I love this man. He was my 10/11 years old to adulthood, every week, every season.
Where to start?
The last minute winner at Spurs in 86 and what that led to. The goals v Everton, but mostly the two goals in the FA Cup Final in 1986, the amount of times the update popped up from Teletext and my mam sighed but let me "just quickly" check and it saying RUSH, the first goal v United at Anfield, the winner in the second leg - that downward header v Athletic Bilbao (radio I think), the tikky-takky with John Barnes before Stan Collymore walloped home that winner in the first 4-3 v Newcastle..... so many.... Dropping to his knees after his penalty v Roma - and all the goals he got that year!....the hattrick at Villa....
The first goal I saw him score with my own eyes was in a 2-1 win v Arsenal at the start of 86/87 (never seen it back but a compilation or two suggested perhaps it was in there) and the last goal v Leicester in 1995 (2-0, Robbie got the other). A few in between but games were few and far for me as I lived in Cumbria and wasn't brought up with easy spending money.
I remember as a 12 year old being pissed off that on a day when both Rushy and Tony woodcock had scored 5 each (for Liverpool v Luton and Arsenal at Villa (6-0 and 2-6) the next week's Shoot! magazine rated Woodcock's performance as 10/10 but Rush as only 9/10.
In the letters page a week later, Shoot's response (justifying their 9 rating for Rush): (was something like) "The way Liverpool are dominating right now, Ian Rush could turn up in his wellies and still bag a hattrick."
For me, 1981 to 1990, (10 and a half to 19 and a half years old) was mostly just about Ian Rush.
