I’m just watching it from the weekend just gone. Featured match is an FA Cup Semi Final from April 1985 - Liverpool v Man Utd. Awful memories of football grounds in those days with heavy duty fencing all around the Goodison Park ground. Naturally you can see the massive surges of bodies behind both goals whenever there is goalmouth action and it’s incredible to think that the football authorities didn’t see any potential problems with that. Then, of course, just four years later, came the Hillsborough disaster. No doubt many will argue that things were better then - packed crowds behind the goals and a great atmosphere at big matches like this one. There’s some truth in that so long as you overlook the obvious dangers. Most of us survived of course but there must have been plenty of serious injuries that you never really saw reported. I don’t think it was mentioned but Liverpool got there by winning 4-0 at Oakwell in the Sixth Round. I travelled up from Salisbury for that Sunday afternoon fixture and I remember that we held on for 55 minutes before being steamrollered by a Rush hat trick and one from Whelan. It was live on ITV as well and I was hoping for a better show in front of a national tv audience. The previous round saw that magnificent victory at The Dell and I was thrilled to have been there that night.
The Southampton game was covered on here when it was the 40th anniversary a few weeks ago. Still one of my favourite ever away games. The Liverpool game was a bit of an anti climax in the end. The packed terraces and regular surges just seemed part of the game at the time, something that had gone on for years. There’s plenty of footage on YouTube of famous European games at Anfield where the surges on the Kop were unbelievable. Watching them now you do think that there must have been many injuries.
I remember it being mentioned on here but there seems to be no footage of the Southampton game. I don't even remember seeing anything on the BBC South news programme the following day although I got a mention that Friday on their "letters to the editor" section. I wrote in to them saying I was a Barnsley fan living down there and gloating (just a tiny bit) that we had beaten the mighty Saints on their own ground. The BBC man put on a fake Yorkshire accent to read my letter out which amused me for two reasons. It was a terrible attempt by the presenter and I didn't really have a Barnsley accent anyway, and still don't.
No footage from the Saints game has ever emerged. Calendar and Look North just showed black & white photos. It's a shame as it often falls under the radar of great Reds games.
Maybe Lawrie McMenemy ordered the immediate destruction of the footage saying (in a Mackem voice): “If you buggers show this on the next sports news bulletin I’m not giving you any more interviews. Ever!”
I remember saying to my dad, "Rush has looked more like a carthorse than the best striker in the first division" Within seconds the normally reliable Clive Baker dropped the ball for Rush's first goal. I learned to keep my gob shut that day. We didn't just hold on by the way, we created a few decent chances...
On the subject of crowd surges, I was at Upton Park for 1st division game against Southampton (early 80s) , where I was crowd surged several yards without my feet touching the terraces.
I really don’t remember much about the match to be honest, other than being disappointed that our brilliant cup run had come to an end. A semi final against Man Utd would have been a real boost to the coffers after a really hard year for the club and town. I see that Kendray Tyke has posted the match again and I’ll make time to watch it later. I recall going back down south afterwards and visiting my late father in law in Hampshire a few days later. As a neutral Cornishman he thought that the Reds had let themselves down a bit and could have played better, and I agreed with him. What a shame that it wasn’t the Class of 1981 taking on Liverpool again. We might have beaten them this time!
