Reds dumped out of the FA Cup at a “bubbling” Stamford Bridge
Retro Series Vol.18: Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0, 13th February 1982
Retro Series Vol.18: Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0, 13th February 1982
This weekend’s football fixtures in England were cancelled as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen on Thursday and whilst this is both ridiculous and so quintessentially English, it left a gaping chasm of a hole in your humble narrator’s day as I’m sure it did millions of fans of the “beautiful game” up and down this strangely upside down island of ours. To the best of my limited knowledge I don’t believe the Queen expressed a preference as to any particular team and though her son William does, his opinion on the matter doesn’t really count, not because he’s a patron of the Football Association and nor because he’s not King, not yet, it’s just that he’s an Aston Villa fan. I was going to blame God but then again, she has her hands full at the moment, what with having a Royal visitor for company but I’d wager she’s damn angry that she can’t switch off from a busy day being God by watching the football on the television. So I have this brilliant and highly recommended Reds Youtube channel to thank for filling the footballing void with yet another Liverpool defeat!
Dave Waller
This channel is about a football team - the greatest team you've ever seen. A team that played total football, won the…www.youtube.com
The 18th in my retrospective series takes us back in a time machine to four decades past and with the Reds of Liverpool on a ridiculous run of wins that would catapult them to both a League Cup Final triumph at Wembley and Shankly’s “Bread and Butter” of the League Division 1 title, their hosts Chelsea were a Division 2 team on the precipice of a promotion back to the country’s premier league. Iconic ITV commentary Brian Moore described the 41,422 crowd at Stamford Bridge for this FA Cup 5th Round cup tie as “bubbling” and further cemented those days of long ago footballing past by describing the hosts Chelsea as having “white stockings” rather than socks, with Liverpool in the “dark strip” rather than the plainly obvious and similarly iconic, all red. White stockings! Football was far sexier back in the 1980's!
Not so Micky Droy, the fearsomely bearded Chelsea central defender but sexy or not, he and his Division 2 team kept a clean sheet against the country’s in form team to cause the shock of the FA Cup 5th round. Droy combined with Colin Pates, Mike Fillery, Clive Walker and Colin Lee to form the spine of the team aided and abetted by the flying wing play of Peter Rhoades-Brown in a team I remember vaguely from my youth but a team that would triumph comprehensively over a full strength visiting Reds of Liverpool, from Bruce Grobbelaar in goal through a defence of Alan Kennedy, Alan Hansen, Mark Lawrenson and Phil Neal, an all star and all time midfield of locally born Terry McDermott and Sammy Lee, fresh faced Ronnie Whelan and the grizzled winner that was Graeme Souness, and topped off by a forward line, THE forward line, of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush.
The hosts (blue shirts, blue shorts, white stockings!) were on a run of just one defeat in their last fourteen league and cup games going into this crucial FA Cup tie and their visitors in the all red had won nine of their last eleven games in all competitions, scoring thirty and conceding just four in the process. On a surprisingly good February pitch (only God will know how they played football on such atrocious pitches back in the day), Chelsea had far better of the opening exchanges with Peter Rhoades-Brown in particular stretching Liverpool’s defensive line with forays along either wing, a scuffed shot, a dangerous cross, and it was he who would start and finish the game’s opening goal.
GOAL! Chelsea 1 Liverpool 0 (Rhoades-Brown 8 minutes)
“Has he got the nerve to hold on? He has!”
As Terry McDermott dithered just inside the Liverpool half of the field Peter Rhoades-Brown didn’t, dispossessing him with a deft tackle that saw the ball bounce free to striker Colin Lee. Lee tried to control the resultant loose ball but instead inadvertently cushioned it into the running path of Rhoades-Brown who sprinted clear of an absent defence and with only Bruce Grobbelaar to beat, crashed his left foot drive perfectly into the far corner of the Liverpool net. 8 minutes in and the Division 2 team had a precious lead.
How their lead stayed intact until half-time perhaps on the footballing Gods of yesteryear know. The Reds laid siege to the Blues goal from hereon in with twenty goals (and counting) Ian Rush hitting the post, scruffily shooting wide when perhaps he could have scored, blazing over the crossbar and having a tame shot saved by Chelsea goalkeeper Steve Francis. The attacking waves continued: Alan Hansen’s through ball to Terry McDermott saw him force a fine save again from Blues goalkeeper Steve Francis, a Kenny Dalglish corner was brilliantly controlled and volleyed in one movement by McDermott, who then saw his spectacular volley crash against the Chelsea crossbar and Alan Hansen provided one of his typically flamboyant “mazy runs” forward that ended with a shot fizzing past Francis’ far post with the goalkeeper beaten. To top an all round attacking first half show from the Reds, Graeme Souness’ free kick was tamely headed goal wards by Ronnie Whelan for an easy save for the Chelsea goalkeeper and both Hansen and Whelan combined to create a goal scoring chance for Kenny Dalglish who skied his chance way over the Blues crossbar.
The second half continued in the same vein of “Attack versus Defence” with Liverpool increasing the tempo of their game with quickly taken free-kicks and corners. Three corners were forced in the opening minutes of the second half as they penned Chelsea firmly inside their own half but a defence marshalled by that grizzled veteran Micky Droy refused to buckle. Chances came and went for the Reds but they were half chances at best and never threatened to call upon the Chelsea goalkeeper into making a serious save. On the hour mark, the clearest goal scoring chance of the half so far fell to Chelsea defender Colin Pates who found himself in an attacking position and from the edge of the penalty area forced a fine flying save from Bruce Grobbelaar in the Reds goal. Liverpool countered with yet another quickly taken corner, a short corner this time as Souness combined with Kennedy before curling a return pass for Whelan to finally force a serious save from Steve Francis in the Chelsea goal and then, as fate would have it, the home team Blues would steal a second and decisive goal from a quickly taken free-kick of their own with just five minutes remaining.
GOAL! Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0 (Lee 85 minutes)
“Grobbelaar in trouble. It’s a goal! Colin Lee!”
Mid-way inside the Liverpool half, Ronnie Whelan crudely tackled striker, and eventual goal scorer, Colin Lee. As Whelan angrily berated those in the red shirts around him, Kevin Hales quickly taken free-kick reached the dangerous Clive Walker in the Reds penalty area. Walker’s left footed cross bounced between Bruce Grobbelaar and Phil Neal and as they came together, Colin Lee gleefully smashed the free ball into a very empty Liverpool net.
With the game and cup tie over, and one of those infamous FA Cup “shocks” about to come to a conclusion, the only noteworthy addition is Graeme Souness’ horrendous and ugly two footed challenge that would see a red card and sending off today, and should have done so on the 13th February of four decades past.
So if you’re a Liverpool fan and you’ve missed seeing your team today I hope this match report from forty years ago cheered you up!
But here’s the good news: from hereon in these retrospective articles from yesteryear, and particularly the 1981–1982 football season, will be full of Liverpool wins and a silver trophy or two.
Thanks for reading. Please do return when my next retrospective series article is written (I promise there’s a Reds win coming next!) or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles on the Reds current season hence far:
Neapolitan nightmare symptomatic of Reds “Sword of Damocles” season
Napoli 4 Liverpool 1, 7th September 2022medium.com
Merseyside Derby stalemate just desserts for Reds and Blues alike
Everton 0 Liverpool 0, 3rd September 2022medium.com
Last gasp Carvalho breaks Newcastle hearts
Liverpool 2 Newcastle United 1, 31st August 2022medium.com