A homecoming fit for a Champion
Liverpool 3 Tottenham 1, 15th May 1982
This is a favourite piece from my retrospective writing on Liverpool Football Club (volume 26 to be precise) and a celebration for the returning of a King, a Champion and arguably England’s greatest ever goalkeeper. This piece was also featured in Issue 291 of the independent Liverpool fanzine “Red All Over The Land” and it’s reproduced here in full along with a video I recorded on the banks of the River Severn in beautiful Ironbridge in late Summer 2023 as the world’s oldest iron bridge provides THE most perfect backdrop once more to my recorded rambling musings. The sunshine and stillness of the river sure provides some wondrous reflections as well as the hustle and bustle of life ongoing in the toy town across the river.
I hope you enjoy.
Liverpool 3 Tottenham 1 - My Youtube video
Ray Clemence making his Anfield return -Youtube
In Memory of Ray Clemence - Youtube
"Reds seal 13th League Title as Clem is accorded a heroes return" - Original Article
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - Available via Amazon
Liverpool fans of every individual red stripe and persuasion will each have their own personal indelible memories burned into their red heart. Mine are, in any order your footballing fancy takes you:
Attending the 1986 FA Cup Final and standing directly behind *that* camera and watching Ian Rush wheel away in delight as the 3–1 come from behind win was assured over neighbours Everton in the first all Merseyside FA Cup Final.
Having that lucky yellow ticket for “The Kop’s Last Stand” as we said goodbye to a standing Kop for the last time. Had a rather good view of Jeremy Goss’ “screamer” that day and the ovation for The King pre-match still moves me to tears. I’ll take the memory of that explosive roar with me to the great footballing beyond.
My first European trip in 1996, and the quaint Swiss town of Sion. Afternoon merriment and after a short local detour, we were the heroes of the coach before God scored a brilliantly cheeky equaliser in a 2–1 victory.
Good fortune smiled once more on the outskirts of the German city of Dortmund as we circled the city with a lost coach driver in search of the imposing Westfalenstadion. Our small party of three were allocated front row seats in the top tier for that golden goal hullabaloo with Deportivo Alaves in the 2001 UEFA Cup Final, still THE greatest European final of all time. I can still picture my travelling companions with tears in their eyes.
Or finally, two years later and having a prime high view directly in line with Michael Owen who, after racing from the half-way line and evading the horribly crude and desperate late challenge from a retreating Roy Keane, smashed the decisive second goal past a flailing Fabien Barthez in the Manchester United goal, sealing the 2003 League Cup Final.
I lost my shit when that goal went in!
But we’re all lucky enough to share a collective set of monumental memories, be they in our lifetime or of a footballing past. “The team of Mac’s”. Billy Liddell. The arrival of Bill Shankly. Ian St John and a Wembley winner in 1965. The Kop serenading Inter Milan days later with “Go back to Italy!”. Being a Red of a certain vintage I can say with a firm certainty that I could go on and on and I’m sure you could too, as well as filling in the gaps coming up. “That’s nice! That’s McDermott! And that’s a goal!” from a Roman night in 1977. “Champagne Charlie” hoisting aloft the European Cup one handed on another gladiatorial Roman night 7 years later. I’ve skipped over Kenny Dalglish leaping over the advertising boards at Wembley in 1978 or that impossibly hooked goal over his shoulder that won the 1981 League Cup final in a Villa Park replay.
Doubles. Blowing Doubles. The heartache of Hillsborough. The leaving of a King. The fallow years of only two trophies in a decade before a glut of them under the tutelage of Gerard Houllier. Miracles in Istanbul. “The Gerrard Final”. The returning of a King and the returning of the biggest smile in football carrying a silver trophy around Wembley Stadium once more.
Barcelona. Real Madrid. Jurgen Klopp. Jordan Henderson dancing. Divock Origi. Mo Salah. 4–0 up at half-time at Old Trafford.
Club World Champions.
Champions of the world.
For a golden period, a very golden period, the team you and I support played PlayStation Football from an entirely different playbook to everyone else.
There are two beautiful memories burned forever into a Liverpool fan’s consciousness from today’s game, or rather, the 3–1 come from behind win against Tottenham Hotspur on 15th May 1982 that sealed the Reds 13th all time 1st Division championship. We’ll get to those wonderful memories shortly but today’s victory saw six Liverpool players win the League Title for the very first time (Bruce Grobbelaar, Mark Lawrenson, Ronnie Whelan, Sammy Lee, Ian Rush and Craig Johnston) whilst it was business as usual for the irrepressible Alan “Barney Rubble” Kennedy, Phil “Zico” Neal, the Scottish trio of Souness, Dalglish and Alan Hansen and today was especially noteworthy for the sixth all time League Title for locally born Phil Thompson.
With only a hardy few souls in the know that the beautifully ornate 1st Division Championship trophy was hidden away inside Anfield and ready to be presented to the Reds should they indeed beat Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool trouped off at half-time a goal behind to an incredible volley from Spurs soon to be lifelong legend Glenn Hoddle that flew past Bruce Grobbelaar from fully 30 yards out. The 35 minutes of highlights available for this game show this to be the London team’s only real shot on target for the entire game but at half-time, they enjoyed a slender lead and were threatening to ruin the championship party.
You and I know what happened next almost as much as the prophetically sage BBC commentator of the day, John Motson.
“Liverpool are never more dangerous than when behind” he commenced a second half in which an undeserved 0–1 deficit became a commanding 2–1 advantage in 4 glorious minutes book-ended by a thunderous long range header from Mark Lawrenson and a canny, deft finish from Kenny Dalglish. The Kop End, that mass of swaying, heaving humanity, full an hour before kick off within a crowd of over 48,000, had worked their magic once more. Liverpool are never more dangerous than when attacking that famous old terrace of yore, a terrace now bouncing to the songs of celebration in acclaim of their champions elect in Red. Ronnie Whelan, still in his breakthrough year of fifteen in a trophy laden, legendary career ahead, volleys home a late third goal, and from 12th place in the 1st Division after that infamous and ignominious 3–1 defeat by Manchester City on Boxing Day 1981, these magnificent Liverpool Reds had won 20, lost 2 and drawn 2 since the turn of 1982 and in just over 5 and a half months, had won the 1st Division title with a game to spare. Aside from shock defeats to Chelsea in the FA Cup and CSKA Sofia in the European Cup (and two league defeats to Brighton and Swansea City), Liverpool were almost as perfect as those two everlasting memories from this game.
The first is perhaps a purely personal one as without a makeshift stage, fireworks or an organised rotation of songs drowning out the crowd, Liverpool chairman John Smith accompanied manager Bob Paisley onto the pitch with that beautifully ornate 1st Division trophy. With two simple red ribbons attached and with barely a fanfare to be had, the chairman simply hands the trophy to his captain, a gleeful Graeme Souness in his footballing prime. The memory burned into my fandom of that moment is of Souness thrusting that grand old trophy skyward, and to all four corners of that grand old stadium, before another defiant thrust toward The Kop as he ran toward that celebratory mass of jubilation to turn and joyously toss that beautiful old trophy high into the air!
The second is a collective memory once more for all of us. As Liverpool fans we are incredibly fortunate for a multitude of reasons and one I’ve long argued for is that our true heroes rarely play for anyone else. Much has changed since this game on a sunny May afternoon in 1982 and in the past two decades alone the “one club man” has almost, almost, entirely left the game. Quixotically, Ray “Clem” Clemence wasn’t strictly only a Liverpool Red after having signed from Scunthorpe in 1967. Today, Ray was in the opposition goal for Tottenham Hotspur, a club he’d win the FA Cup with at Wembley in just 7 days time as well as the UEFA Cup and a Charity Shield in his 7 seasons with the London club.
But together with the 61 caps for England, “Clem” will be always be universally known as Liverpool’s goalkeeping custodian for 14 trophy laden years whereby “England’s Number 1” would garner an astonishing 5 1st Division titles, 3 European Cups, 2 UEFA Cups, 1 European Super Cup and a domestic double of the FA Cup and the League Cup in addition to 5 Charity Shields.
So becomes the memory, a memory the great man himself said was “the most emotional I’ve ever been in football” and “I could not believe the adulation I got”. The adulation came from The Kop End, that heaving, swaying mass of humanity welcoming their returning hero with a standing ovation, arms aloft to loudly clap their forever hero onto the field of play. Captured on camera from behind, Ray runs toward The Kop returning their applause, arms high in the air and a perfect mirror of symmetry between fan and sporting idol. Ray punches the air in celebratory thanks not once but twice before waving to his family in the main stand and politely applauding The Kop’s serenade of the number one goalkeeper in England.
It’s an incredible fleeting few seconds of genuine heart warming humanity.
I never saw “Clem” play. My Red odyssey started in the first season of a madcap Zimbabwean in our goal and he remains my football goalkeeping love, closely followed by today’s bearded Brazilian genius and Pepe Reina when we almost, almost shocked the footballing world once more. If you have a spare hour I’ll take you through my LOVE for all three of these gloved footballing gentlemen and the magnificent teams they played behind, but they’ll never receive the adulation afforded Ray Clemence on that sunny day of 15th May 1982.
Thanks for the memories Ray.
Ray Clemence (5th August 1948–15th November 2020)
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering and the right way up in an upside down world.
It was a tune that originated in British music halls, so I thought you would know it, but okay...
The best version by far is by the late great American blues/jazz singer Leon Redbone.
"Champagne Charlie is my name/Champagne Charlie is my name/Champagne Charlie is my name, by golly..."