The Big Match ITV4

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.

 

Fantastic memories.