Most Memorable Games, No.2

Anfield's Greatest Night? Liverpool v St Etienne, March 16th 1977

Clinching the League at Molineux in May 1976 (see No.1 in the series here) and adding the UEFA Cup was only the start of the most golden period in the Reds’ history – though of course you didn’t know at the time what was coming down the track.

Could the next season match it - or even improve on it? Somehow, it did. The 1976/77 season became one of the most exciting season in our illustrious history, and to that point probably the most. It culminated in us lifting Ol Big Ears for the first time, that glorious night in Rome. It also contained a bitter defeat just 4 days before, as we lost the FA Cup Final to Tommy Docherty’s Man Utd, shattering our treble dream (and the league/FA Cup double). But for that daylight robbery, the Forces of Darkness would in 1999 have become only the second to win that treble. And don’t get me started me on the freak goal that won it for them …

That season also included 2 FA Cup semi finals against Everton at Maine Road, the first a pulsating 2-2 – Evertonians still complain about their ‘winning’ goal by Bryan Hamilton being wrongly ruled out for handball by ref Clive Thomas. It wasn’t handball but he was offside – right result, wrong reason. That ref wasn’t made especially welcome at Goodison for a long time to come afterwards though. The replay, where only 3,000 were locked out as opposed to 10,000 for the first game, was a 3-0 stroll for the Reds, to set up that final against United.

I’d like to call it Most Memorable Season, but of the 62 matches we played, one single match other than the final in Rome of course - that’s a special subject all of its own) – stands out: that legendary European Cup Quarter Final second leg at Anfield against St Etienne. In the Wolves piece above I mentioned the cultural gold vault that we each carry with us as Reds fans. Well here’s a solid gold bar.