Today In History
August 30th
1980 Norwich City (Division One) Anfield 4-1
Alan Hansen 44' Terry McDermott 65' Alan Kennedy 72' David Johnson 87'
Att 35,315
in 1991 my brother bought a video called "team of the decade" which told the story of Liverpool in the 80s, all of the goals were featured on this, Alan Hansen's goal just came back to me there, a fine run and a shot which rocketed into the Kop end goal. The three second half goals are a 20 odd yard belter from Terry McDermott after a free kick is rolled to him, Alan Kennedy finished off a great move by heading in from about 4 yards and David Johnson finished off a tika taka style move. The video was narrated by Gerald Sinstadt who described it "this was to be the worst league season for Liverpool in the 80s, goals were going at Anfield by 3s or 4s but from Christmas onwards, consistency disappeared". Despite this we would still win the European and League cups.
1986 Arsenal (Division One) Anfield 2-1
Jan Molby 19' (Pen) Ian Rush 57'
Att 38,637
1989 Real Madrid (Bernabeu Trophy) Bernabeu Stadium 0-2
Att 45,000
Im not sure if a league game was called off or what not, but I do notice that in the early part of this season we did play 3 consecutive away games at Aston Villa, Luton Town and Derby County. This was sandwiched between the final two games.
1995 Queens Park Rangers (Premier League) Anfield 1-0
Neil Ruddock 29'
Att 37,548
Its 3 wins from 4 for Roy Evans men, Im surprised to read of the team being booed off, that certainly was rare back then. Neil ruddock got every pound of his 37 stone frame behind his volley for the winning goal which the team celebrated by sliding on their bums and lying down infront of the main stand. During his time at Liverpool, defender Rob Jones never scored but he sure prevented a goal or two in his time, Jones saved us a couple of points here with a brilliant goal line clearance late on to deny QPR's Trevor Sinclair.
1998 Newcastle United (Premier League)St James Park 4-1
Michael Owen 17' 18' 32' Patrik Berger 45'
Att 36,740
I always had a bad feeling when we came up against new managers, teams suddenly find an extra gear and in recent seasons new managers we lost to on their bow included Joe Royle and Everton aswell as John Gregory and Aston Villa. However my mood lightened beforehand. I was a huge formula 1 fan at the time, even more so than now and I longed to see my favorite team Jordan win a grand prix, this was the day. That afternoon in Spa, Belgium both Jordans finished a rain soaked crash filled race first and second. the Race featured a horrific start line pile up involving some 14 cars which can be viewed here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VdJYDHdtekThere was also a controversial crash involving Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard, which Schumacher felt was caused deliberately as Coulthard's team mate Mika Hakkinen was battling against Schumacher for the title. After the incident Schumacher angrily confronted Coulthard even accusing him "you tried to kill me"
this can be viewed here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsfQScvC5oIThe day was crowned off with this as Michael Owen's first half hattrick together with Patrik Berger's fine finish gave us a 4-1 half time lead and with no goals in the second half Liverpool were top of the league under the joint managerial duo of Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier.
By the end of the match the Liverpool fans began singing the name of former manager Kenny Dalglish who had been sacked as manager of Newcastle a few days earlier, King Kenny had lead Newcastle to 2nd in a brief half season stint at the end of the 1996-7 season but after a bottom half finish in 1998 the writing was on the wall, this despite Dalglish leading Newcastle to the Fa cup final and in their opening two games Newcastle hadnt yet lost (a brutal home draw with Charlton and a creditable draw at Chelsea).
I remember Newcastle claimed Dalglish was actually sacked around that time and just agreed to stay on for a while into the new season which sounded like complete bollox given the money he was allowed spend that summer on the likes of Dietmar Hamann and Stephane Guivarch. Guivarch was the Newcastle scorer on that day (following a mistake by Phil Babb) in what would be his only goal in England.
With Ruud Gullit taking over the Newcastle reins, Guivarch found himself out of the first team and by Christmas he'd already left to join Glasgow Rangers, it seemed strange given he was top scorer in France for 2 seasons and actually started the world cup final for France when they beat Brazil 3-0 (albeit wasting a hatful of chances). In a running theme, Newcastle again finished in the bottom half, again reached the FA cup final, against lost it to a team sealed the league and FA Cup double (Arsenal in 98 and Man United in 99) and again shortly into the following season sacked their manager.
2003 Everton (Premier League)Goodison Park 3-0
Michael Owen 38' 52' Harry Kewell 79'
Att 40,200
The pressure was on here because we hadnt won any of our opening 3 games but we made light work of Everton, at the back Jamie Carragher and Igor Biscan performed brilliantly while upfront Michael Owen scored two well taken goals to remind Evertons young forward Wayne rooney who was boss, late on Harry Kewell scored his first goal for the club. 3-0 was impressive and it was our 4th consecutive win at Goodison Park. I remember having a bet on 2-0 but i didnt mind, id also Michael Owen first goalscorer and our local bookie used to double the odds if he scored two.