As we saw at Goodison Park twice over the past week as Everton recorded a brace of big wins, everyone loves a stoppage time goal – but it’s even sweeter for the Toffees when it’s both a winner and in Manchester!

Both Beto against Newcastle United and Lewis Dobbin against Chelsea came off the bench for Sean Dyche’s side in their last two matches to net their first Premier League goals but 15 years ago today, Tim Cahill sunk Manchester City in the 92nd minute on a day in which the injury-hit visitors weren’t able to field a recognised striker.

Everton’s hosts had only just set off on their journey from perennial strugglers to petrodollar-fuelled champions of England and, as of this year, Europe, when Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group completed their takeover in August 2008.

However, despite Blues boss David Moyes later famously going on to compare competing with their riches to “taking a knife to a gunfight,” his side went into the game six places above City in the table and would finish the season fifth while Mark Hughes’ troops would end the campaign in 10th with three more defeats that victories.

City were able to spearhead their attack with Robinho, their £32.5million signing from Real Madrid on the day they were bought out – a player who would go on to win 100 caps for Brazil – and even name a £19million striker on the bench in the shape of his compatriot and future two-time Everton loan man Jo. Moyes’ squad in contrast was down to its bare bones in terms of his forward options with Louis Saha and Victor Anichebe unable to recover in time and both Yakubu and James Vaughan facing prolonged periods on the sidelines, prompting the Scot to be monitoring former Liverpool frontman Michael Owen’s situation at Newcastle United ahead of the January window.

The Blues had suffered at the hands of a stoppage time winner themselves in their previous fixture six days earlier when they thought Joleon Lescott’s second of the afternoon in the 93rd minute against home city club Aston Villa had earned them a share of the spoils only for Ashley Young – now turning out for them a decade-and-a-half later aged 38 – to snatch victory by bagging his brace a minute later.

In a similar vein to the current campaign though – even if the back-to-back successes over four days against Newcastle United and Chelsea have helped redress the balance – Moyes’ men were more successful on the road in the first half of 2008/09 and were good value for their sixth away win from their first nine away matches in the league, a feat not replicated since their 1969/70 title-winning season. Their Australian talisman, whose first Everton goal had been a winner at Manchester City four years earlier – only to be sent off for a second booking caused by the partial removal of his shirt in celebration (he displayed his abdomen while covering his face rather than taking it off completely) – was their inspiration again.

Dominic King wrote in the ECHO: “Tim Cahill, quite simply, was absolutely magnificent. There is no getting away from the fact he has struggled for form in recent weeks, his plight exacerbated by missed chances against Middlesbrough and Wigan that you would normally expect him to bury with his eyes closed.

“It’s quite possible the heel injury he has been carrying has had more of an effect on him than we may have appreciated, so it was heartening then to see Cahill put in a shift of relentless running, pestering and pressurising. He set the tone, never giving Richard Dunne a moment’s peace, so it was fitting that Cahill was the man who rose highest to power Leon Osman’s corner past Joe Hart to spark pandemonium at the opposite end of the ground.”

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