A night to remember – 16th March 1977
A story from one of our own, ANDY MAC
Well then it was 44 years ago today that Anfield witnessed one of it’s greatest ever nights against St Etienne and i was very privileged to be there and it’s one of them that will be forever branded in the memory.
I remember getting of the bus outside the Kop and i know it sounds like a cliché but there really was something in the air that night it was like a mixture of anticipation, excitement, mixed with a slight fear of the unknown it just felt special.
When their lad Dominic Bathenay equalised in the second half it was proper game on stuff and the fear of the unknown started to creep back in then Ray Kennedy made it 2-1 and the scene was truly set for an epic night.
Then with roughly 5 minutes or so left Ray Kennedy plays a long ball to super sub Davey Fairclough and at that point i was in my usual speck in the Kop half way up smack bang in the middle behind the goal and just as he was gonna pull the trigger some fucker blocked me view only for a second or so like and then the whole place just exploded pure bedlam at it’s finest and shortly after that none of us quite knew what to do with ourselves and i kicked off with we shall not be moved and kids my age at the time simply did not start the big songs it did take a bit of time but one of their lads i think his name was Rochteau had a shot which missed the song caught fire big time.
Gerald Sinstad who was doing the commentary at the the time remarked that the whole stand is shaking here at Anfield. It was one of the proudest moments of my entire life.
The other thing was that in the aftermath of all this was i wanted to get home to watch this on the box meanwhile Davey Fairclough the hero of it all fancied a pint at his local and him and his mate pulled up outside and saw it was chocker in there and thought they would not get served cos it was too busy last orders an an all that little realising that he was the cause of it all.
What a humble lad him.
A truly epic night was had by all who were lucky enough to be there.
TAW video remembering the night
Highlights of the Game