Liverpool FC Season 1991–92. A season of singing the Blues for the Reds ends with Liverpool singing with silverware in the rain in May.
The 1991/1992 season had a rain soaked silver lining in May but this could not hide an otherwise bittersweet season of disappointment. Brucie had a ball in the rain though!
Welcome to Part 5 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.
The coming’s and possible going’s as the new season beckons.
Liverpool (2) Oldham Athletic (1). Opening day of the season, 17th August 1991. Three new Reds made their debuts today (Mark Walters, Mark Wright and Dean Saunders) but it was old stagers Ray Houghton and John Barnes with the goals as the Reds came from 1–0 down to win 2–1 in front of 38,841 at Anfield.
Luton Town (0) Liverpool (0), 24th August 1991. Attendance 11,132.
18 days at the crossover from August into September and 10 points out of a possible 12 for Souness’ new charges with a 1–0 home win over Queens Park Rangers and a 3–1 home win in the Merseyside Derby with Everton added to by a late away win at Notts County and a 1–1 draw with Aston Villa.
Two early September trips for yours truly and my one and only trip to Meadow Lane, Notts County and although Mark Walters late winning penalty was a highlight, it wasn’t as much of a highlight as sneaking in way, way before kick off and having a stroll on the pitch! When we were rather promptly thrown out, we had a stroll around the nearby City Ground of their footballing neighbours, Nottingham Forest. 7th to 14th September 1991.
Manchester United (0) Liverpool (0), 6th October 1991. Attendance at Old Trafford 44,997.
Liverpool (1) Crystal Palace (2), 2nd November 1991. A home league defeat in front of just 34,231.
Liverpool (3) Auxerre (0). UEFA Cup 2nd Round, 2nd Leg. 6th November 1991. An incredible night with the Reds coming back from a 2–0 1st Leg defeat to win 3–2 on aggregate in front of a crowd on yet another storied Anfield European night of just 23,094.
Left shows action from the 0–0 draw at Upton Park with West Ham United which I attended and more two legged cup victories, this time against Port Vale in the 3rd Round of the Rumbelows (League) Cup, mid October through to mid November 1991.
Wimbledon (0) Liverpool (0), 23rd November 1991. Wimbledon were now ground sharing with Crystal Palace at their home of Selhurst Park and this was a dreadful, dreadful game only highlighted by meeting with a local young Red who sneaked me behind the “barriers” pre game and I managed to get a host of Wimbledon autographs from players such as John Fashanu, Terry Gibson and Manager, Peter Withe. 30 years ago and such innocent times indeed.
Recently retired skipper and club legend Alan Hansen spells out an honest and painful truth for his old captain.
Liverpool (2) Norwich City (1), 30th November 1991. Attendance at Anfield 34,881. Cuttings too from the following league game at Southampton a week later (see below for more) and the defeat at Peterborough United in the Rumbelows League Cup omitted out of shame!
Southampton (1) Liverpool (1), 7th December 1991. Two future England internationals on the score line with Alan Shearer for the “Saints” and a young Jamie Redknapp for the Reds. The attendance of just 10,053 perhaps tells it’s own tale, however the Reds were on an unbeaten run of 4 games in the league and would stretch this to a further 9 games after we all left The Dell and the Reds would stay unbeaten until 1st February and a home defeat to Chelsea.
The Reds progress easily in the UEFA Cup and are assured a place in the Quarter-Final well into the following year.
Michael Thomas, the man who was once so famously “charging through the midfield” on a night of heartbreak for Liverpool, now signs for the Reds. In the run up to the busy Christmas fixture schedule the Reds take 7 points from a possible 9 as they defeat Nottingham Forest 2–0 at home and Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 at White Hart Lane 4 days later before a 2–2 draw with Manchester City on 21st December 1991. As previously noted the Reds are on a mini roll of good results and buoyed by their progress in the UEFA Cup they are slowly and steadily climbing the league table.
L to R: Crewe Alexandra (0) Liverpool (4) FA Cup 3rd Round, 6th January 1992 and Norwich City (3) Liverpool (0), 22nd February 1992. Following the defeat in the league to Chelsea on 1st February the Reds would only pick up a further 2 league points out of 9 in the month that followed and the defeat at Norwich City was looking like both a portent for the future and a current nadir that couldn’t get any lower.
Liverpool (1) Aston Villa (0), FA Cup Quarter Final, 8th March 1992. An attendance at Anfield of just 29,109 celebrated the Reds march into the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup again, and for the 4th time in 5 seasons.
Liverpool (1) Genoa (2), Quarter-Final 2nd Leg , 18th March 1992. Following the Italian’s dominating display two weeks earlier and their 2–0 first leg lead it was always going to be difficult and quite frankly, Genoa were a class above Auxerre from earlier in the season and another comeback was never really on, and especially so after Carlos Aguilera scored an early goal for the Italians and danced in front of The Kop. That’s the football story. Here’s the human one: Out of the blue my oldest friend Marc told me that his Scouse born friend was heading home to visit an ailing Father and could get us tickets so we all piled into the back of a transit van and without that human story I would’ve had to wait a further 4 years for my first taste of a European tie with the Reds. We also talked at length about a certain game coming up in just 18 days, a game we’d probably both dreamt about as children, but as young adults and both born and bred in the fine city of Portsmouth one of us desperately wanted a Blue victory and had a ticket and was going whilst the other couldn’t go (long story) but could if the game itself went to a replay.
Liverpool (1) Portsmouth (1) (After Extra Time), 5th April 1992. Attendance at Highbury 41,869.
Cuttings from the Portsmouth Evening News on Monday 6th April (Part 1).
Cuttings from the Portsmouth Evening News on Monday 6th April (Part 2).
Cue John Motson: “It’s Anderton. A real chance for Pompey! Darren Anderton. It’s there! Portsmouth are in the lead in the Semi-Final!”
Cue John Motson: “Barnes is the man here, who they’ll be frightened of. Oh it’s gone in, it’s been followed in! Ronnie Whelan!”
With just 4 minutes remaining of Extra Time, John Barnes curled free kick was just out of the reach of legendary Blues goalkeeper Alan Knight and whilst his defence stopped still, Ronnie Whelan tapped home the rebound of Barnes’ free kick hitting the post. It would seem that Cinderella Stephen would be going to the FA Cup Semi Final Replay “Ball” after all.
The game itself was a dour affair and which only really came alive in Extra Time, as tired legs made big mistakes that led to both goals. 1–1 was more than a little unjust on the Pompey Blues and it would be 8 long days until the Replay.
Liverpool (0) Portsmouth (0) (After Extra Time). Liverpool won 3–1 on Penalties. Attendance at Villa Park 40,077. I was the odd man out in a car full of 4 Blues. Work was finished early. Chris, my schoolfriend and dear, dear friend drove. We sat on the A34 for what seemed like 17 nights. We parked a couple of universes away from the ground. We got in 15 minutes late. And I barely saw a thing all night as trying to get a vantage point 20 minutes into the game was nigh on impossible. I was high up in the segregated “Holte End” of Villa Park and had no idea that Alan McLoughlin hit the bar for the Blues with only a couple of minutes left of the 90 minutes. I saw the penalties as they were at the other end of the ground and I felt a bit shit to be honest. I went to the Ball but all my friends and mates were Blues and I felt for them because sport just has to have a victor for the spoils and this was hard luck on the Blues. It soon passed obviously! Well, as soon as I made my way across the universes to find the damn car that is.
More headlines from my local newspaper, the Portsmouth Evening News.
This game’s narrative was further entangled with talk of Liverpool buying Pompey starlet Darren Anderton, inferences that Graeme Souness was holding onto his job as Reds Manager because of their form in the cup competitions and that Souness himself immediately checked himself into a hospital for an extensive and life threatening heart bypass operation. Long serving club legend Ronnie Moran was back in temporary charge of the Reds as they lost just once in their final 5 league games, but crucially only won once as well as their league season limped to the finish line in 6th place and a full 18 points behind Champions Leeds United. Winning the FA Cup saved the Reds season and gave Graeme Souness much needed breathing room for the coming season.
Liverpool (2) Sunderland (0) 1992 FA Cup Final, Wembley, London. Attendance 79,544.
Liverpool (2) Sunderland (0) 1992 FA Cup Final, Wembley, London. Attendance 79,544.
Like the first Semi-Final with Pompey I always regard this as a dour game and which was only enlivened by a wonderful second half performance from a young Steve McManaman and two beautiful goals for the Reds. Both were very different in their own way but both had a touch of class, luck and persistence and after Ian Rush scored the second goal on 68 minutes the game was as good as over. The Reds fragile defence was rarely tested.
Michael Thomas’ acrobatic 47 minute opening goal of the 1992 FA Cup Final.
The 1991/1992 season had a rain soaked silver lining in May but this could not hide an otherwise bittersweet season of disappointment. Brucie had a ball in the rain though!
FA Cup Winners for the 5th time, 9th May 1992.
FA Cup Winners for the 5th time and the open top bus celebration parade through Liverpool.
I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed this elongated ramble along “Scrapbook Lane” and better still found it entertaining and even better than that, sparked some human memories of the time, the games, the city or your life at the time. If so, please do take a peek at the previous seasons I’ve travelled down Scrapbook Lane with and published recently:
