his ankle ligaments on international duty with ten league games left to play. In his absence, his deputy Bobby Mimms took his place, and Everton lost both the league title and the 1986 FA Cup Final to Liverpool. Sidelined through injury at the start of the 1986–87 season, he returned to the first team against Watford in October. He was the club's Player of the Month in February, and won man of the match awards in wins over Arsenal and Chelsea as Everton claimed another league title. Comparing the two title wins (1985 and 1987), Southall said that the latter success was "more rewarding and satisfying" as it had proved to be "more of a struggle" compared to the ease in which the title was won in the former campaign. After Kendall left Merseyside to coach Athletic Bilbao, his assistant Colin Harvey took charge at Goodison; Southall responded well to the change, as he believed Harvey "understood my obsessive and relentless desire to be the best". Everton finished fourth in 1987–88, conceding a club record low of 27 goals in 40 league games, and reached the semi-finals of the League Cup. Southall had missed the opening stages of the season after undergoing knee surgery. Harvey had failed to adequately replace some of Everton's departing star players, and Southall noted how "the mediocrity became habitual" as the club coasted to an eighth-place finish in the 1988–89 season. He kept goal in the final of the Full Members Cup (a largely unsuccessful tournament inspired by the ban on European football), as Everton were beaten 4–3 by Nottingham Forest. More significantly, he kept goal against Liverpool in the 1989 FA Cup Final after conceding only two goals in the seven games en route to the final. In an emotional match in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in the semi-final encounter with Nottingham Forest, Liverpool won the cup with a 3–2 extra-time victory. Everton were leading the division at the start of the 1989–90 season, but their title challenge fell away after a televised 6–2 defeat to Aston Villa. Southall was later told he needed surgery that would keep him out of action for eight months, but he instead sought out a back specialist who told him he simply had a "bad back" and found that the problem corrected itself. Southall requested a transfer before the start of the 1990–91 season. He famously