LIVERPOOL 3 EVERTON 1 - "Liverpool FC - The Retro Series" #liverpool #liverpoolfc

"Dalglish at the Double!"

An all ticket crowd (somewhat of a rarity 41 years ago) of 48,861 were lucky to be present at Anfield for the 125th playing of a league Merseyside Derby, and a first taste of this unique sporting occasion for future Liverpool Red and Everton Blue legends, household names and a name in particular that would become famous in the Blue shirt of my hometown of Portsmouth and not that of Everton and for whom he was substitute on this day. Merseyside Derby debuts were handed out to both goalkeeping custodians, the Zimbabwean Bruce Grobbelaar in the Liverpool goal and Jim Arnold for the Everton Blues. Liverpool future legends Mark Lawrenson, Ronnie Whelan and a fresh faced Welshman by the name of Ian Rush would also make their debuts in this Derby before starring in them for a decade or more to come and on the opposite side of the ball, Everton also gave “Derby Day” debuts to Gary Stevens, Mick Ferguson and Alan Ainscow. Of more interest and note would be future Liverpool Red Steve McMahon a young Blue in their number 7 shirt and substitute Alan Biley wearing the Blue number 12 shirt before becoming a legend for my hometown Blues of Portsmouth in the mid 1980's.

At the start of play, Everton held a 1 point advantage over Liverpool in the 1st Division league table with the teams sitting in 8th and 9th places respectively. By the end of this niggly and often typically foul tempered “Derby” that would see Everton’s Eamonn O’keefe sent off for a violent challenge on Liverpool’s Ronnie Whelan, the Reds would leapfrog their rivals into 7th place whilst seeing them slide into the bottom half of the league after a game that the visitors from Everton didn’t really start, were well beaten by the time they finally did, and after Kenny Dalglish had scored two of my favourite ever Liverpool goals. A certain young man by the name of Ian Rush would also score his first ever Merseyside Derby goal.

The above two paragraphs are taken from my original article penned and published to my Medium blog site on 3rd July 2022 and which can be read in full and for free (please also consider subscribing too!) via my Substack blog site and article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/liverpool-3-everton-1-9e9ae67f35eb

I'm immensely proud of my third self-published book and first on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool Football Club entitled "Chasing The Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" which covers the past two seasons in the storied history of LFC together with 8 personal stories of my European travels following the Reds interwoven throughout. It's the book on Liverpool Football Club I've always wanted to write and so proudly link it immediately below and if you are able to help me thumb the eye of the traditional publishers who refused to read my original manuscript, I'd be most appreciative indeed:

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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