Liverpool FC Season 1992–93. “Come to Coventry”, I said to my girlfriend, “it’s an easy 3 points and we desperately need them”.
16th January 1993 and with the Reds deep in the bottom half of the Premier League, I’d direct you to my comments of the day.
Welcome to Part 6 of my scrapbooking odyssey on the football team my dear old Mum “persuaded” me to follow when just a small boy and around the mercurial times of Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish, winnings cups in May and seemingly always holding that beautiful gleaming trophy with the “Big Ears”.
I attended my first Liverpool game as a 10 year old on 8th August 1982 when the Reds formed a “triangle” of pre-season friendlies with Coventry City and Ipswich Town and all hosted by my hometown club of Portsmouth. I was already a Red as far back as 1980 and I have no idea how my Mother achieved such a feat but she bought me the “Hitachi” home shirt and one I proudly wore as an 8 year old to a very stuffy, best bib and tucker occasion at Portsmouth Guildhall as I met the Lord Mayor after winning a painting competition with my entry, naturally entitled, “The Football Match”. So of course I was going to attend this Gala event as an 8 year old in my Liverpool shirt. What self respecting Red at that age wouldn’t?
So I’m not a Scouser (though I envy those with that particular birthplace) and I’m an “out of towner”. But please allow me to very briefly give you some bona fides as to the veracity of my support for this wonderful football club.
My first game was 1982 and my last was 2012. In the 30 years in between I have followed the Reds at over 55 league grounds in England and Wales as well as 7 European grounds and I’ve probably travelled to see them 300+ times. Not an idyll boast, nor is it overly ground breaking. I’ve been incredibly lucky as well as being incredibly skint watching the Reds! I became a season ticket holder in the season before the first lock down after being on the waiting list since 1998 . I had the crest tattooed on my arm as a 15 year old, I’ve sat on a cold coach for days going to Switzerland for a 2nd Round Cup Winners Cup tie, I watched *that* goal in *that* 1996 FA Cup Final on a tiny Casio TV outside “our” end of Wembley without a ticket. Well, I had a ticket, but that’s a whole other story for another day.
So I’m a Southern born Red with a lot of scrapbook cuttings to share and maybe the occasional commentary to go along with them too. I hope you enjoy sharing them with me.
Allez! Allez! Allez!
Disclaimer — All pictures contained within this blog will be almost certainly from the “main” UK publications of the day but more importantly perhaps wholly contained within some loved, if dusty, scrapbooks of a 30 year vintage and placed here purely for enjoyment purposes and I hope that this disclaimer meets everyone’s needs. If not, thank you www.guardian.comwww.dailymail.co.ukwww.thetimes.co.ukwww.mirror.co.ukwww.telegraph.co.ukwww.liverpoolecho.co.uk et al for entertaining this Pritt Stick and scissors wielding young child/spotty teen/tall and gangly late teenager and young adult who should’ve stopped ripping and cutting up newspapers long before he hung up his scissors! All programmes shown here are from my personal collection.
Disclaimer II — This is far from a fully comprehensive review of the season and purely the contents and selected pages from my scrapbooks and boxes of football programmes. I was nicknamed by my Liverpool match going pal as “The Cutter” in reference to an Echo and the Bunnymen song and so hence, here are my cuttings.
Disclaimer III — There will be images from a certain reviled newspaper that I will not name and I only include them (where available) as they represent the cuttings at that time. I despise that “newspaper” and when I used to “go the match” I always wore my Hillsborough Support Group scarf and a white sticker imploring everyone not to buy that unnamed “newspaper”.
So onto the good stuff! I have 10+ seasons of cuttings to share and I hope these scraps from my books jog a memory of the match concerned or the era, the city in general or your life at that time.
Human memories are a precious commodity. I hope you enjoy.
Leeds United (4) Liverpool (3), FA Charity Shield, 8th August 1992. Attendance at Wembley: 61,291. This was the first Charity Shield I missed since first going against Everton in 1986 and I have no memory as to why. I do remember watching the game and fearing every time Leeds attacked or Eric Cantona was anywhere near the ball. Conceding 4 goals in the curtain raising game of the English league did not bode well for the season ahead.
Nottingham Forest (1) Liverpool (0), 16th August 1992. Attendance at the City Ground: 20,038. Not the most auspicious of starts for the Reds in what had become re-branded as the FA Premier League. It was a “whole new ball game” apparently.
An early season wrap up with further images from the Charity Shield loss to Leeds United followed by a celebrating Anders Limpar scoring for Arsenal in a 2–0 win at Anfield, Jamie Redknapp doing likewise in the last minute to secure a 2–1 win over Chelsea at Anfield and popular striker Dean Saunders could be about to depart from the club and move to Aston Villa. This briefly wraps up the opening 7 league games of the season and after this period the Reds had won 2, lost 2 and drawn 3 for an underwhelming beginning to the new season.
Two weeks later and after yet another league defeat away at Sheffield United (1–0), the Reds became the Greens, and the striker who used to play in a Red shirt now sported a Claret and Blue one as he scored two goals against his former employers and giving his new ones an impressive 4–2 victory. The game will forever be linked to that crazy miss from Ronny Rosenthal but there have been much, much worse since and there’s been much worse teams too. But the signs all around the fields of Anfield Road were all pointing in the direction of a place called “Worrying”.
Liverpool (4) Chesterfield (4), 22nd September 1992. 2nd Round, 1st Leg of the Coca-Cola Cup. 2–0 down at Half-Time became 3–0 three minutes into the second half before quick fire goals from Rosenthal and Hutchison made the score 2–3 in favour of the Division 3 club. It became 4–2, quickly reduced to 4–3 before Mark Wright scored an 85th minute equaliser to try and spare the Reds blushes. They weren’t, and the dreadful run kept getting ever more dreadful. The attendance at Anfield for equally divided 8 goal feast, just 12,533.
Liverpool (2) Wimbledon (3), 26th September 1992. Attendance at Anfield: 29,574.
A good draw at Old Trafford in a 2–2 stalemate with Manchester United and a good performance but a defeat away from home at Tottenham Hotspur (2–0). More fight and organisation in both performances.
L to R: much needed 4–1 home win against Norwich City on 25th October and the 2–0 reverse with Tottenham Hotspur as noted above.
(Directly Above) The picture of the season so far and the one used whenever a story needed to express the mess the Reds were in, and taken during the 2–0 defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur on 31st October. 14 games into the league season, the Reds had just 17 points and had already suffered 6 defeats.
Queens Park Rangers (0) Liverpool (1), 23rd November 1992. A much, much needed win. Please ignore my scrapbook scribbles!
More tabloid balderdash as the year of 1992 draws to a close.
The King returns but in front of 43,668 at his former home, his old playing roommate grinds out a much needed 2–1 win, 13th December 1992.
A painful night at Selhurst Park as the Reds are dumped out of the Coca-Cola Cup 2–1 by Crystal Palace sandwich more coverage of The King’s return to Anfield with Blackburn.
With a week to go to Christmas I could tell my girlfriend at the time just had an aching to drive me to Coventry for this mid-table slog, and when I said the magic words of “Let’s go to Coventry. It’ll be an easy and much needed 3 points” she obviously couldn’t wait to drop the wrapping paper and stop all preparations for the coming festivities and drive me to Coventry. Come on! I even upgraded us to seats (what luxury!) rather than standing as I felt sure we could sit back and enjoy an easy 3 points and a laugh filled journey home. Was a thoroughly dreadful afternoon obviously, with Redknapp sent off and Mick Quinn scoring twice in the second half. A new thoroughly low nadir had been reached. Happy Christmas everyone!
Bolton Wanderers (2) Liverpool (2), FA Cup 3rd Round, 3rd January 1993. 2–0 down at Half-Time and losing 2–1 with 8 minutes to go, up popped legendary striker Ian Rush to keep Graeme Souness’ ailing team, and holders, in the FA Cup.
Two old roommates and a returning Dean Saunders, as Aston Villa’s 2–1 win doomed the Reds to more misery in the second week of January 1993. The man on the left of the matchday programme hoisted the European Cup aloft like a gladiator against a Roman night sky in 1984 and 6 years prior the man on the right in the picture scored one of the greatest goals to ever grace a European Cup Final. Both leapt into my Red heart as a child and will forever remain.
Wimbledon (2) Liverpool (0), 16th January 1993. I rather think my comments in red tell their own story! What story isn’t told (and I don’t have any cuttings of the game) is 4 days after losing at home to Aston Villa (above) the Reds lost 2–0 at home to Bolton Wanderers in the replay of their 3rd round FA Cup tie in front of just 34,790 at Anfield. The FA Cup holders were out, beaten at Wimbledon for their 3rd defeat of the week and sat just 8 places above the relegation zone.
Arsenal (0) Liverpool (1), 31st January 1993. Attendance at Highbury was a surprisingly low 27,580, but this was a huge win for the Reds and much needed after a calamitous month. Barnes with the winner from the penalty spot but it was David James’ penalty save from Paul Merson at the other end that ensured all 3 points.
Nicky Banger dents my early birthday plans with a late winner in a 2–1 win for the Saints of Southampton over my deflating Reds of Liverpool, 13th February 1993.
“90 Minutes” magazine profile on one of the brighter spots to emerge from this season, Jamie Redknapp.
I have an old adage that certain sportspeople reinvent their own sport. Jack Nicklaus. Tiger Woods. Alex Ferguson with his Manchester United team of the mid 1990’s onward. Olga Korbut. Pep Guardiola. Roger Federer. Now Jurgen Klopp for Liverpool. John Barnes didn’t reinvent his sport but he developed a path for the longevity of a world class footballer to adapt and still excel at multiple positions as the path of time began to overtake their natural body. John Barnes of 1987 to 1990 was incredible and arguably at that time one of the five/ten best footballers in the world. By 1993 he’d adapted to a more central role but he still had the basic tenet of the game at the forefront of everything he did: the ball is my friend. Retain it, pass it, give it to another Red shirt. I blooming adored watching this man kick a bag of wind around. Poetry in motion.
27th February through to 6th March and the Reds collect only 1 point from 6 as a draw away at Sheffield Wednesday is followed by a bitter defeat to local rivals Manchester United at Anfield by 2 goals to 1. The Reds weren’t in a relegation fight but they weren’t that far clear of it either.
Liverpool (4) Coventry (0), 17th April 1993. Attendance at Anfield 33,328. Since the defeat at home to Manchester United the Reds had won 4, drawn 2 and lost only 1 (4–1 away at Blackburn Rovers) to ease any lingering fears of relegation but although they were finishing strongly the season as a whole was still a bitter disappointment.
Oldham Athletic (3) Liverpool (2), 5th May 1993.
Liverpool (6) Tottenham Hotspur (2), 8th May 1993. With an attendance at Anfield on the final day of the season at a near capacity of 43,385, two things were abundantly clear (1) The Reds were magnificent today with two goals apiece from Rush and Barnes and (2) Massive rumours circulated that Manager Graeme Souness was absent and on the brink of being replaced as the Boss. The season as a whole had seen the team limp out of all cup competitions and if you wanted to be ultra critical they were dumped out on each occasion in ignominy. Thankfully a run of league draws and victories had lifted the Reds way clear from any relegation fears to a finish position of 6th, BUT a full 25 points from the eventual Champions. The “Summer Season” ahead before pre-season was going to be a hectic one whether Souness stayed as Boss or was replaced, and the club as a whole was in turmoil.
I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed this particular edition of “Scrapbook Lane” and if so, please do consider the previous seasons I’ve published so far, with a number still to be compiled and released:
