Liverpool FC Season 1990–91. The King is Dead. Long live The King! But why is the new King so grumpy?
What a time capsule from 30 years ago. Compare and contrast with the modern Anfield now! Liverpool 3 Everton 1 in the Merseyside Derby, 9th February 1991.
Welcome to Part 4 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.
Liverpool (1) Manchester United (1), FA Charity Shield, 18th August 1990 at Wembley Stadium, London. Attendance 66,558. As the game ended in a draw the Shield was shared 6 months between each team.
Die Hard 2 is “Out Now” if you wish to feel just a little bit old!
The Twin Towers. The Goodyear “Blimp”. The King as Manager. And a stroll around Wembley with some (part owned) silverware. My memories of this day are (a) I think Marc and I went to the game together (b) That memory comes from being so excited the night before I barely slept and couldn’t wait for him to call by on the way to the train station and (c) We got tickets but they were in a neutral section despite my asking for the Liverpool end and the game was utterly dreadful. But don’t take my word for this as I can’t even be certain I went with my oldest friend!
Sheffield United (1) Liverpool (3). Opening day of the league season and the Reds take all three points at Bramall Lane in front of 27,009 spectators. Houghton, Barnes and Rush with second half goals and the season is off and running. The Reds would go on a 10 match winning streak from here until late October in all competitions.
Wimbledon (1) Liverpool (2), 8th September 1990. Attendance 12,364. Another trip to Plough Lane. Another 3 points for the Reds.
A new look matchday programme, but it didn’t last. Nor did 4–0 victories over your fiercest rivals sadly. Imperious. Majestic. Unplayable. And that was just Peter Beardsley. 3–0 up by half time and cruising. Attendance just 35,726 and perhaps suffering from “Live TV” exposure as the game was broadcast live to the UK which was still relatively rare at that time.
Everton (2) Liverpool (3), 22nd September 1990. Attendance at Goodison Park 39,847.
Having only recently seen this cutting for the first time in a couple of generations, I’ve fallen in love with it. It’s another beautiful time capsule of a bygone age. Everton 2 Liverpool 3, 22nd September 1990.
Sunderland (0) Liverpool (1), 29th September 1990. Attendance at Roker Park 31,107.
Liverpool (2) Chelsea (0), 27th October 1990. Attendance at Anfield 38,463.
A lovely afternoon at the Lane! Two goals from Ian Rush and one from Peter Beardsley and the Reds win again, and on the road, 3–1 away at Tottenham Hotspur, 4th November 1990. The Reds have played 14 games so far this season in all competitions and have lost only once, in the League Cup, 2 draws and 11 wins.
Headlines say it all, another home win, another clean sheet and all in front of an Anfield crowd of 35,207.
14 games unbeaten in the League and only 6 dropped points in 3 drawn games. And this was not a Liverpool performance that reflected those incredible statistics. Arsenal (3) Liverpool (0), 2nd December 1990.
Arsenal (3) Liverpool (0), 2nd December 1990. Attendance at Highbury 40,419.
January 1991 encompassed seven games for the Reds and here are four of them and they represent the month as a whole as although the Reds went unbeaten in the month they also only won three of the seven games as they were taken to replays by both Blackburn Rovers and Brighton and Hove Albion before finally beating the “Seagulls” 3–2 on the last day of the month.
Manchester United (1) Liverpool (1), 3rd February 1991. Attendance at Old Trafford 43,690. New signing David Speedie signs in with the Reds with a goal at Old Trafford, which isn’t a bad way to announce your arrival!
Liverpool (3) Everton (1), 9th February 1991. David Speedie scores 2 in his Merseyside Derby debut in front of 38,127 at Anfield. This was the Red’s 32nd game of the season hence far in all competitions and they had only lost 3 of those games, drawing 9 and securing 20 victories.
The resignation heard around the world. Apologies for my red ink scrawl.
Speculation immediately builds as to who will replace The King but some of us still could not comprehend our footballing hero and wonderful human being was still not Manager of Liverpool any more.
Even the local “Evening News” in my hometown of Portsmouth led with the incredible news as the fallout and recriminations and idyll tittle tattle made the tabloid headlines around the UK.
My footballing hero would be back at Anfield soon enough, just not in the right dugout. Meanwhile, the hunt for his successor was already underway and to the best of my recollection, as well as these scraps from my books, his mate, his “Champagne Charlie” mate, had barely been seriously mentioned.
First game back after the leaving of King Kenny the Reds lose 3–1 away at lowly Luton Town before losing the FA Cup replay with Everton 1–0 four days later. As below they’d lose a third consecutive game, this time at Arsenal, and from a position of such statistical strength after the Everton game on 9th February (though the footballing cracks were plainly evident for all of us), just less than a month later the Reds had lost 3 games on the bounce and gone out of the FA Cup as well as slipping from the top of the League.
L to R: More action from 1–0 defeat to Everton in the FA Cup. Alan Hansen retires from football and flatly states he doesn’t want the Liverpool Manager’s position and Arsenal win 1–0 at Anfield on 3rd March 1991 to cap the 3 defeats on the spin inside two turbulent Winter weeks of 1991.
3 huge headlines from 3 newspapers. Only 1 had even a grain of truth to them.
Derby County (1) Liverpool (SEVEN), 23rd March 1991. This incredible result topped a return to form for the Reds and the third win in a row (after wins over Manchester City and Sunderland), but it was a false dawn in the Reds recovery as the cracks continued to alarmingly show.
Southampton (1) Liverpool (0), 1st April 1991. Matthew Le Tissier with the only goal for the Saints and not a particularly pleasant April Fool’sDay all round.
Leeds United (4) Liverpool (5), 13th April 1991. Despite winning 5–4 away from home in a game that the Reds were 4 goals in front within 28 minutes (and even the Leeds fans applauded the magnificent fourth goal), the Reds still trailed League leaders Arsenal by 5 points with 5 games to go. This game exemplified the schizophrenic nature of the Reds towards the end of Kenny’s reign as the passing and moving and one twos that ripped Leeds apart was sheer footballing poetry but the team as a whole was ageing and fragile defensively.
“Champagne Charlie” and the lifter of the European Cup one handed high into a Roman night in 1984, leaves Rangers for the job he couldn’t turn down. His first game in the dugout, a 3–0 home win over Norwich City. Arsenal still had a 5 point lead in the League with now just 4 games to go.
By quirk of fate, the two best friends would be paired together again as they played in Ray Kennedy’s testimonial match, 27th April 1991.
The second of my five lifetime visits to Stamford Bridge. I have still yet to see a victory. This 4–2 defeat on May 4th ended the Reds distant hopes of winning the League.
The second of my four lifetime visits to the City Ground, Nottingham, and I’m yet to see a win there either. I must be a Jonah! A season of such superlative football yet defensive frailties comes to a conclusion with a 2–1 defeat away at Nottingham Forest and a 2–0 home win on the final day of the season against Tottenham. The Reds would finish runners up to Arsenal and a distant 7 points behind the Champion Gunners. In truth, Arsenal lost only once in the League all season and were worthy Champions but the cracks were widening between the two giants of English football, as well as between the veterans in the Reds fragile defence.
I sincerely hope you’ve either enjoyed or found some entertainment here as we’ve rambled our way through “Scrapbook Lane” and this pictorial history of the 1990/1991 season. If so, can I direct you to the links below on the seasons previously published:
