I’m going back to February 1973 and my first visit to Anfield – and my last actually – when Liverpool met Man City in the third round of the FA Cup.
Jackie Lewthwaite, a former opponent on the football field with Coalesce, and Colin Hazlewood, who played alongside me at Cumberland Star, were both Liverpool fans – and as a City supporter I was there to liven up the conversation.
We travelled down by car and were on the terraces well before kick-off. Indeed we were in place when the City players came out to look at the pitch, greeted by raucous boos etc.
Now I can picture them now. All in tidy flannels and blazers – except one – Rodney Marsh who received the loudest roar of Scouse disapproval, especially when he waved enthusiastically at the Kop.
The flamboyant Marsh had not fitted like a glove into the well-oiled City machine which only a few years earlier had produced some of the best football the country had seen in winning the First Division title. It was the era of Bell, Summerbee and Lee and until recent times, City’s best team.
This particular season Liverpool were to go on and win the First Division title with City finishing mid-table – some 19 points behind. They were still earning two points for a win in those days.
City were definitely second favourites for the Cup-tie and for much of the game relied heavily on the work of goalkeeper Joe Corrigan. He had a blinder and was the reason that City earned a very creditable 0-0 draw.
The replay was the following Wednesday at Maine Road and I remember watching the highlights on tv as the won 2-0 to earn a fourth round tie at home to Sunderland.
Well that finished 2-2, City lost the replay 3-1 so all Joe Corrigan’s superb efforts at Anfield were wasted. But some of his saves I can still recall to this today – as well as the denim-clad figure of Marsh midst the blazers and flannels.
The postscript, of course, is that Sunderland went all the way to Wembley as a Second Division team and beat the holders Leeds United with that famous goal from Ian Porterfield – and the save of the century from Jim Montgomery.
