My first match was a 2-2 draw at Anfield against Man United in 1971. I remember looking in awe at the Spion Kop from the Road End as it filled up before the game and loved listening to it throughout. Anfield seemed a really special, but a bit of a dangerous, place for a youngster such as I. Little was I to know then just what joys I'd witness in the coming years. My teens coincided with Liverpool becoming the most feared team on the planet. Call it youthful arrogance, but I never thought we'd lose a game back then. We had some great individuals, but most of all, we were a solid and often devastating team. No one liked playing against us, particularly at Anfield. Silk and steel. Liverpool were both.
An aura? Oh yes, Liverpool had an aura. Many teams were beaten before they even got onto the pitch at Anfield. Liverpool got into their heads. The team, the fans, the Kop, the sign above the tunnel. It all messed with opposition heads. Many sides and many sets of opposition fans simply wanted to get the hell out of Anfield as quickly as possible, hopefully with their pride intact. We had some loses of course. I recall Norwich doing us 1-3 at Anfield. I was bewildered after that one. I remember us losing away 5-1 to Villa and 4-0 to coventry, but Liverpool always came back at you. Always! Our rivals sometimes won a battle with us, but we usually won the war.
League Championships came thick and fast, and to me at least, they got taken for granted. I eventually got far mnore of a buzz over winning the European Cup. No one could touch us at home, so it felt like we had bigger fish to fry. These days detractors say ''Well there was no great Barcelona to stop you back then.'' But they fail to realise that back then, we WERE the great Barcelona of the day. We WERE the Real Madrid, the Bayern Munich and the Barcelona all rolled into one. Numero Uno. The Best.
Back then it never looked like it would end. Winning and being the best was all I'd ever known Liverpool to do and be. I was at the Arsenal game in '89 and even though it was a sickener I never really thought we'd go into the decline we eventually went into. I don't really know what happened either, but I did get the feeling that Liverpool became over sentimental as a club. Maybe Hillsborough contributed to that, and understandably so. The Liverpool I remember was a ruthless juggernaut of a club. A beast; a monster. You knew your job and you performed or you were out. Simple as that. As I said, we were a ruthless beast of a club and sentiment didn't seem to play a part. For much of two decades we terrorised teams home and abroad. We won the lot and deserved to do so. Being young enough to witness all that was a privilege. The Leagues were great, but I did get to take them for granted. An outrageous luxury with hindsight, eh. But we were expected to win the league, and we usually did so. In the end I still savoured the cake (league) but I savoured the icing more (European Cup) and the St Etienne game is still my all time favourite. Being right in the middle of the Spion Kop that night is still giving me goosbumps as I type this.
Those really were the days, my friend...
