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Looking back on my formative years as a football supporter there are certain matches that live firmly in the memory. Sometimes they are games that I witnessed in the flesh, sometimes there are editions of Match of the Day which are recollected vividly even forty years on.
The clash between Liverpool and Manchester United on 25th September 1971 was one of those epic MOTD memories which encapsulates seventies football at it’s absolute finest.
As a fifteen year old I was a regular at Anfield. I had started going in earnest in 1966 when my old granddad became too ill to make his fortnightly trips to L4, and so ‘our kid’ and I would take turns to occupy his season ticket seat. By 71, I had progressed to an Annie Roader, but for reasons unremembered I was not at the Sept 71 match.
Manchester United arrived at Anfield sitting second in the Division One table (behind Sheffield United, yes Sheffield United!!), whilst Shankly’s team were in 8th position. It was Liverpool’s away record which had let them down, with a single win at Palace ofset by defeats at Newcastle (see , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7h2E19x3mk) Spurs, Man City and Leeds. However their home record was unblemished with four wins out of four. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SR8TG2TWkLM )
The general feel-good factor around Anfield, stemmed not from their league position, but more from the buzz created by the new superstar of English football. Six weeks earlier, Kevin Keegan was unknown to all bar those who scoured the minor sports columns of the Liverpool Echo. He had burst onto the scene with an explosive debut against Forest and already he was on the verge of an England call-up. Keegan’s impact, coupled with the development of Shankly’s new young squad meant that the 55,634 fans wedged into the famous stadium on that bright September Saturday afternoon were looking forward to a memorable encounter.
The Manchester United forward line is enough to bring a tear to the eye of their supporters. Willie Morgan, Brian Kidd, Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best. George was at the top of his game. He had scored a hat-trick the previous week against West Ham in a 4-2 win (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b_gDa30Ro8U ), and he had hit six in total in those previous four games.
Liverpool lined up with Ray Clemence; Chris Lawler, Larry Lloyd, Emlyn Hughes, Alec Lindsay; Brian Hall, Ian Ross, Ian Callaghan; Kevin Keegan, Bobby Graham, Steve Heighway.
The atmosphere inside the ground matched the anticipation before it. In those days a 55,000 lock-out meant that the terraces were full an hour before kick-off. The PA systems did not overpower the ground in the way they do now, so the atmosphere was created by an hour of fans’ singing prior to the emergence of the teams. And sing they did. About their own teams. Not hate-filled abuse. It would be several more years before the distasteful chants would start. The songs about plane crashes and runways, later still about stadium disasters.
On that September afternoon, the main song emanating from the United end was their famous ‘Hello, Hello, We are the Busby Boys’, although by now Sir Matt had moved upstairs and Frank O’Farrell was at the helm.
The game would prove to be a classic. Within seven minutes the red shirts swarming all over the whites from Manchester were rewarded with a goal. Bobby Graham shot from the edge of the penalty area and the ball squeezed past Stepney’s dive and squirmed into the corner of the Kop net. “All hail to Bobby Graham, he’s the leader of the team,The greatest centre forward that the world has ever seen...” rang out from the swaying, steaming, baying mass of the Kop. Keegan, Hall and Heighway were moving the ball around at pace and the reds were rampant. By twenty five minutes past three the noise levels went up a notch further as Brian Hall doubled Liverpool’s lead. When the referee called time on the first half the Liverpool fans stood and applauded rapturously as their young team had simply played the old masters off the park.
After the interval United came out and turned the game on it’s head. Immediately the reds were pushed back, and the illustrious visitors swarmed all over the Kop half of the pitch. Within minutes Best picked the ball just inside the area with his back to goal.For once, his man-marker Ian Ross was a couple of yards away, enough for Best to exploit the space. He drifted to his left , taking him away from Ross and past Hughes as he headed for the by-line to the right of the area. He drilled alow cross across the six-yard box and Denis Law was there to smack home a typical finish.
It wasn’t too long before Charlton had levelled. A long clearance dropped ten yards from the Liverpool area, where it was knocked sideways, invitingly for the incoming Bobby Charlton. He struck the ball with his unfavoured right foot, so sweetly on the half volley that Clemence’s imperious dive to his left was in vain as the still-rising ball wedged between stanchion and net.
United had been unstoppable for twenty minutes and the Kopites were suffering a reality check. Late on though the Anfield ground was shaken to it’s foundations as once again Bobby Graham forced the ball past Alex Stepney. To the fans’ dismay the linesman’s flag was raised to the sky and the celebrations were cut short. Jimmy Hill on Match of the Day would dissect the decision, but although it was extremely tight the discussion was inconclusive as far as I recall.
So the game ended 2-2, an absolute classic of the early seventies. It was just about the last of the great LFC v MUFC games which was what it should be. That is, merely a clash between two great clubs. There was very little backdrop of antipathy. The hooliganism element was just around the corner, though. By the mid-seventies English football was blighted by travelling gangs, being greeted by gangs of idiots looking for trouble. It was at almost every ground. Naturally, given the geography and rivalry, the Liverpool v United clashed became one of the nastiest rivalries in the game. The distasteful songs and scraps were soon complemented by darts, rocket flares, gas attacks.
Liverpool / Manchester United matches are still great affairs. They are the first fixture every fan looks for when the fixtures are published. For every Keegan there is a Suarez. United may not have players of the calibre of Best, Charlton and Law (discuss?) but they have built an empire based on success. However until the rivalry is brought back into the boundaries of acceptable banter, the truly great occasions will always be marred. The sick chants must be outlawed by both sets of fans. Until or unless the football authorities get serious in cleaning up the stands, it is up to the fans to self-police it. It is possible to dislike, resent – even detest – a football club without throwing out the general rules of acceptable behaviour.
We hate United. United hate us. May it ever be so. Great rivalries are borne on such antipathy. But please for the sake of Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and all the greats who featured in Liverpool v Manchester United battles let’s rein it in a bit. As fans, surely we are capable of giving out jibes based on a bit of humour.
Let’s laugh at them. Let them have a laugh at our expense. Let’s just leave the dead out of it.
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