April 3rd
1972 - Goals from Chris Lawler, John Toshack and Emlyn Hughes handed us a 3-0 win at Manchester United, with Phil Thompson making his reds debut. Unfortunately, we did not win there again for another six years.
1973 – A Testimonial Sportsmans Dinner in honour of Ian St. John was held in the Grafton Rooms. The black-tie affair involved a main course of Chicken Zingara, with guests including Bill Shankly, Derby County boss Brian Clough, Jimmy Tarbuck, Kenny Lynch and Gerry Marsden.
1974 - We clinched our place in the FA Cup Final by beating Leicester City 3-1 in a replay at Villa Park. Brian Hall struck straight after half time before Len Glover equalised, but goals from Kevin Keegan and John Toshack took us to Wembley.
1976 - Phil Neal missed a penalty at Anfield, but this did not prove costly as David Fairclough netted the only goal of a game that was played at eleven o’clock, due to the Grand National taking place at Aintree that afternoon. This was the only occasion in that title-winning season that we won four League games on the bounce.
1981 - Craig Johnston signed from Middlesbrough for a club record £650,000 fee. He grabbed forty goals, including one in the 1986 FA Cup Final, in 271 reds games, also helping us to claim the European Cup, five League titles and two League Cups in his time at Anfield.
1981 - Ronnie Whelan got his reds career off to a flying start by scoring on his debut, a 3-0 home League win over Stoke City, with Terry McDermott adding a brace. Whelan went on to play 493 reds games in all.
1985 - Ian Rush netted a brace to add to a John Wark goal as we won 3-0 at Sunderland .
1990 - Alan Hansen scored an own goal as we beat Wimbledon 2-1 with Ian Rush and Gary Gillespie scoring at the right end. He had also put through his own net at Plough Lane the season before!
1993 – We lost 4-1 at Blackburn Rovers with Ian Rush bagging a late consolation. Ex-red Mike Newell scored one of his eight goals against the reds with Kevin Moran and Kevin Gallacher both also scoring before the break. Jason Wilcox netted the first of his four goals past us in the second half.
1996 - We played out a real humdinger with Newcastle United at Anfield. Robbie Fowler put us ahead after two minutes, but we went in 2-1 down at half-time after one of Les Ferdinand’s six strikes past us and a David Ginola goal. Robbie Fowler levelled the scores with his 22nd strike in his last 21 outings, but Faustino Asprilla put the visitors ahead again two minutes later. Stan Collymore tied the match once more, and then grabbed a dramatic last-gasp winner right at the death, in a match later voted the best in the Premiership’s first decade.
1999 – This day brought an end to five years without a derby victory as we beat Everton 3-2 at Anfield, despite Olivier Dacourt opening the scoring in the first minute. The game is still remembered for Robbie Fowler’s goal-line sniffing celebration after he struck a penalty in front of the away fans, one of two goals he scored that day, to add to a Patrik Berger strike. Young right-back Steven Gerrard helped to preserve all three points with a couple of scrambled goal-line clearances late on. Francis Jeffers became the youngest post-war Merseyside derby goalscorer in this game, aged just eighteen years and 68 days.
2002 - Sami Hyypiä grabbed the only goal of our Champions League Quarter-final first leg at home to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, to give us a slender advantage to take to Germany. This was our 200th game in Europe.
2007 - Jamie Carragher played his 58th game in the European Cup, breaking Phil Neal’s club record, as we won 3-0 at PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of our Champions League Quarter-final. Steven Gerrard bagged his fifteenth goal in the European Cup, breaking Ian Rush’s club record in the process. John Arne Riise and Peter Crouch also netted, with Riise’s strike being his 31st and final one for the club. Dirk Kuyt seemingly got himself booked at the end of the game by obstructing a free-kick to guarantee he would be banned for second leg at Anfield and ensure a clean slate for the Semi-final. Unfortunately, Fábio Aurélio ruptured his Achilles, which kept him out of the first team until September.
2021 – We won 3-0 at Arsenal behind closed doors, thanks to a brace from Diogo Jota and a Mohamed Salah strike.