Liverpool Matches of My Lifetime

Ivan Butler

Description

Liverpool Matches of My Lifetime provides a unique perspective on 50 iconic Liverpool games spanning the author's lifetime, from 1960 to date. It takes the reader on a journey through 60 years of this famous club, from its Second Division days to the recent victory in the FIFA Club World Cup and many trophy-winning successes in between. Beginning with a brief history of the club up to 1959, the author relives 50 crucial games that brought Liverpool to the pinnacle of club football by 2019. All the chosen matches meant a great deal to the club, its fans and the author. Along the way there are many firsts, record victories, trophies and games that have gone down in Anfield folklore. As well as covering iconic matches, the book provides brief profiles of key players and tells the story of the intervening years, with all the highs and lows that Liverpool experienced in search of that elusive Premier League title. Are Liverpool the greatest English team of the last 60 years? Judge for yourself as you read the story of this wonderful club.

Sujets

• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing
• Date de parution: 06 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785316982
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2020
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Ivan Butler, 2020
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785316715
eBook ISBN 9781785316982
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Liverpool FC to May 1960
1. Return to the Top Flight
2. Back on Top
3. Ee Aye Addio, We Won the Cup
4. First Great European Night
5. Seven Up
6. First European Trophy
7. Keegan s Cup Final
8. Record European Win
9. Paisley Starts His Trophy Haul
10. European and Domestic Double
11. Supersub
12. Champions of Europe
13. Kevin Who?
14. Enter King Kenny
15. Seventh Heaven
16. First League Cup
17. An Unlikely Hero
18. Liverpool Earn Their Spurs
19. Reds in a Rush
20. Beating the Mancs at Wembley
21. This Time it s the Toffees
22. Brucie s Wobbly Legs
23. Kenny in the Hot Seat
24. Reds at the Double
25. First Trip to Anfield
26. Near Perfection
27. A City United
28. Aldo s Last Stand
29. A Thriller at Elland Road
30. Michael Thomas, All Is Forgiven
31. Robbie s Four-Minute Hat-Trick
32. Newcastle Get the Collywobbles
33. Owen s Late, Late Show
34. McAllister s Golden Show
35. Dudek to the Rescue
36. No Greek Tragedy
37. The Miracle of Istanbul
38. The Gerrard Final
39. Champions League Record Breakers
40. Another Dramatic Finale
41. Torres Tames Madrid
42. Rounding Off the Perfect Week
43. Arsenal Gunned Down
44. J rgen s Specs Go Walkabout
45. Another Stunning Comeback
46. How to Beat Man City
47. Salah s Highs and Lows
48. The Miracle of Anfield
49. Ol Big Ears Is Back
50. World Champions
Simply the Best
For my dad who, sadly, died while I was writing this book, and others who are suffering from dementia and Alzheimer s. May books like this help to keep memories alive.
Acknowledgements
I WOULD like to thank Jane Camillin at Pitch Publishing for taking a chance on me as a new author and for everyone at Pitch for their help in producing this book. Also, thanks to Dean Rockett for giving me my first proofreading role at Pitch, which has led, through reading several similar books over the last three years, to my gaining the confidence to write one myself.
When I started out on this book, I was very grateful for the advice provided by Matt Anson, who has written a similar book on Sheffield United that I proofread. Since then, Graham Hales has provided help and advice on how best to present the book, for which I m also grateful.
While I ve used various sources to research information for this book, particular thanks should go to those who maintain lfchistory. net, which provides a host of information on matches, players and managers that has proved to be incredibly valuable to me.
Finally, thanks to my wife, Gwen, for her patience, support and encouragement while I ve been writing this book and for not complaining when I want to watch football on the TV and more often than not end up shouting just a bit too loud.
Introduction
I VE WORKED as a freelance proofreader for Pitch Publishing for the last three years and have the great pleasure of reading about sport as part of my job. My particular passion is football, although I must admit I m purely an armchair supporter. You try to get tickets to watch Liverpool these days. I was recently online for over three hours in a queue of over 70,000 trying, and failing, to get tickets, and a friend of my wife finally got a season ticket after 20 years on the waiting list.
Pitch has previously published a series of books on various clubs greatest matches, so I was amazed to find that no one had written one of these for Liverpool FC. I ve never attempted to write a book before, but the events of 2018/19 triggered something that persuaded me to give it a go.
My immediate problem was how to select 50 great Liverpool matches, given their massive success over the years. I decided to put a slight twist on the idea and have chosen matches played during my lifetime, which is why this book only covers the last 60 years. This still made the choices very difficult, and it s been so tempting to delay the book for a few months to see how 2019/20 pans out and whether Liverpool can finally win the Premier League in my 60th year.
I realise that some of you will disagree with the match choices, although I m sure several would be in most people s selections. You will all have your particular favourites for a variety of reasons. The ones I ve chosen include many of the trophy-winning matches but there wasn t room for all of them, as I wanted to include matches that meant something to me in particular.
You will also notice that there are perhaps a disproportionate number of matches from the J rgen Klopp era, but I think that what is happening at Liverpool now is significant. For me, these matches are iconic as they are laying a great foundation of what the team is now about. They show the style, flair and new-found doggedness that I m sure will bring Liverpool even more success in the coming years.
It s also obvious that some of the matches included weren t necessarily great to watch, but they were iconic in that they meant something special at the time. To be honest, the recent Champions League victory over Spurs wasn t a great spectacle, but how could I not include it?
As Liverpool FC existed and had success way before I was born, I ve started with a brief history to provide details of events pre-1960. As I was born in May 1960, the matches start from the 1960/61 season, and the book is written in chronological order rather than in order of how iconic the matches are. That would have been another impossible job.
Each chapter provides a brief update on the intervening period between my chosen matches, some periods longer than others, particularly in recent less successful years. Each chapter then provides a brief report on the match itself and, in most cases, I ve also included a brief profile of a key player, to bring a bit of a personal touch to them.
Finally, I conclude with a tongue-in-cheek assessment of whether Liverpool are the greatest English team during my lifetime. Of course, you know how that s going to turn out, otherwise I would have just left it in the spreadsheet.
So, sit back, relax, and I hope you enjoy the matches of my life.
Liverpool FC to May 1960
LIVERPOOL FC was formed in August 1892, ironically born out of Everton FC, which is the only nice thing you will find in this book about Everton, by the way. Everton s president, John Houlding, owned the Anfield Road stadium, where the team originally played. Everton and Houlding fell out, so Everton decided to move across Stanley Park to their current ground. Houlding, meanwhile, decided to set up a new club, Liverpool Football Club, which was to play in the Lancashire League.
Their first match was against Higher Walton in the 1892/93 season, which resulted in a resounding 8-0 win at Anfield, under manager William Barclay. Amazingly, the Liverpool team for that match included ten Scottish-born players.
Their successful first season saw them playing in the Second Division in 1893/94, playing their first Football League match against the wonderfully named Middlesbrough Ironopolis, at the equally wonderfully named Paradise Field, winning 2-0. At this time there were only two divisions in the Football League, and it was the old two points for a win system.
They won the Second Division but, in those days, they had to play off, in something called a Test Match, against the bottom team of the First Division to see who would play in the top league the next season. Interestingly, their opponents were Newton Heath, who they beat 2-0. Newton Heath were later to become Manchester United, so this was Liverpool s first great success against their future arch-rivals.
Unfortunately, their stay in the top league was all too brief, as they were relegated in their first season, after losing a Test Match against Bury. Yes, that s the same Bury that while I was writing this book were expelled from the English Football League. They were once in the First Division.
Liverpool bounced straight back by winning the Second Division in 1895/96 and coming through the Test Match ordeal at the end of the season. Then only five years later, in 1900/01, they were crowned First Division champions for the first time. Now managed by Tom Watson, they pipped Sunderland by only two points after defeating West Brom in the final match of the season.
An awful 1903/04 saw Liverpool relegated but, once again, they bounced straight back the following season as Second Division champions, then claimed their second First Division title the following season, despite losing their first three matches and conceding 11 goals in the process.
During these early years there hadn t been an inkling of any cup success, the closest being FA Cup semi-final defeats in 1897 and 1899, but eventually their chance came when they reached the final of 1913/14, played at Crystal Palace. In front of nearly 73,000 people, they faced mid-table Burnley, who had finished only one point above them in the league that season. Surely this was their chance!
Although it was a close-fought encounter, it wasn t to be, as Burnley scored the only goal of the match. This