Liverpool FC Season 1988–89. Hillsborough heartache. Everton get the Blues. And Thomas is charging through the midfield.
The ashen face look of Kenny Dalglish’s tells the beginning of a horrific story that only incredibly recently has there been any shred of actual truth or justice and peace for the thousands of families directly affected. 97 football fans were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough on 15th April 1989 and those responsible have hidden behind the “Establishment” ever since. A shame and a stain on the country in which I was born.
Welcome to Part 2 of my scrapbooking odyssey on the football team my dear old Mum “persuaded” me to follow when just a small boy and around the mercurial times of Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish, winnings cups in May and seemingly always holding that beautiful gleaming trophy with the “Big Ears”.
I attended my first Liverpool game as a 10 year old on 8th August 1982 when the Reds formed a “triangle” of pre-season friendlies with Coventry City and Ipswich Town and all hosted by my hometown club of Portsmouth. I was already a Red as far back as 1980 and I have no idea how my Mother achieved such a feat but she bought me the “Hitachi” home shirt and one I proudly wore as an 8 year old to a very stuffy, best bib and tucker occasion at Portsmouth Guildhall as I met the Lord Mayor after winning a painting competition with my entry, naturally entitled, “The Football Match”. So of course I was going to attend this Gala event as an 8 year old in my Liverpool shirt. What self respecting Red at that age wouldn’t?
So I’m not a Scouser (though I envy those with that particular birthplace) and I’m an “out of towner”. But please allow me to very briefly give you some bona fides as to the veracity of my support for this wonderful football club.
My first game was 1982 and my last was 2012. In the 30 years in between I have followed the Reds at over 55 league grounds in England and Wales as well as 7 European grounds and I’ve probably travelled to see them 300+ times. Not an idyll boast, nor is it overly ground breaking. I’ve been incredibly lucky as well as being incredibly skint watching the Reds! I became a season ticket holder in the season before the first lock down after being on the waiting list since 1998 . I had the crest tattooed on my arm as a 15 year old, I’ve sat on a cold coach for days going to Switzerland for a 2nd Round Cup Winners Cup tie, I watched *that* goal in *that* 1996 FA Cup Final on a tiny Casio TV outside “our” end of Wembley without a ticket. Well, I had a ticket, but that’s a whole other story for another day.
So I’m a Southern born Red with a lot of scrapbook cuttings to share and maybe the occasional commentary to go along with them too. I hope you enjoy sharing them with me.
Allez! Allez! Allez!
Disclaimer — All pictures contained within this blog will be almost certainly from the “main” UK publications of the day but more importantly perhaps wholly contained within some loved, if dusty, scrapbooks of a 30 year vintage and placed here purely for enjoyment purposes and I hope that this disclaimer meets everyone’s needs. If not, thank you www.guardian.comwww.dailymail.co.ukwww.thetimes.co.ukwww.mirror.co.ukwww.telegraph.co.ukwww.liverpoolecho.co.uk et al for entertaining this Pritt Stick and scissors wielding young child/spotty teen/tall and gangly late teenager and young adult who should’ve stopped ripping and cutting up newspapers long before he hung up his scissors! All programmes shown here are from my personal collection.
Disclaimer II — This is far from a fully comprehensive review of the season and purely the contents and selected pages from my scrapbooks and boxes of football programmes. I was nicknamed by my Liverpool match going pal as “The Cutter” in reference to an Echo and the Bunnymen song and so hence, here are my cuttings.
Disclaimer III — There will be images from a certain reviled newspaper that I will not name and I only include them (where available) as they represent the cuttings at that time. I despise that “newspaper” and when I used to “go the match” I always wore my Hillsborough Support Group scarf and a white sticker imploring everyone not to buy that unnamed “newspaper”.
So onto the good stuff! I have 10+ seasons of cuttings to share and I hope these scraps from my books jog a memory of the match concerned or the era, the city in general or your life at that time.
Human memories are a precious commodity. I hope you enjoy.
Music to the ears of all Reds fans as Welsh International and record goal scorer Ian Rush returns from an unhappy year at Juventus.
L to R: A returning goal scoring legend and the season opening Charity Shield at Wembley with the “Crazy Gang” of Wimbledon the Reds conquerors in last season’s FA Cup Final.
Liverpool (2) Wimbledon (1). FA Charity Shield at Wembley Stadium, 20th August 1988. Attendance 54,887.
This was an easy ticket to get in 1988 but I wrote away (via pen, ink and paper!) every time the Reds played in a Charity Shield from Everton in 1986 to up to and including the 1992/93 Leeds game when a certain Frenchman had somewhat of an inspired day.
My grainy 33 year old pictures from the 1988 Charity Shield. I recall definitely going to this game with Kev and definitely Marc but I remember Kev vividly as he’s in one of my other pictures(!) but more importantly it was a mini payback for his Dad getting me a 1986 FA Cup Final ticket.
The Reds began the season with a 5 game unbeaten run in the league from August through the entirety of September. Left to right is a John Aldridge headed goal in a 3–0 opening day of the season win at Charlton Athletic followed by a 1–0 win at Anfield over their fiercest rivals Manchester United thanks to a penalty from Jan Molby. 1–1 draws followed against Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur before I made my yearly visit to The Dell for a 3–1 win. At the dawn of October they would lose two games in succession 2–1 at home to Newcastle United and 1–0 away at Luton Town (pictured bottom right).
West Ham United (0) Liverpool (2), 29th October 1988 and a rare “away” at West Ham I didn’t go to.
Two games in five days at the start of November as the Reds draw 1–1 with Arsenal in the re-branded League Cup (now Littlewoods Cup) and a 3–0 home win over Middlesbrough in front of 39,489 at Anfield.
Arsenal (0) Liverpool (0), 9th October 1988, 3rd Round Littlewoods Cup Replay. Replay? Remember them? They’re almost as outdated as 2nd Replays…….
Arsenal (1) Liverpool (2), 23rd November 1988, Littlewoods Cup 3rd Round, 2nd Replay held at neutral Villa Park. Attendance 21,708.
Arsenal yet again, this time in the league at Highbury in front of only 31,863. This was another “TV game” and is perhaps reflective in the low attendance figure. England internationals John Barnes and Alan Smith with the goals for each side in a 1–1 draw in early December.
L to R: 1–1 in the Merseyside Derby with neighbours Everton and the player my dear old Mum loved to call a “silly old clown”, the wonderfully eccentrically brilliant Liverpool goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar.
Two home games for me during January 1989 and two wins and two clean sheets in a 1–0 win over Aston Villa and a 2–0 victory against Southampton.
Millwall (0) Liverpool (2), FA Cup 4th Round, 29th January 1989. Both star strikers Ian Rush and John Aldridge score in front of a hostile crowd of 23,615 at “Cold Blow Lane”.
The fish n chip millionaires score 9 goals without reply as they defeat Luton Town in the league and Brentford in the 5th Round of the FA Cup to progress to the Quarter Finals. A combined attendance of over 73,000 watched these two games in four days at Anfield and the Reds were eyeing yet another League and FA Cup “Double”.
3 league wins in 7 days, away at Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur and home to Derby County. Unbelievably, these 3 wins came in the middle of an 11 game win streak in all competitions.
L to R: In the middle of the 11 game winning streak came a 1–0 away win against Norwich City at Carrow Road and a 5–1 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday at Anfield in front of 39,672.
Millwall (1) Liverpool (2), 11th April 1989 and the 11 game winning streak continues.
How the “Sports Mail” in Portsmouth covered the tragic events at Hillsborough in their Saturday evening pink edition, 15th April 1989. The following images here are but a small part contained in my scrapbooks but I have omitted the most graphic for sensitivity reasons. I truly hope, dear reader, that the following few images do not distress you as this is not my intention for inclusion, more a sensitive covering of a horrific tragedy.
15th April 1989.
The ashen face look of Kenny Dalglish’s tells the beginning of a horrific story that only incredibly recently has there been any shred of actual truth or justice and peace for the thousands of families directly affected. 97 football fans were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough on 15th April 1989 and those responsible have hidden behind the “Establishment” ever since. A shame and a stain on the country in which I was born.
In the aftermath of the tragedy the gates of Liverpool’s home ground, Anfield, were opened to allow mourners to pay their respects and soon the goal area in front of “The Kop” became a shrine that grew and grew to envelop much of the playing area in flowers.
Every player attended as many funerals as they could to help the bereaved families in any way possible as the Reds called an immediate halt to any further games.
This picture doesn’t do justice to the enormity of this heartbreakingly beautiful tribute at a Memorial Service at Anfield. To the right is the famous “Kop” terrace absolutely covered with banners, scarves and flowers and the flowers continue to stretch way past this picture as they cover an entire half of the Anfield pitch.
15 days after the horrors of Hillsborough, the Reds announced they would resume their season as a fitting tribute to the 94 immediate victims of the tragedy. This soon became 95, then 96 and as recently as this year, 97 souls who never returned from watching a game of football in Sheffield. Scotland’s Celtic were the hosts in a testimonial/memorial/warm up game, further cementing the huge bonds between the two giants of British football. The pre game rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (a Liverpool anthem but also a Celtic one too) was far beyond emotional.
Everton (0) Liverpool (0), 3rd May 1989. Attendance 45,994.
More action from the 0–0 Merseyside Derby away at Everton.
Liverpool (3) Nottingham Forest (1), Rearranged FA Cup Semi-Final, 7th May 1989. Played at neutral Old Trafford, Manchester. In an incredibly emotional afternoon the Reds triumphed and progressed to the FA Cup Final and a meeting with their neighbours across Stanley Park, Everton.
More colour action from the rearranged FA Cup Semi-Final with Nottingham Forest and one of my favourite all time Reds, Peter Beardsley. A footballing genius.
My favourite all time picture of the man who started my odyssey with being a Red, Kenny Dalglish.
L to R: No match programme but I was at Plough Lane, Wimbledon on 13th May as the Reds won 2–1 and went a step closer to winning the League in this season of all seasons. 3 days later Queens Park Rangers were defeated 2–0 at Anfield and the Reds had now collected 46 out of a possible 48 points since mid February. And a varying selection of cuttings surrounding Hillsborough.
Everton (2) Liverpool (3), FA Cup Final at Wembley, London, 20th May 1989. Attendance 82,800.
A selection from an incredible FA Cup Final that the Reds “won” twice before being pegged back twice by the Blues of Everton before they finally won it with 16 minutes to go of extra time. The winner was scored by Liverpool’s all time record goal scorer Ian Rush, who grew up an Everton fan. This is one of my favourite pictures of him as it perfectly encapsulates the joy and despair of any sport, with the celebrants (Rush and Ray Houghton) in absolute ecstasy whilst Everton centre back Kevin Ratcliffe (best friends of the goal scorer Ian Rush) is in the pits of despair.
John Aldridge celebrates putting the Reds in front whilst Stuart McCall is lifted high after equalising for a second time to make the game 2–2.
Well, look, it was a delicious ball in from Steve Nicol and it was a beautiful swivel and turn from the master for the first of his two goals, so let’s see it ever so slightly differently four times!
More despair for Kevin Ratcliffe as his best friend scores the winning goal in the 1989 FA Cup Final. I watched this game in growing disbelief with my oldest friend and Liverpool travelling companion for so many years, Marc.
The homecoming parade.
3 days after the victory in the FA Cup Final West Ham United were swept aside 5–1 at Anfield leaving the Reds 3 points clear at the top of the table with just 1 game to go. They had now collected 49 points out of a possible 51 (16 wins, 1 draw from 17 games) and faced the only team who could pip them to the League Title. To do so, Arsenal would have to win, at Anfield, by at least 2 clear goals to win the League themselves and prevent Liverpool doing so and claiming a second League and FA Cup double in three years. The very fact my scrapbook cuttings end here for the season will no doubt tell you everything you need to know.
A selection of the other match programmes collected this season. I’ve placed the West Ham United one in the centre as it isn’t covered above and notable for 4 varying reasons (1) Paul Ince scored an annoying brace of goals for the Hammers (2) When Tony Gale scored their second goal from a curling free kick he tried and failed spectacularly to jump over an advertising board (3) I went to this dreadful game with my oldest and dearest friend Marc and (4) as we were being herded away from the ground after the game we were corralled and kept together by the Police outside a church with a Police helicopter shining a damn light over us like it’s 1940’s Germany. And I distinctly remember a scouse voice bitterly joking as he pointed at the helicopter “It’s alright lads. It’s just the local priest looking for parishioners!”. Marc and I laughed hearty early teen laughs and we’ve laughed about it since on numerous occasions. The joy of memory!
I sincerely hope you enjoyed that incredibly bittersweet ramble down “Scrapbook Lane” for the 1988/89 season. If you did, please consider my recently published account of the previous season linked below and please keep an eye out for the 9/10 further trips down scrapbook and memory lane that will be published soon, covering the seasons 1989/90 through to 1998/99 and possibly a season or two after that.
