Liverpool FC Forum

[Dundalk]

Fantastic thread and good idea

Good man Bermenstein, keep it up

[ethanr]

It's like a story. I'm so excited to see what happens next!

[Bermenstein]

1961-62  At the End of a Storm, Is A Golden Sky!

Bill Shankly was optimistic for the season which was about to commence. Although some fans were begining to accept in a way, that their club, Liverpool FC, was just an ordinary mediocre team.

No! Not Shankly. He had now signed the 2 players he had been chasing  Since he was at Huddersfield. They were
Ian St John, who was a record signing at the time

and
Ron Yeats, who would captain the side from this season, till 1970


These 2 players would be added to the squad, which already included the much improving Roger Hunt, Jimmy Melia, who was a fine striker and passer of the ball, Kevin Lewis, Alan A'Court, Gordon Milne, Ronnie Moran & Ian Callaghan to name a few.

Liverpool would start the 61-62 campaign away to a Bristol Rovers side which had struggled badly the season before, and were not fancied to fare any better this season.

St John & Yeats would both make their Liverpool debuts at Bristol Rovers. Liverpool win the match 2-0, and get the season off in the right way.


In fact Liverpool would have a fantastic start to the campaign, winning 10 of their first 11 matches! Roger Hunt would score 13 goals in his first 11 matches of the season. Maybe The jigsaw was looking complete at last.



At last Liverpool were up and running. It was astonishing to see players who we had previously thought of as average journeymen move onto a higher level largely through the example set by the two signings and the new training regime which Shankly had introduced. The template had been set. Eight players appeared in 40 or more league games (42 games in the season) and of the 17 who appeared during the season Molyneux, Arrowsmith and Wheeler totalled 6 appearances between them, so he used only more or less 14 players.

Roger Hunt was proving to be a striker who might one day play for England and St John was outstanding. Standing only 5ft 8” he was extremely small for a striker but he had a remarkable ability in the air and was capable of outjumping defenders who were 6” and taller than him.

At the back Yeats seemed to be impassable.Yeats was simply magnificent. A huge man (by the standards of the time) he was supreme in the air and a devastating tackler. He often headed the ball from inside his own penalty area beyond the halfway line.

The first hiccup arrived, as it often did in our second division days, against Middlesborough at Ayresome Park and there were to be 4 more defeats, all away from home, before the turn of the year. These days the press would be writing you off after 5 defeats but the reds picked up the momentum after Christmas and the bandwagon rolled on.

Solidarity had returned and, although clean sheets were in short supply, no more than one goal was conceded in any game bar one until promotion had been achieved.

The fact that Promotion was confirmed by victory over Southampton at Anfield with 5 games still to play illustrates how dominant we were that season. Two first half goals from Kevin Lewis sealed the win and it was ironic that Lewis should score the vital goals as he was only playing because Ian St John, who had been sensational in his first season at Anfield, was suspended.


The team did a lap of honour after the final whistle, the first time that it had happened at Anfield since 1948. In those days when a player was suspended he was not allowed to even attend the ground during his suspension and we were all mortified that St John was unable to enjoy the fruits of his prodigious performances during the season. Or at least we were until, who should join the team on the lap of honour but the Saint!

So Liverpool were back where they belonged, in The Top Flight, after winning the 2nd Division Title in 61-62, to end the long 8 years in Limbo.


"I'm a people's man - only the people matter."
                                             Bill Shankly in 1965

Roger Hunt would go on to score an amazing 41 League goals in 41 league games, you guessed it, averaging a goal a game for the season. Legend!!!


NEXT:  A Lot Done, More to Do!!

[Benny The Noon]

This is going to be a fantastic read - great work mate

[Bermenstein]

A Lot Done, More To Do

1962-63: Back In Division 1

So after an 8 year absence from the top flight, Bill Shankly had Liverpool in a good place. The coming season would bring expectation. But if anybody would be patient, It would be Liverpool fans. After nearly a decade in no-mans land, the majority wanted a stable season away from relegation, and hopefully a foundation to build on from the new found success of 61-62.

The transfer market would be a quiet one for Liverpool back in Div 1 with only 3 players signed, John Sealey, Robert Thomson and Willie Stevenson, the latter being the best aquisition of the 3.

Liverpool would start the season slowly, with 1 draw & 2 defeats in their opening 3 games. They would win 3 of their first 11 games, putting them in the bottom half of the table by the end of October. It was looking like a hard winter ahead and a tough struggle to remain in the 1st division.


But the seasons turning point came in November at Old Trafford against Man Utd. United had just beaten champions Ipswich Town 5-3 thanks to four goals from Denis Law, and things seemed to be going to form in their next game when David Herd gave them a half-time lead against newly promoted Liverpool, who had only won four of their first 16 games and were struggling near the bottom of the First Division table.

The second half would, however, be a different story. Ian St John quickly equalised after a mistake from United keeper Harry Gregg, only for Albert Quixall to restore United's advantage with a hotly disputed penalty midway through the half. With five minutes to go the jig looked up for Bill Shankly's side, but Jimmy Melia scrambled in an equaliser and then, with a minute left, Ronnie Moran rifled in a 25-yard free kick for what would surely be the winner. It wasn't: Johnny Giles scored with the last kick of the match to force a draw.

Liverpool were nonetheless buoyed by the result, winning their next nine games, while United's form dipped alarmingly - they ended the season only two places and three points from the relegation zone.


Liverpool would have an inconsistent last 2 months of the season, and would also be on the end of a 7-2 away defeat to eventual runners-up, Tottenham Hotspur. However, Liverpool did enough to finish a steady 8th in the 1st Division of 62-63.


Liverpool also had a very good FA cup run, reaching the semi-finals, only to loose to Leicester 1-0.

So with the team re-established in Englands Top Tier, Shankly would surely have to bring in a few new faces to strenghten the squad.

Overall Title Race Count

So here's a summary of the Football League from its inception in 1888-89 to the current season which is 1962-63.

There have been 20 different teams that have been Champions, from Preston North End winning the very first ever league, up to this current season, which had Everton claiming their 6th title for the 62-63 season.
Arsenal at this point in time would be the overall leaders with 7 titles, with A Villa, Everton & Sunderland all on 6 titles each. Liverpool & Man Utd further back with 5 titles each.


NEXT:  Reds to Lose First 3 Home Games of the 63-64 Season

"I assure you, gentlemen, that before the end of the season we will win a home game!" - Shankly declared to the board after Liverpool's 3rd straight home defeat at the start of the season

[Kharhaz]

ITS LOSE NOT LOOSE !

[tubby]

This is a great thread!

[Bermenstein]

This is a great thread!

Thans Bav. I'm in the middle of moving house at the moment, so I can only access the net in work. Will get it back on track in the next couple of weeks.

[metalhead]

Well we have one history to be added here..


we are in the relegation zone

[Bermenstein]

Well we have one history to be added here..


we are in the relegation zone

Hope i havent jinxed the season in starting this thread with Liverpool relegated in 1954.............twilight zone..

[metalhead]

Loved reading on the Shankly era Berm, excellent info for people who haven't witnessed that time

[rick7]

I have been a big Liverpool fan all my life. I have come from the US to watch games at Liverpool several times. No longer. I just burned my jersey. The Boston Red Sox are the biggest lowlife punks in the history of American sports. Their owners are losers who don't know what they are doing. When the Yankees kick their butts - 27 world championships to the Red Sox 2 - they whine about how they are cursed. I can't believe this has happened. You won't belive what a bunch of clowns these guys are.

[metalhead]

I have been a big Liverpool fan all my life. I have come from the US to watch games at Liverpool several times. No longer. I just burned my jersey. The Boston Red Sox are the biggest lowlife punks in the history of American sports. Their owners are losers who don't know what they are doing. When the Yankees kick their butts - 27 world championships to the Red Sox 2 - they whine about how they are cursed. I can't believe this has happened. You won't belive what a bunch of clowns these guys are.

You burned your jersey because of that?

[dawson99]

hes a goddamn yankees fan.. if a yankees fan supported Liverpool now, they'd stop now. Of course on the other side, we now have all Red Sox fans loving us now.. and they have the best fans in baseball

[Bermenstein]

1963-64

Reds to Lose First 3 Home Games of the 63-64 Season

"I assure you, gentlemen, that before the end of the season we will win a home game!" - Shankly declared to the board after Liverpool's 3rd straight home defeat at the start of the season

Our first season back in the top division (62-63, previous season) was much better than any of us dared to hope, after our 8 year limbo in Division 2. We finished 8th and suddenly we had become a player in the big league again.

Eighth, of course, was not good enough for Shanks and when he announced at the end of that season that he was confident that he had the basis of a squad good enough to go all the way to the top of the division we all thought either a) he was mad or b) he would be going out to the transfer market with barrow loads of cash to bring a raft of new players in. In the event he proved us wrong on both accounts.

There were many who genuinely felt that there was something of a madman about Shankly, so all embracing was his devotion to his team. I had quite a bit of contact with a few of the sixties side and they all said that the great man was incapable of talking about anything other than football and specifically Liverpool. I think that he was a driven man with little else to entertain him, apart, of course, from boxing and Jimmy Cagney films!

The season, however, did not get off to a good start. Anfield had become the ‘bastion of invincibility’ that Shankly had predicted and defeats at our hallowed home were few and far between. Or at least they had been before this particular season. The first three home games were against Nottingham Forest, Blackpool and West Ham and all three were lost by the same scoreline, 2-1. It was reported that, after the third defeat, Shankly promised the board that before the season ended Liverpool would win a home game!

Three away victories during these early weeks helped to balance things a little but a comprehensive defeat against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane meant that, after 9 games, the reds had lost 4 and drawn 1 to give them the measly total of 9 points, bearing in mind that, in those days, it was only two points for a win.

Those 9 points put us in 10th position level with, amongst others, Everton who had 2 games in hand! Had anyone suggested that Saturday night that Liverpool would end the season as League Champions they would have been certified on the spot.

The 10th game was, as it happened, against Everton at Anfield. Ian Callaghan scored both goals in our 2-1 victory. It was a very significant win and it turned into a springboard for a run of 5 consecutive victories which propelled Liverpool up the table so that by the middle of October we were, almost unbelievably, in 3rd position, 2 points behind Sheffield United and with a game in hand!

Another run of 4 consecutive victories and a creditable draw away to Arsenal saw us, almost unbelievably, top of the league. Things were looking good but Blackburn Rovers came to Anfield on the day before my birthday and I remember saying to my mates that all I wanted for a present was a victory. Incredibly Blackburn inflicted a 5th home defeat – and we had yet to reach Christmas!

Seven victories in the next 9 games, included a hat-trick by Roger Hunt at White Hart Lane vs. Tottenham and a 3-0 victory over Manchester United. At that time the Man U fixture was nothing like as big as it is now. We didn't play them, of course, during our 8 years of obscurity in Division 2 and the fixtures in the last couple of seasons before our relegation drew attendances well below capacity at both Anfield and Old Trafford. This game was a triumph for Alf Arrowsmith who scored twice during a golden spell that season when he couldn't stop scoring goals.

This victorious run meant that if we beat Arsenal in our last home game we would, incredibly, be champions!!

50,000 were gathered at Anfield to see Tommy Lawrence save a penalty against Arsenal and Ian St John, Alf Arrowsmith, Peter Thompson (2) and Roger Hunt took us to a famous victory as Liverpool beat Arsenal 5-0 to lift Englands top tier title once again.
[/b]

Liverpool were now back in the Big Time, with teir 6th English Top league title, and It was Bill Shanklys first title with his new beloved club!


So after a wait of 17 years since the last one, The League Championship was Liverpools!!








Next: Current Champions. Defending the Title!!