The season is 1978-79. Liverpool had won the title in 1975-76 and 1976-77, but had finished 2nd to newly promoted, Nottingham Forest in 1977-78. Forest also beat them in the League Cup Final in 1978. But Liverpool had won back-to-back European Cups in 1977 and 1978. They were stunned by Forest in 1978 and bounced back with a vengeance.
They were managed by Bob Paisley, who had taken over from the legendary Bill Shankly in 1974. Paisley’s Liverpool had finished 2nd in his first season in charge and then won the next two Championships. For the first couple of years, Paisley was in charge of a Shankly team, with one or two additions, namely Ray Kennedy and Terry McDermott. But by the start of the 1978-79 season, this squad was almost unrecognisable from the one Shankly had taken to Wembley in 1974
Ray Clemence, age 30 (53 apps, 34 clean sheets) Joined from Scunthorpe in 1967, played 665 games for the club before moving to Tottenham in 1981.
Steve Ogrizovic, age 20 (1 app) Joined from Chesterfield in October 1977, but only made 5 appearances until he moved to Coventry in August 1982, for whom he made over 700 appearances
Phil Neal, age 27 (54 apps, 5 goals) Began his career at Northampton. Became Paisley’s first signing in November 1974. Played 650 games for the club up to December 1985.
Alan Kennedy, age 24 (43 apps, 3 goals) Began his career at Newcastle. Moved to Liverpool in August 1978. Played over 350 goals for the club, scoring the winning goal in the 1981 and 1984 European Cup Finals.
Phil Thompson, age 24 (49 apps) Joined as an apprentice, and remained at the club till 1985 when he retired from the game. Played 477 games for the club and captained both his club and country.
Alan Hansen, age 23 (42 apps, 2 goals) Signed for Liverpool from Partick Thistle in 1977, and went onto play over 600 games for the club, and later captained
Emlyn Hughes, age 31 (28 apps, 1 goal) Began his career at Blackpool before Shankly signed him in 1967. Captained both club and country, playing 665 games before moving to Wolves in 1979
Jimmy Case, age 24 (48 apps, 9 goals) Local lad, spent 7 years at the club before moving to Brighton in 1981.
Terry McDermott, age 27 (49 apps, 8 goals) Began at Bury and then Newcastle, before joining Liverpool in 1974. Played 329 games for the club, scoring 81 goals from midfield.
Ray Kennedy, age 27 (54 apps, 11 goals) Started his career at Arsenal. Joined Liverpool in July 1974, the same day Bill Shankly stepped down as manager. Played nearly 400 games for the club until he moved to Swansea in 1982.
Graeme Souness, age 25 (53 apps, 9 goals) Joined from Middlesbro in January 1978. Went on to become captain of the club and later manager, in 1992. He played over 350 games for the club before moving to Sampdoria in 1984.
Sammy Lee, age 19 (2 apps) Born in Liverpool, made his debut in 1976, and went onto play almost 300 games before he moved to QPR in 1986. Later returned as coach.
Kenny Dalglish, age 27 (54 apps, 25 goals) Signed from Celtic for a, then record fee of, £440,000 in the summer of 1977. Went onto play over 500 games and score 172 goals for the club he later managed.
David Johnson, age 26 (37 apps, 18 goals) Joined the club in 1976 from Ipswich, having already started his career at Everton. He left Liverpool in 1982 and re-joined Everton.
Steve Heighway, age 30 (37 apps, 4 goals) Came from non-league Skelmersdale in 1970, and spent 11 years at the club, making 475 appearances. He scored 76 goals, including the ’71 and ’74 FA Cup Finals.
David Fairclough, age 21 (10 apps, 3 goals) Local lad, earned the nickname ‘Supersub’ through his knack of scoring goals after coming on as sub. Spent 9 years at the club, before moving to Norwich in 1983.
In the days when rotation was something you did to crops rather than players, 4 players, Dalglish, Ray Kennedy, Neal & Clemence, played in every league match, with Souness missing just 1 match. In all, 11 players made over 30 league appearances, with Heighway playing 28. Consistency was the word.
At the start of the season, Tommy Smith and Ian Callaghan were off to Swansea, with Joey Jones also on his way to Wrexham. Emlyn Hughes was gradually being used less and less and so this was a definite feeling of a whole new team being developed by Paisley.
A quiet man, Paisley was reputed to be an excellent judge of a player. Evidence of this was in his conversion of Ray Kennedy, a prolific goalscorer at Arsenal, to left midfield.
The season began with the visit of QPR to Anfield. By August 1978, QPR were a shadow of the side that had finished 1pt behind Liverpool in 2nd place in May 1976. Liverpool won 2-1with goals from Kenny Dalglish and Steve Heighway. Paul McGee scored for QPR.
That McGee goal is significant. In fact, by the end of the season he was part of an exclusive group of 4 players, McGee, John Hawley, Ally Brown and Andy King. They were the only players to score at Anfield in 21 matches during the 78-79 season.
The opening day of this season was also significant for English football as two Argentinians made their debuts for Tottenham, who had just been promoted back to the First Division after one season. Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa had been part of the Argentina squad which won the 1978 World Cup. Spurs pulled off a coup by signing Ardiles, who played in the final, and his friend, Villa. They would go down in Spurs folk-lore.
The following Tuesday, Liverpool travelled to Ipswich and Souness put Liverpool in front and then Dalglish scored another 2 goals in a 3-0 win. The weekend’s match was away toManchester City. City had finished in the top 3 for the past 2 years and were expected to be contenders again this time round. Liverpool took them apart as Souness (2), Dalglish and Ray Kennedy scored in a 4-1 win.
After the start they had, it was a real shock to find them lose 0-1 to Division Two, Sheffield United in the League Cup. This result was even more surprising when you consider what happened next.
Saturday 2nd September 1978
Liverpool v Tottenham
Spurs had bounced straight back after their relegation in 1977. They drew their opening match away to champions, Nottingham Forest and then were beaten at home 1-4 by Aston Villa. After a 2-2 draw at home to Chelsea, they turned up at Anfield and received a footballing legend. Liverpool were in sublime form. Dalglish (2), Johnson (2), Ray Kennedy, Neal and McDermott all scored in a 7-0 win. The last goal from McDermott is well worth watching.
The 7th goal starts with a corner for Tottenham. The ball is cleared from under his own crossbar by Terry McDermott. After just a few passes the ball finds Steve Heighway wide on the left, his cross is met by McDermott who heads home. It’s the only time he touches the ball after clearing the corner, and the sort of performance Liverpool fans were used to from a true box-to-box player.
September continued with a 3-0 win at Birmingham which included Alan Kennedy’s first goal for the club. They then turned their attention to the European Cup. Liverpool, winners in 1977 and 1978, were confident of a 3rd successive win. Back in those days, only the Champions of each country qualified for the competition, along with the current holders of the trophy. As Liverpool had not won the league the previous season, Nottingham Forestwere entered into the European Cup alongside them. Unbelievably, the two were drawn against each other in the First Round.
The first leg was at the City Ground and Forest were in dogged form. Having started the season with 4 straight draws in the league, Forest won the 1st leg, 2-0.
Liverpool bounced back in the league with Souness scoring his 6th of the season againstCoventry in a 1-0 win, then they travelled to The Hawthorns and drew 1-1 with West Brom, which ended their 6 game 100% record.
The 2nd leg of the European Cup at Anfield was a dour affair and Forest continually thwarted Liverpool in a 0-0 draw. In the previous season Liverpool had reached the finals of both the League and European Cups. By September the following season, they were out of both at the first attempt.
Jimmy Case then scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 home win over Bolton. He scored another when they went to Norwich and won 4-1. John Ryan became just the 4th player to score against Liverpool in the league.
Derby then visited Anfield and with David Johnson’s goal separating the two sides at half-time, the visitors must have fancied their chances. But 2 goals each for Ray Kennedy and Kenny Dalglish gave the home side a 5-0 win.
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