as if it were yesterday.

“Well of course it does,” says Goodlass, whose cross was flicked on by Duncan McKenzie and turned in by Bryan Hamilton for the winner that wasn’t.

“The fact that people still talk about it all these years on shows how controversial it was and how much is still rankles.

“Manchester United got to the final and we’d already beaten them 3-0 in the League Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford that year.

“So we felt we were the best team left in once we’d got rid of Liverpool but we never had the chance to do it.

“And it’s Clive Thomas who only had to give that goal. You could tell by the reaction of the Liverpool players that they knew it was a goal but the linesman flagged and that was that.

“Thomas was always a controversial character and he saw his chance to cause even more and took it.”

Hamilton being ruled offside has been considered the official reason for the goal being ruled out although there were also suggestions that he steered it in with his hands.

But it was a very generous donation to the red side of Merseyside whichever way you look at it.

Goodlass added: “There was no way it was offside. I put the cross in and could see that clearly.

“As for handball, well Bryan’s arms were up as the ball came in and it hit him on the hip.

“These days, when you have replays from every angle, those arguments would have been cleared up straight away.

“But it says a lot about that decision that there’s not really a lot of debate about it. We were hard done by and everyone knows it.”