"We got booed off!" Telford's FA Cup trip to Goodison Park remembered 40 years on

The Bucks became just the fourth non-league club to reach the fifth round of the world's oldest and most famous domestic knockout competition.

Standing in their way were the Cup holders and soon-to-be First Division champions at Goodison Park - and Telford, backed by 11,000 travelling fans, certainly left their mark.

Toffees star Graeme Sharp ended the day on crutches and four other players limped off as the Shropshire side held out until deep into the second half before succumbing to a 3-0 defeat.

"We knew, Telford were gonna come, be physical because with great respect to them we had more talent and ability," remembers Everton star Peter Reid, speaking to BBC Shropshire. "There's many ways to win a football match, and if you've got to do it a physical way, why not?

"You know, so I've got nothing against that whatsoever. We knew it was going to be hard, it was hard.

"And, if you're playing in the fifth round of the cup against a side like Telford, you'd expect it to be."

Reid would be piggy-backed off the pitch by the Everton physio after being clattered by Antone Joseph - "got me a beaut!" said Reid. But Telford striker Ken McKenna insists his side's physicality was only in response to their First Division hosts.

"Everton were a physical team - they had big, physical players - and Telford were capable but Telford was a footballing team," said McKenna. "We beat loads of Football League clubs and everyone commented that we were a good footballing team.

"I don't know if Everton misread it or if that was just Everton's game, but that was more just a reaction from us to the way Everton approached the game that made it a little bit more physical."

He added: "As it was, we got booed off because of the physicality of the game."

It was an extra special occasion for McKenna, who as an Everton fan would end the season watching the Toffees beat Rapid Vienna in the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in Rotterdam.

"Being an Evertonian and, at the time, still following Everton - I went to Rotterdam, I went to Wembley - so it was exciting for the family and everyone," he said. "Obviously for Everton it was an FA Cup game against a non-league team, but for me it was the biggest game of my life."

He added: "I got caught up a little bit with it all and it was a bit surreal because at the time I'm going to a lot of Everton games and I'm an Everton supporter, and then I'm on the pitch playing against them, so it was just strange."

Backed by thousands on Merseyside, Telford also proved a match for their more illustrious hosts on the scoreboard for long spells - reaching half-time with the game still goalless.

McKenna said: "At half-time, everybody was shocked because when we were going up to the stadium on the coach, all the lads were putting the two fives up saying it was going to be 10-0 and you look at that Everton team, it could have been.

"But to be fair to our manager at the time Stan (Storton), he said 'look, we're not going here to make the numbers up, we're going here to try and do our best to win the game."

Telford kept Everton at bay until the 67th minute when Reid fortuitously gave them the lead, deflecting in a shot from Gary Stevens - both Reid and Stevens would make their England debuts that year.

"I can remember Nev (goalkeeper Neville Southall) making a great save low down at the Gwladys Street end against them," said Reid. "I don't think we could break them down, they were really solid defensively and did well, and if I'm not mistaken Gary Stevens (had a shot) and I think it might have ricocheted off me into the net for the first goal.

"Yeah, I think it hit me on the knee - I've just stuck my foot out and it's done the keeper to be fair and that was a good one for us because obviously it gives us a little bit of breathing space, but to be fair to Telford kept on coming."

The second arrived through a controversial penalty not long after - though Everton should have had one in the first half.

Reid said: "I think we had one in the first half, a handball that the ref missed, and we got round the referee and then at half-time I've said to him, 'he's handled it, he's handled the ball there, you've missed it', and if I remember somebody's gone over in the box and I think we were all surprised he gave it.

"I think he's thought 'I made a mistake first half I'm evening this up here'. It wasn't a pen, it definitely wasn't a pen, and then in the first half, I thought it was.

"So he must have tried to even it up, but it definitely wasn't a pen that second one."

McKenna added: "The unfortunate thing about it is had he given the one in the first half, it's 1-0 you're still in the game, but the one he did give was the second goal that killed us a little bit."

Kevin Sheedy scored the penalty and then Trevor Steven made it 3-0 with a brilliant left-footed strike.

But it did not take the shine off one of the biggest days in Telford's history at the end of a Cup run that had seen them dispatch Lincoln City, Preston North End, Bradford City and Darlington.

"It was amazing," added McKenna. "The Park End was full, I think we took about 15,000 spectators up there and the atmosphere was unbelievable. And I obviously also had all my friends and family there - some in the Everton end, some in the Telford end."

And the support is still remembered by Reid as well, four decades on.

He said: "I remember the support was outstanding on the day - the Telford support was absolutely brilliant.

"Listen, it was a massive, fifth round of the Cup, non-league side, absolutely brilliant."