Aldridge, Barnes and Beardsley, and the start of “The Unbeatables”
Yesterday’s Paper, today
A brief hello to the editor of Liverpool FC fanzine “Red All Over The Land” (RAOTL) and the rest will hopefully fall into place afterwards.
Hello JJP and I trust all is well at RAOTL Towers. Thanks for the inclusion in issue 305, honoured as always. My thinking for “Yesterday’s Paper” in 306 is to catch the Arsenal Away game on 27th October and I hope whatever follows, as I haven’t written it yet, is suitable for the fanzine. The great excitement eh? Having a vague idea for a piece of writing and trying to get the brain and mind in tune with some dancing fingers! Let’s see what happens.
As ever, just delete the above and the article follows below the dotted line.
Take it easy
Stephen
“Aldridge, Barnes and Beardsley, and the start of “The Unbeatables”
Over the years my oldest friend Marc and I or, strictly speaking, I, have embellished the events of Saturday 15th August 1987 to almost mythic proportions but myths and tall tales come easy after 37 years and we were, after all, just two early teenagers still years away from leaving school and naively following our football dreams to London once more. We went to every Reds game at Wimbledon as the stop/start slow train from Portsmouth stopped there but into the heart of the beast and old London town? We only ventured to Upton Park and Loftus Road, leaving the bigger venues of White Hart Lane and Highbury off our travel lists until, with childish excitement I can still recall all these years later, we simply couldn’t resist the 1987/1988 season opener at Arsenal and a statement win from Kenny Dalglish’s soon to be christened “Unbeatables”. The moniker would weigh heavily, eventually, and three seasonal defeats would sting, but not before records were set, equalled and if not all records broken, Dalglish’s truly great team romped to the 1st Division title with games and points to spare aplenty, and all after a commanding 2–1 win in front of 54,703 at a bulging Highbury full to overflowing to such an extent that many Arsenal fans locked out of this first game of the season resorted to climbing and sitting on the roof of the North Bank terrace!
Marc and I were in place at the front of the away end and baking in the August sunshine long before I’d stupidly open the door of a train in full flow on our way home, sending everything in the carriage, fake gold, match programmes and presumably the last vestiges of my childhood bravado, careening towards the open door and now, back in the ground pre kick-off, minutes after desperately tucking the fake gold I bought on Tottenham Court Road into my socks for fear of an Arsenal steward taking it from me, sunbathing along with thousands upon thousands of fellow Reds in the Clock End of Highbury eager for our first look at the trio and attacking spearhead that would vanquish (nearly) all before them in the coming 9 months.
All three would combine on just 9 minutes for the Reds first goal of the season, with goal scorer John Aldridge clumsily fouled by David O’Leary, John Barnes takes the resultant free kick quickly to the dancing feet of Peter Beardsley who returns a perfect pass for an equally perfect left footed cross and a powerful leaping header from Aldridge into the far corner leaving John Lukic helpless. The Reds, in their soon to be loved and familiar all grey away kit, were in front. The lead lasted just 8 minutes and until a Charlie Nicholas cross was headed back across goal by Alan Smith for a marauding Paul Davis to head past a stranded Bruce Grobbelaar in the Reds goal. The aide-mémoire and scant 5 minutes of highlights on Youtube suggest Kenny Sansom went close with a right footed cross come shot in the first half until a second half full of Liverpool highlights with future Red Michael Thomas forced to clear his own sloppy defending from his own goal line, defenders Steve Nicol and Gary Gillespie galloping forward in attack and Craig Johnston heading over when he should have scored at the back post before his run leads to John Aldridge stabbing a great goal scoring chance wide just after.
Then, with just 2 minutes remaining, the Reds win the game.
In our mind’s eye we can all see Steve Nicol’s improbable header from the edge of the penalty area sailing over the desperate dive from John Lukic in the Arsenal goal, but the sheer delight and sights in the away end never fail to raise a smile (equally so the yellow jacketed LFC stewards behind the goal celebrating wildly too!), but it would be easy to forget the build up to the winning goal and only fresh for my dancing fingers after watching those grainy but beautifully evocative highlights held on Youtube. For in the build up to the free-kick that led to Steve Nicol’s ridiculous headed goal we have first a determined tackle from skipper Alan Hansen and then the command of the game from Steve McMahon, scooping up the loose ball before a long cross field pass changes the pattern of play from defence into midfield and the eager running of John Aldridge. A simple pass to Barry Venison commences stage two of this Reds attack with the defender squeezing through a gap (aided and abetted by Ronnie Whelan) that doesn’t appear to be a gap at all before releasing substitute Paul Walsh to twist and turn before a sublime pass with the outside of his right foot reaches John Barnes and after drawing a foul from Arsenal substitute Perry Groves, Barnes delivers the free-kick that Steve Nicol manages to powerfully head home from the edge of the penalty area.
Then a couple of teenagers or, strictly speaking, I, played the fool on the way home convinced the fake gold now flying toward to an open train door was real before having to explain to a train conductor why a door on his train was flapping and crashing wildly against the outside of a moving train. Myths and legends. Memories and tall tales. Fake gold and two childhood friends wandering around the nation’s capital, and a long way from home.
A winning goal that has to be seen to be believed and even then, you barely believe it. Then you see the eruption in the away end and the stewards leaping for joy. Nearly 4 decades on, I was extremely lucky to see this team 10 times this season, the season of the (nearly) “Unbeatables”, and I didn’t buy any more fake gold or open any more doors of a high speed train along the way.
But I did go to Wimbledon when the game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch before seeing Ray Houghton make his debut in the rearranged fixture a month later if that counts? My Mum even wrote a note for school saying I was taking the afternoon off to go to London to watch Liverpool play!
Memories eh? Such silly, innocent times.
Peace.
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.
Here’s the picture section!
A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
