You'd think there would be nothing left to say about the history of Liverpool FC in the sixties. With the books and DVDs that already exist you could fill a bookshelf, and that's before you consider all the online material, such as the History Board on this forum.
But actually, I think we've only scratched the surface.
Compare football and music. If you look at websites devoted to artists such as The Beatles or Bob Dylan you will find a level of historical detail and analysis way beyond anything on football sites. And it's not just the niche sites either. Look at the Guardian or New York Times - they still give massive coverage to any minor discovery - a Lennon photo unearthed in an attic; a Dylan outtake presumed lost but now restored.
It's not that those artists don't deserve that level of scrutiny. Anyone who saw the Beatles' recent Get Back documentary will know just how engrossing it can be to watch eight hours' footage of four blokes stuck in a room. It's like watching history being made in real time.
But how about Liverpool in the 60s? Does anyone think Shankly's team is any less deserving of such attention? If you do, you are welcome to stop reading at this point.
I believe that the deeper you delve into those extraordinary times, and the more context you can provide, the more interesting the story gets.
This post is actually a response to a fine comment from 'Timbo's Goals' on the recent thread about Gordon Milne. It was such a good post that I thought it deserved a full response. He wrote that one of his favourite memories of Gordon was when he 'somehow got his head on a shot and directed it into the Kop goal to clinch victory against United on our way to winning the league in 65/66 season'.
I decided to look at that moment in more detail.
January 1st 1966The first thing to say is that hardly anyone in the ground knew that it was Milne who'd scored. This was the headline in the Football Echo that evening:
It was only in the reports in the following days that the truth became clear. If you go to the British Newspaper Archives (a subscription service, unfortunately) you find this:
The caption reads 'The scene on Saturday as Gordon Milne makes his headed flick, and his delight when the ball hits the net' (the match report below those pictures, though not the pictures themselves, can be found on the wonderful lfchistory site).
If we zoom in on those pics, we can see those moments more clearly:
i) The flick:
It shows you that Gerry Byrne's shot didn't just deflect off him - it's a deliberate movement. In a fraction of a second, Gordon was able to adjust his body position, stooping to make the right contact. Also in the picture, with the old Main Stand gable in the background, is the United number 3 and captain Noel Cantwell, and our number 8, Roger Hunt. There is also one other United player between Milne and Cantwell, whose identity is uncertain.
ii) The delight:
Such a great expression on Gordon's face. And now we can see that other United player more clearly. It's 19 year-old George Best, before he grew his hair long.
Now have a look at this close up of Harry Gregg's dive:
There's a copper walking in front of the paddock, but what are those letters and numbers? Younger readers may be unfamiliar with the old half time scoreboard. In the programme there would be a list of the day's fixtures, each with a letter code, and using those letters, you could see what the half time scores were. This is from the programme that day:
The scores you can see in matches B and E would have been of particular interest. Here's the League table before the match, once again taken from the programme:
In match B, Burnley were one up at Blackburn through Willie Irvine - the man who would finish the season joint top scorer in Division One, with 29 goals - the same as Roger Hunt. In match E, Leeds were one up at home to Sheffield United with a truly historic goal. 17 year-old Eddie Gray was making his debut that day, and he put Leeds ahead with a shot from 25 yards.
Those scores help us understand just what kind of outpouring of joy would have greeted Milne's header - we knew we desperately needed a winner, not just to beat United, but to stop our other rivals gaining ground in the title race. In the end, both Burnley and Leeds increased their leads to win 2-0 and 3-0 respectively.
So that's the photos. But look at this report from the Echo on the Monday afternoon:
What? A TV camera??
If you look at the TV schedules, you see that Match of the Day was on at 10. 05 pm on Saturday night - but that featured the game between Sheffield United and Northampton Town. On ITV the following day was 'World of Soccer'. Highlights must have been shown there. The only problem is, there is no footage online - anywhere. Were the tapes wiped? Re-used? Disposed of? If so, it's doubly sad for those interested in Gordon's career.
When I was speaking to him recently about his book we talked about the fact that there appears to be no surviving footage of
any of the goals he scored - the 17 he got for Liverpool, or the 11 for other clubs. Wouldn't it be great if we could locate the footage of that United game and show it to him? Who knows, maybe the Guardian could run an article on it.
So there's a lot to say about that one moment in time. And it's not just that moment. You could dive deep into any match that season - or any season - and you would end up going down the rabbit hole, with the story taking on more and more layers. Then different stories start overlapping and it gets kaleidoscopic. If you've read Mark Lewisohn's Beatles book you'll know what I mean. The whole point of this post is to suggest that Liverpool FC history repays close analysis in just the same way. If you agree, tell me below and I'll post some more stuff like this - or better still, use your own research to tell us about other moments. The History Board has been a bit quiet recently.
