Liverpool FC's Great Striking Partnerships

No 1 - The Saint and the Knight

This is the start of a new series looking at the greatest pairs of strikers Liverpool have had over the last 60 years, since the Shankly era began. Starting at the beginning …

‘Sir’ Roger Hunt and Ian St.John were the key partnership around which Bill Shankly’s first great team was based. It was a team that got promoted back to the top flight in 1961/2, then won three trophies in the mid-1960s, two league titles and, sandwiched in between, the club’s first ever FA Cup in 1965.

In that promotion season, Hunt and St.John scored 64 goals between them (Hunt 42, St.John 22) in all competitions. In the first title season of 1963/4, Hunt with 31 and St.John with 21 between them scored more than half of the team’s total of 92 league goals in 42 games. And of course both scored in the 2-1 win over Leeds United in the 1965 FA Cup Final at Wembley that at last brought the old trophy to Anfield.

Their full record together:

1961/2 (promotion) - Hunt 42 (including five hat-tricks!) St.John 22 - total 64

1962/3 - Hunt 26 St. John 22 - total 48

1963/4 (title) - Hunt 31 St.John 21 - total 52

1964/5 (FA Cup) - Hunt 37 St.John 11 - total 48

1965/6 (title) - Hunt 32 St.John 12 - total 44

1966/7 - Hunt 19 St.John 13 - total 32

1967/8 - Hunt 30 St.John 6 - total 36

1968/9 - Hunt 17 St.John 4 - total 21

1969/70 - Hunt 7 St.John 7 - total 14

That’s 359 goals together as a partnership in 9 seasons, an average of 39.89 a season! And look at Hunt’s record - 42, 26, 31, 37, 32, 19, 30, 17 and 7 - a total of 251 goals in those 9 seasons (an average of 28.78 per season), and he was easing off in the last 2!

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