Everton legend Peter Reid spoke at the 35th Dixie Dean Memorial Award Evening at Goodison Park

Everton legend Peter Reid has picked his ‘Holy Trinity’ of elements when it comes to football success while making a Fleetwood Carabao Cup promise.

The Blues have been drawn against the League Two minnows in the quarter-finals of this season’s competition after the Cod Army stunned reigning Premier League champions Arsenal in a penalty shoot-out giant-killing act on Tuesday.

Reid who won two League Championships, an FA Cup and European Cup-Winners’ Cup with Everton and was described by manager Howard Kendall as the club’s most important signing since the Second World War, was part of a Blues side that got to both domestic cup finals in 1984.

Speaking at the 35th Dixie Dean Memorial Award Evening in Goodison Park’s Alex Young Suite, compere David Prentice – a former ECHO head of sport – pointed out how Kendall’s charges faced a tricky last-eight meeting against lower division opposition in the League Cup that season when Everton travelled to an Oxford United side that had already knocked out Leeds United, Newcastle United and Manchester United.

And Reid said: “I’m not sure about some things in the modern game like rotating your squad and resting players. Get your best team out and then the other lads have got to roll their sleeves up to get in the side.

“There’s nothing wrong with competition and it does p**s me off a bit with this squad rotation these days.

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“I do believe that our League Cup run was a good catalyst, but I honestly think it was the Stoke FA Cup game away that was the start. They were a good side and Howard just opened the slats [so Everton’s players could hear their fans through the windows] so I think that was the one that gave us the confidence.

“The Oxford game gave us the grit and determination, young players grew up overnight and that’s how we got a result. We’ve got to get behind these young kids we’ve got.”

The 70-year-old from Huyton added: “I think Tyler Dibling has got a talent. I was at the Wolves game and he played a great pass through but the biggest thing that impressed me was 30 seconds later as he won a tackle when they broke on us.

“Last year, he’d have been shaking his head, thinking that it’s too big, but he’s grown. The boy Harrison Armstrong, thank God we didn’t sell him, he’s a class player.

“I look at Sunderland though and they’ve got a lad up front Brian Brobbey who they got from Ajax for £17million and we’ve got to get the recruitment right. The biggest things in football are man-management with your players, recruitment and youth policy.

“They’re the three things that will get you success and we’ve got to get on the best page on those. I don’t think we are at the moment, I think we’re far from it in my opinion.”

This season’s Carabao Cup quarter-final – scheduled to be played in the week commencing Monday December 14 – will be the third time that the Blues have travelled to Fleetwood’s Highbury Stadium in the competition this decade.

Their inaugural visit came on September 23, 2020, and was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic as Carlo Ancelotti’s side triumphed 5-2 while they returned on August 23, 2022, under Frank Lampard and edged out the hosts 1-0 thanks to Demarai Gray’s strike in front of a 4,267 crowd.

Reid has now guaranteed a hat-trick of successes and said: “Like most of us in the room, I’m desperate for us to win a trophy. I’ve got a grandson who lives in Manchester who hasn’t seen us win a carrot and I’ve got nephews and nieces.

“We’ve got to win something because the supporters are the best in the world. I was a bit apprehensive when I went [to the Newcastle United tie last Thursday] but I was delighted with the result.

“We’ll beat Fleetwood. We will beat Fleetwood, I promise you!”