In lifting the Jules Rimet trophy on July 30 1966, England, for the next four years at least, won the right to be billed as world champions.
Whether they carried that mantle well until the 1970 World Cup is debate for another time, yet during the same period and then into the 1970s if there was silverware for producing the most dynamic domestic football, chances are, that would also have been raised by the English.
To some extent the increased excitement pervading the game coincided with the sudden explosion in pop culture. In a year when the term ‘Beatlemania‘ entered every day use, an attack-minded Everton team took the league title to the home city they shared with The Beatles.
Through the next three years, a period when John, Paul, George and Ringo kept reaching one creative peak after another, Everton and Liverpool were among those to the fore in playing stylish football and winning trophies.
The England World Cup winning XI contained a player from each Merseyside club, along with others from Manchester United (themselves blessed with an prodigiously gifted Belfast-born teenager named George Best), West Ham United and Leeds United – sides who had gone close to, or won honours in the previous couple of seasons.
But during the two years prior to England becoming World Champions nobody had enjoyed more success than Liverpool.
Under charismatic Scottish manager Bill Shankly they had returned to the top flight in 1962. With outstanding homegrown talent such as striker Roger Hunt, full-back Gerry Byrne and winger Ian Callaghan (all members of the World Cup winning squad, Hunt playing every match including the final), Shankly merged astute, primarily Scottish signings. Defender Ron Yeats – quickly installed as captain – and creative lynchpin Ian St John made their presence felt to the extent that Liverpool won the league title at just the second time of asking in 1963-64.
They repeated the feat two seasons later and in the one between lifted the FA Cup for the first time.
Just a fortnight on from the greatest day in the history of English football, Saturday 13 August 1966 brought the annual curtain raiser to a new campaign, the league champions and FA Cup winners of the previous season facing each other to contest the FA Charity Shield.
For the first time in its 56 year history, the match took the form of a Merseyside derby, FA Cup holders Everton staging the contest in front of the biggest crowd ever gathered for the fixture, an attendance figure that would not be beaten until the event was moved to Wembley eight years later.
Prior to kick-off Hunt and his fellow World Cup winner, Everton full-back Ray Wilson, paraded the Jules Rimet trophy before a whopping 63,239 crammed inside Goodison Park – and when their victory lap was complete Brian Labone and Yeats followed them with the FA Cup and league title trophies. The sense of triumph would remain with Liverpool through the day as an early goal from Hunt enabled the visitors to make the short trip home in possession of the Charity Shield.
Yet this latest addition to the Anfield trophy cabinet would also prove the last for some time. On the eve of a new season they were strongly fancied not only to make a robust defence of the title but also mount a significant FA and European Cup challenge.
In truth, however, nothing of the sort occurred, becoming a campaign where Liverpool were steady, excellent on occasion, although never often enough to be a serious contender for the major prizes. Indeed, after three seasons of tremendous achievement, they entered a curious period of inertia. In trying to set the trophy bandwagon rolling once more, vast sums were spent and while a number of big money Shankly signings did not pay dividend, his judgement was rarely called into question, devotion toward him from The Kop never once appearing to waver.
When the drought ended, the honours began arriving as a torrent, continuing to do so for almost twenty years thereafter. But on arriving back at Anfield with the Charity Shield on that August Saturday in 1966, few would have envisaged the next occasion Liverpool had silverware to parade as a time when The Beatles were four solo artists, with England all but failing to qualify for the World Cup let alone win another.
SAMTIMONIOUS.com hereby reflects on the years at Anfield between 1967 and 1972 when Liverpool, to slightly misquote the most famous son of the city, were nowhere men……..
1966-67: Division One – 5th (51 points); European Cup – second round; FA Cup – fifth round; League Cup – did not enter; Top scorer – Roger Hunt (19, all competitions);
The first interruption to their apparently unstoppable momentum came just a few days after the Charity Shield success. Liverpool (and the emerging powerhouse of Leeds) were outflanked by Everton when Alan Ball, the most sought-after young English talent in the game, on leaving Blackpool made Goodison his next port of call – Harry Catterick paying a British record fee of £110,000 for the twenty one year-old World Cup winning wonder.
His arrival in the land of Evertonia had immediate consequences for Shankly, Ball scoring twice in his first Merseyside derby as Everton took only a fortnight to gain revenge. Liverpool recovered from that 3-1 reversal to embark on a nine match unbeaten league run, a two month period that also included the heavy weather involved in overcoming first round European Cup opponents Petrolul Ploiesti.
On Wednesday 28 September 1966 second half goals from St John and Callaghan saw the visitors to a comfortable victory behind the Iron Curtain, but a fortnight later the Rumanian champions scored a 3-1 win at Anfield, Liverpool indebted to a goal from Hunt in keeping the aggregate score level. They were also grateful UEFA had not yet introduced the away goals rule in the European Cup (it would come the following season), as under such criteria they would have made an embarrassing exit.
But at the time such circumstances necessitated a replay and when the two sides faced each other in the neutral territory of Brussels, St John and England international winger Peter Thompson netted before half-time in finally securing a place in round two. Sadly, a future visit by Liverpool to the Heysel Stadium would have tragic consequences.
On travelling to Amsterdam in early December for the second round meeting with Ajax, they had recorded five wins in their last six league matches, the only goals conceded during that time coming in a 2-1 reversal at West Brom. But on a foggy night, any hope of becoming the first British team to lift the European Cup vanished in the mist, Liverpool out of contention by half-time at which point they trailed 4-0, the second Ajax goal scored by a nineteen year-old Johann Cruyff.
Almost 54,000 were present a week later when Cruyff and Hunt shared the goals in a thrilling 2-2 draw, Anfield graciously clapping a fast-developing superpower of European football from the field. But with the applause came acceptance ambitions Shankly had of conquering Europe would have to wait a while longer.
Back on the home front Liverpool remained among the title-chasing pack, hopes of a successful championship defence maintained by an impressive response to exiting the European Cup. The next eleven league matches brought only one defeat, the onset of March finding them handily-placed for the run-in and also through to round five of the FA Cup.
In February 1967 Shankly entered the transfer market to spend £65,000 on nineteen year-old Blackpool defender Emlyn Hughes, his most important late-60s signing debuting in a 2-1 Anfield victory over Stoke City on Saturday 4 March. The future Liverpool and England skipper was then omitted in favour of more experienced performers when they crossed Stanley Park for the FA Cup fifth round meeting at Goodison a week later.
The tie generated such interest it was beamed back to live Anfield where over 40,000 watched the action on eight screens, the 64,851 actually at the game witnessing Everton prevail by the only goal.
This time, however, there would be no positive reaction to a set-back, the last eleven league fixtures of the season yielding only two wins, their grip on the title loosened by a sudden shyness in front of goal. This fitful run culminated in a final game of the season when already relegated Blackpool won 3-1 at Anfield in front of less than 30,000. Finishing fifth, nine points behind champions Manchester United, Liverpool had amassed 51, ten fewer than in winning the title twelve months before.
The campaign had seemingly turned on a 45th minute deciding goal in the Goodison FA Cup clash – Liverpool once more having cause to rue not securing the signature of Everton scorer Ball.
1967-68: Division One – 3rd (55 pts); FA Cup – sixth round; League Cup – second round; Inter-Cities Fairs Cup – third round; Top scorer – Roger Hunt (30);
Indication of Shankly wanting to change not just personnel but the style of play, came at the end of the previous season when long-serving, two-time league title winner Gordon Milne was sold to Blackpool. Receiving £32,500 for the former England international midfielder, it was put toward the club record fee of £96,000 then invested in Chelsea centre-forward Tony Hateley.
Renowned as formidable in the air, his inclusion in the side dictated Liverpool playing in more direct manner – not that it prompted any complaints from the faithful when Newcastle were hit for six without reply before the end of August, Hateley marking his second appearance in front of The Kop with a hat-trick.
The League Cup replay exit at second division Bolton Wanderers represented something of a shock, particularly as it came in the wake of an Anfield derby win secured by a late goal from Hunt, but steady Fairs Cup progress was matched by consistent displays that saw Liverpool reach the turn of the year unbeaten in eight league games.
Indeed, the only reversal during that time was a 1-0 Fairs Cup away-leg defeat against Ferencvaros in late-November, but there was little to suggest Liverpool would not advance to round four with the Anfield return to come. With Hunt in excellent form and Hateley appearing to settle well, Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs had effectively turned the title chase into a three-way contest. An unexpected defeat against their Hungarian visitors then ended hopes of a first European honour, but made little impact on solid league form.
But laboured FA Cup progress would have a bearing on their championship intentions. Liverpool suffered February defeats at Goodison and Stamford Bridge and when lining up to face West Brom in round six, they had already played six ties, needing replays to overcome Bournemouth, Walsall and then Spurs. The quarter-final proceeded to be a three-match marathon and following draws at The Hawthorns and Anfield, Albion finally prevailed by the odd goal in three at the neutral venue of Maine Road.
Seven matches through the first twenty days of April (including the first and second replays against the eventual FA Cup winners) took a toll, their title challenge moving into one-step forward two-back mode – a vital Old Trafford victory over Manchester United on April 6 offset by defeats to Sheffield United and West Ham.
Nothing emphasised their tenacity more than victory at fourth-placed Leeds on Saturday 4 May when Chris Lawler and Bobby Graham netted in the last five minutes to secure a 2-1 win and with two matches left (one more than City and United who stood above them), hope of landing the championship still remained – final day defeats for the Manchester pair and maximum points from fixtures against Nottingham Forest and Stoke necessary for Liverpool to become champions.
In the event City ensured they finished in top spot by winning 4-3 at Newcastle, Liverpool doing all they could to affect things with an Anfield rout of Forest, the 6-1 demolition including a second hat-trick of the campaign for Hateley.
Losing 2-1 at fifth-bottom Stoke four days later resigned Liverpool to third when just a point would have seen them climb into the runners-spot. The season brought a four point improvement in their points total, saw them share the best defensive record with Everton, but even then bigger steps were still required in returning to the winners podium.
1968-69: Division One – 2nd (61 pts); FA Cup – fifth round; League Cup – second round; Fairs Cup – first round; Top scorer – Roger Hunt (17);
While intent on returning silverware back to Anfield at the earliest opportunity, there is now a sense of Shankly also looking further down the road. Seeing the potential in young defenders Alec Lindsay (Bury) and Larry Lloyd (Bristol Rovers), both are snapped up from lower league clubs during the season.
In the short term however, he reacts to a disjointed start by spending big on young Wolves striker Alun Evans, the fee of £100,000 making him the most expensive teenager in football at that juncture. The outlay was partly offset by selling Hateley to Coventry, Liverpool in arrears to the tune of £30,000 for his thirteen months at Anfield, where he scored 28 times in 56 matches.
Such matters were of little concern as Liverpool hit a blistering spell of autumn form, one five game spell producing eighteen goals with none conceded, Evans netting a brace on his quick return to Molineux as the visitors served up a 6-0 thrashing.
From the end of October through to February Liverpool lost only one of fourteen league matches, their agenda not cluttered by League or Fairs Cup commitments having made early departures from each. The first round Fairs Cup encounters with Atletico Bilbao both resulted in 2-1 victories for the home team, the outcome determined on the toss of a coin in the Anfield second-leg, where Bilbao captain Aquirre called correctly.
In the League Cup they went out in round four at Highbury, this defeat taking on added irony when Liverpool departed the FA Cup at the fifth round stage to Leicester City – Arsenal and The Foxes going on to become beaten-finalists in the respective competitions.
Following a surprise home defeat at Nottingham Forest on February 15 they would lose only lose one more league fixture and on other occasions such reliability would have seen them home, their final total of 61 points enough to have landed the title in each of the past two years.
But it is testament to the astonishing consistency of season-long leaders Leeds that even with Liverpool breaking the 60-point barrier the title was still way out of reach – Don Revie’s side losing just twice in amassing a record-breaking 67 points, going unbeaten through 28 matches from mid-October onward.
At a time when The Beatles were singing of ‘Revolution‘, Liverpool needed yet more evolution.
1969-70: Division One – 5th (51 pts); FA Cup – sixth round; League Cup – second round; Fairs Cup – second round; Top scorer – Bobby Graham (21);
As the 1960s drew to a close, Liverpool had reached something of a crossroads. The mid-60s glory days were becoming more distant in the rear view mirror with the road ahead yet to become clear – the 1969-70 campaign indicative of idling at a junction between the past and future.
Initially there did not appear too much wrong with the present as seven wins and two draws from the first nine games saw them head the field. But an impressive start then gave way to inconsistency with only one victory from the next six, which looked like being extended to seven with Southampton just six minutes away from leaving Merseyside with a point.
Then Hunt struck twice in quick succession to ensure victory. His last two league goals in a Liverpool career of 244 spanning eleven seasons, a changing of the guard never more apparent than when he was sold to second division Bolton Wanderers in December 1969.
The three league games played that month represented a microcosm of the season. The 3-0 derby victory at Goodison (the home side by now having replaced Liverpool in pole position), was followed by a 4-1 Anfield thumping off Manchester United, another side continuing to exist in the glow of former glories – 1969, indeed the decade, coming to an end by inflicting a 5-1 Boxing Day defeat on hosts Burnley.
They had been just as hard to fathom in cup competitions. While a narrow second round League Cup exit to eventual winners Manchester City could be consigned to one of those things, the same did not apply to a slipshod second round Fairs Cup exit on away goals to Portuguese part-timers Vitoria de Setubal.
As 1970 unfolded their form continued in the same hit and miss fashion, but on advancing to the last eight of the FA Cup, a first semi-final appearance since the triumph of 1965 beckoned, Liverpool missing the likes of Leeds, Manchester United and Chelsea on being drawn away to second division Watford.
Although FA Cup shocks were not uncommon they generally involved big fish other than Liverpool. But after the home side netted with a second half Barry Endean header, time ran out for the visitors and in the great scheme of things, many of Shankly’s stalwarts. The current state of play was made abundantly clear a month later when the neighbours came over and strutted their stuff, a 2-0 Anfield success taking Everton another step closer winning the title.
Four wins in the last six matches saw them cross the 50 point mark, but in the week of April 1970 when The Beatles announced their split, a Liverpool side containing five title winners from 1964 went down 2-1 at Chelsea.
The 60s, indeed, were over.
1970-71: Division One – 5th (51 points); FA Cup – beaten finalists; League Cup – second round; Fairs Cup – semi-finals: Top scorer – Alun Evans (15);
If there was a whiff of stagnation around Anfield during previous season, then 70-71 brought an air of consolidation. After making another strong start, they finished in the same place with an identical points return, a noticeably small goal return not reflected in the near £60,000 spent on Sheffield Wednesday striker Jack Whitham (released on a free transfer less than three years later) or initially, club record expenditure of £110,000 for Welsh international Cardiff City centre-forward John Toshack.
But it was a campaign when players such as Lindsay, Lloyd, Irish winger Steve Heighway, midfielder Brian Hall and goalkeeper Ray Clemence (an £18,000 purchase from fourth division Scunthorpe United in 1967), all became embedded in the team. As they were introduced so long-serving figures like Yeats, St John, Geoff Strong and ‘keeper Tommy Lawrence were moved on, the team sheet for the opening day victory at Burnley reading more like where we are going than where we’ve been.
The early portents, particularly in the league were good, progressing unbeaten through eight matches until beaten at Southampton at the end of September. From that point the away form of Shanks’ saplings went somewhat awry with only one point out of the next eight collected on their travels, a period that also included a League Cup exit at second division Swindon Town.
But as 1970 gave way to the new year, a team with an average age of twenty three stood sixth in the table and had progressed to the Fairs Cup quarter-finals. Evidence they were gradually learning the ropes came in early February when a second minute goal from Toshack earned them victory at title-chasing Leeds.
Although still prone to come up short in the weekly grind of league fixtures, spring progress in the cups was impressive. Evans netted a hat-trick as West German titans Bayern Munich were swept aside at Anfield, Liverpool securing a last-four Fairs Cup berth by virtue of a 4-1 aggregate victory – an FA Cup semi-final place booked when a Heighway goal ensured victory over Spurs in a White Hart Lane sixth round replay.
Barring their way to the final in each competition were their fiercest rivals of the time, the Fairs Cup creating a two-leg showdown against Leeds, while the first all-Merseyside FA Cup semi-final since 1950 ensured one side or the other of Stanley Park would be represented beneath the twin towers in May.
On the neutral turf of Old Trafford Liverpool fell behind to a tenth minute Alan Ball effort, but Everton were overcome with second half strikes from Evans and Hall, whose first goal for the club booked a first Wembley appearance in six years – the balance of football power in the city shifting from red to blue until the mid-80s in the process.
With a place in the FA Cup Final secured attention turned to Europe, but despite two spirited performances they were edged out by Leeds for whom a Billy Bremner goal in the Anfield first-leg proved crucial – a goalless Elland Road return enough to see Revie’s men through to their third Fairs Cup final in five years.
On Saturday 5 May 1971, ten days after their Fairs Cup semi-final disappointment, Liverpool faced Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the Gunners aiming to complete the league and cup double after winning the title at North London rivals Spurs at the start of the week.
In sweltering conditions a tense, even contest went into extra-time, the deadlock quickly broken in the additional half hour when Heighway fired Liverpool ahead. But showing the resilience that had been a characteristic of their 64 match season (their opponents having played 61 themselves), Arsenal hit back through Eddie Kelly, victory and the double then ensured with brilliant Charlie George goal – Liverpool departing the scene with plaudits but no prize.
1971-72: Division One – 3rd (57 pts); FA Cup – fourth round; League Cup – fourth round; European Cup Winners’ Cup – second round; Top scorer – John Toshack (13);
After going close to winning the FA Cup the previous season, 1971-72 brought an epic if ultimately thwarted league title bid – the barren years lasting a little while longer as Liverpool fell just short in the most congested championship chase in a generation.
In the immediate aftermath of losing to Arsenal at Wembley, Shankly paid £33,000 to bottom tier Scunthorpe for a twenty year-old midfield dynamo named Kevin Keegan. Yet the decision to play him alongside Toshack in a more forward role quickly bore fruit, the future England captain scoring in the 12th minute of his Liverpool debut, netting the first goal in a 3-1 opening day Anfield win over Nottingham Forest.
Through the first two months of the campaign Shankly was unable to alleviate a tendency to be erratic, the first nine games resulting in five wins and four defeats. The tenth brought the first draw, although even then a two goal lead was let slip as early leaders Manchester United departed Anfield with a point.
Involvement in the League and European Cup Winners’ Cup (Liverpool participating due to losing to the FA Cup Final, double winners Arsenal contesting the European Cup), was over before Bonfire Night, any title hopes apparently gone up in smoke during a mid-winter trot of three defeats and two draws, a five match sequence when they failed to register a single goal.
But a 4-1 Anfield drubbing of Crystal Palace on January 29 set in motion an extraordinary upswing in fortunes that brought thirteen wins and a draw from the next fourteen games – a run that saw them concede just three times. Before this highly profitable period had fully begun, there had been a fourth round FA Cup replay exit at Leeds, whose own unrelenting form had put them in contention for a league and FA Cup double.
When Liverpool finally came to grief, it was on Monday 1 May when they lost by the only goal at leaders Derby who that night completed their fixtures – the title to be decided a week later when Leeds and Liverpool (fourth-placed Manchester City no longer in contention), could each claim the championship on the outcome of their final fixture of the season.
Two days after beating Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, Leeds travelled to Wolves needing only a point to be crowned champions. Liverpool meanwhile needed to beat The Gunners at Highbury while hoping for a favour from the home side at Molineux.
On an evening of high tension, Leeds scored late on through skipper Bremner but were unable to find the leveler needed to secure the championship and lost 2-1. At Highbury there ensued a stalemate (a late Toshack goal disallowed for offside still rankles on the red half of Merseyside), the upshot being Derby remained in top spot, winning their first title by just a point from Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester City.
By way of irony at the very start of the season Liverpool had opportunity to lift a trophy, but on being invited to contest the Charity Shield with second division champions Leicester City suffered a 1-0 Filbert Street defeat. From an Anfield perspective 1971-72 might have reached an agonising conclusion, yet two years later or thereabouts, the championship, FA Cup, Charity Shield and a first European trophy had all been paraded around the place, 1972-73 producing a league title and UEFA Cup double.
The new season had begun on August 12 1972 and by late January Shankly had seen his charges lose only three league matches. On hitting the front early they rarely looked likely to falter – the tag of ‘nowhere men‘ giving way to a feeling on The Kop of here comes the fun…………
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.