MAN CITY 0 LIVERPOOL 5 "Liverpool FC - The Retro Series" #lfc #liverpoolfc #retro #reading

"Five Star Reds stretch their lead at the top of the 1st Division"

I’m penning this 24th volume of my retrospective articles on the mighty Reds of Liverpool in the afterglow of yesterday’s 1–0 victory against Manchester City in the Premier League, and simply couldn’t resist returning once more to an era and to a league very different from today’s corporatised worldwide product. On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Manchester over four decades ago and in front of a crowd of over 40,000 at a football ground that no longer exists, Liverpool would inflict upon their hosts a 5–0 defeat that TV commentator Tony Gubba would describe as a “crushing and humiliating defeat” and, following prior wins in this April week of 1982 against Notts County as well as City’s near neighbours Manchester United, this comprehensive win would stretch the Reds lead at the top of the English 1st Division to 5 points over their nearest challengers Ipswich Town and signify a miraculous recovery from 12th position on Boxing Day after an epochal 3–1 home defeat by today’s opponents, Manchester City.

From 12th place on Boxing Day 1981 to 1st place in England’s premier league on 2nd April 1982. It was quite the turnaround in performances and results from a team with 6 players unaccustomed to winning the 1st Division title (Bruce Grobbelaar in goal, Mark Lawrenson in defence, midfielders Sammy Lee and Ronnie Whelan and fledgling attacking strikers Craig Johnston and Ian Rush) and on this day in April 1982 they were joined by league winning veterans Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Phil Thompson, Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish. Captain Graeme Souness is absent presumed injured, but with the additions of David Johnson and Terry McDermott this was the core of 14 or 15 regular players vying for a spot in the starting XI who’d ripped up the formbook since the turn of 1982 and were but a handful of games from securing their 5th League Championship in 7 years.

On the other side of the ball, the Manchester City humiliated here four decades ago had one of England’s rotational goalkeepers of the time in Joe Corrigan, several members of last season’s defeated team in the 1981 FA Cup Final at Wembley as well as 9 players who’d played and won 3–1 at Anfield on that infamous Boxing Day just four months prior.

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my original article first penned and published to my Medium blog site on 17th October 2022 and which can be read for free and in full (please also consider subscribing for free too!) via my Substack blog site and original article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/five-star-reds-stretch-their-lead-at-the-top-of-the-1st-division-9e486a2ea2dc

Although not contained within the book on Liverpool Football Club I've always wanted to write (and as I mention once or twice in this video!) I've linked this pride and joy of mine immediately below, together with other ways and means of supporting me, if you are able, to thumb the eye of the traditional publishers who refused to read my original manuscript!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C6W6TYCL

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.paypal.me/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/steveblackford

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