Apologies this should have been posted on 12th July on our Friends Geoff, G , Pierre’s birthday.
MANY HAPPY RETURNS YOU LEGEND
Hello Foarites,
Hoping that this doesn’t bore you..
77 years on the 12th July, crazy how the years fly by..
I was brought up just inside North Wales approx 20 miles from Liverpool, I count that as very much a positive.
At 15 yrs old it was a very exciting time, Mersey Beat was taking off, and I was fortunate enough to see almost all of the Liverpool groups, including the Beatles. I was hooked on their music, along with Bob Dylan and Simom and Garfunkel from the other side of the Atlanic .A huge influence on my life.
Football was always at Chester or Wrexham by bus or train, until a friend’s dad took us to Anfield to watch the Reds play Norwich City in Division 2, and that was it, it had to be LFC for me.
This escalated at 16 yrs of age when some of the men that I worked alongside had cars…. and went to every Liverpool home game, I went with them, a life changer for me.
Never in a million years did I envisage that this Div 2 club with a really ramshackle old stadium would grow to be one of the best if not THE best club in the world.
I was privileged enough to see the Reds take on the very best, especially in Europe with players such as Franz Beckenbauer, Gunter Netzer, Gerd Muller, going away from Anfield with their tails between their legs, sadly that did not apply to Cruyff and his Ajax team mates, we came off decidedly second best there.
Domestically I saw some of the best of British, too many to mention in our red shirts, but legend opponents like Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Jimmy Greaves, Gordon Banks.
Talking of opponents, Ron Yeats used to tell a Shanks story about a pre match team meeting before a home game with Man U, apparently Shanks had a Subbuteo table with the predicted X1 opponents line up, the 11 plastic figures were lined up on the table and Bill systematically named and rubbished 8 of them sweeping them onto the floor, but, someone said “but what about Best, Law and Charlton?” , to which Shanks replied that if you can’t beat a team of 3 men then you shouldn’t be on the bloody pitch…!
The 60’s, 70’s and 80’s will never be bettered for me, for a start I was a lot younger, and the match day experience was totally different then to what it is now.
Favourite Reds, where do you start? if I had to select just one it would have to be Kenny, he had the lot , possibly the best football awareness matched with undoubted skill that I have ever seen.
So that’s it, it’s frightening how the years have flown by, the club has more than fulfilled all my dreams and expectations, but…, there’s always another trophy to lift….
Disappointments, one player who should have been a Red,
Frank Worthington…., what a player, Shanks wanted him, but alas the medicals didn’t work out, “Worthington lived a playboy lifestyle.[29] In 1972 he undertook a medical at Liverpool ahead of a proposed transfer to the club. On hearing that Worthington had high blood pressure, manager Bill Shankly sent him to Majorca for a week for health reasons. After encounters with five separate women, including a former Miss Great Britain, during the break, he returned showing higher blood pressure and the transfer fell through.[2
That didn’t ruin his career ,he went on to play for a further 23 clubs.!, and probably had a few more romantic encounters along the way……
Personal highlight, I had some great mates ,all Liverpool guys, we met at a pub called the Rydal, not far from Anfield every home game, we somehow all managed to get tickets for the FA cup final at Wembley v Newcastle in 1974, I will never forget that day, to be an outsider accepted into this salt of the earth group of Scousers and to share that day with them will stay with me always, maybe that’s the reason the FA cup still holds a very special place in my heart.
Love Geoff.
YNWA x