An A-Z of Liverpool FC

Part 2 - C to D

In this new series I’m trying to cover all the key names, events, competitions etc under each letter of the alphabet. I am not claiming it to be fully comprehensive - there’s not enough time left in the world for that! It’s still quite a deep dive though, and I apologise sincerely in advance for any omissions that trouble you.

Having started with A to B, you’ll know where we’re headed next!:

C

• ‘C’ is for a lot of players - here are some that stand out:

Ian Callaghan - still Liverpool’s record appearance maker with 857, spanning from 1960, when he played his first game only six days after his eighteenth birthday, replacing his boyhood hero Billy Liddell, to 1978, or from just after Shankly’s arrival till after the first European Cup in Rome.

The Toxteth-born right-winger-turned-central midfielder scored 68 goals in that time. It was his cross that Ian St.John headed in for the winning goal in the 1965 FA Cup final, Liverpool’s first FA Cup win. He was an integral part of Shankly’s mid-’60s team that won promotion, then the title, that FA Cup and another title. Back then he was an incredibly industrious right touchline-hugger. With Peter Thompson doing the same on the left, Liverpool certainly had width, and plenty of space for Hunt and St.John to exploit and crosses to get on the end of.

In his long Liverpool career Cally won 5 League Championships as well a Second Division Championship, 2 FA Cups, 2 European Cups, 2 UEFA Cups and a European Super Cup, and was FWA Footballer of the Year in 1974. Remarkably, he went through the whole of his Liverpool career without being sent off or even booked until his name was taken in his penultimate game for Liverpool in March 1978.

Ray Clemence - maybe Liverpool’s greatest goalkeeeper since Elisha Scott, Clemence was one of those players Liverpool used to snaffle regularly from lower league clubs before they become international stars. Kevin Keegan, Phil Neal and Ian Rush would later join their ranks.

Clemence was signed from Scunthorpe United in June 1967 for £18,000. He went on to play 665 games for Liverpool, keeping clean sheets in almost half of them - 323 - and also played 336 games without missing a single match from 9 September 1972 until 4 March 1978.

He helped set a new defensive record in 1970/71 of only conceding 22 goals in 41 First Division matches, a record which he surpassed in 1978/79 when just 16 goals were conceded, and only four at Anfield, with Clemence an ever-present for the sixth time. His athleticism and positional sense were supplemented by his accomplishment as maybe the modern game’s first sweeper-keeper.

In all with Liverpool he won 5 League Championships, 3 European Cups, 2 UEFA Cups, an FA Cup, a League Cup and a European Super Cup. He also won 61 caps for England, 56 of them whilst at Liverpool, and would have won many more had his time not coincided with Peter Shilton.

Clemence left Liverpool to join Spurs, and was visibly touched by the reception he got from the Liverpool crowd on his first return to Anfield as a Spurs player in 1981.

Sadly, Ray Clemence died on 15th November 2020.

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