Reds humiliate the Blues as they close in on their 13th League Championship
Manchester City 0 Liverpool 5, 10th April 1982
After originally penning and publishing the following retrospective article on 17th October 2022 I was incredibly fortunate to see my written word in paper published form in the Liverpool Football Club fanzine “Red All Over The Land” (Issue 297) and here follows that original article together with my Youtube video recorded in early Autumn, 2023.
Man City 0 Liverpool 5 - Youtube
"Five star Reds stretch their lead at the top of the 1st Division" - Original Article
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - Available via Amazon
I’m penning this 23rd volume of my retrospective articles on the mighty Reds of Liverpool in the afterglow of yesterday’s 1–0 victory against Manchester City in the Premier League, and simply couldn’t resist returning once more to an era and to a league very different from today’s corporatised worldwide product. On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Manchester over four decades ago and in front of a crowd of over 40,000 at a football ground that no longer exists, Liverpool would inflict upon their hosts a 5–0 defeat that TV commentator Tony Gubba would describe as a “crushing and humiliating defeat” and, following prior wins in this April week of 1982 against Notts County as well as City’s near neighbours Manchester United, this comprehensive win would stretch the Reds lead at the top of the English 1st Division to 5 points over their nearest challengers Ipswich Town and signify a miraculous recovery from 12th position on Boxing Day after an epochal 3–1 home defeat by today’s opponents, Manchester City.
From 12th place on Boxing Day 1981 to 1st place in England’s premier league on 2nd April 1982. It was quite the turnaround in performances and results from a team with 6 players unaccustomed to winning the 1st Division title (Bruce Grobbelaar in goal, Mark Lawrenson in defence, midfielders Sammy Lee and Ronnie Whelan and fledgling attacking strikers Craig Johnston and Ian Rush) and on this day in April 1982 they were joined by league winning veterans Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Phil Thompson, Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish. Captain Graeme Souness is absent presumed injured, but with the additions of David Johnson and Terry McDermott this was the core of 14 or 15 regular players vying for a spot in the starting XI who’d ripped up the formbook since the turn of 1982 and were but a handful of games from securing their 5th League Championship in 7 years.
On the other side of the ball, the Manchester City humiliated here four decades ago had one of England’s rotational goalkeepers of the time in Joe Corrigan, several members of last season’s defeated team in the 1981 FA Cup Final at Wembley as well as 9 players who’d played and won 3–1 at Anfield on that infamous Boxing Day just four months prior with the City central defensive partnership of Kevin Bond and Tommy Caton alongside central striker Kevin Reeves all figuring prominently in an otherwise arid desert of a disastrous home defeat to a team on the cusp of future greatness as well as the immediate title of the 1st Division Champions and Champions of England.
From the near 25 minutes of highlights recently released on the above channel it’s clear that Manchester City barely pose an attacking threat (one wasted opportunity) the veteran central defensive duo of Tommy Caton and Kevin Bond are run ragged by the pace of Craig Johnston and Ian Rush and a somewhat fiery, tempestuous, and controversial game is aptly summarised by the lead up to an incredible goal I’ve loved since my childhood and one that still astonishes and pleases me in equal measure.
GOAL! Manchester City 0 Liverpool 1 (Lee 8)
“Oh what a goal! What a magnificent strike of a dead ball by Sammy Lee”
With only 8 minutes on the clock the Reds take the lead from a free-kick that I can only describe as a tracer bullet slowly rising perfectly from over 35 yards out and arrowing into the top corner of Joe Corrigan’s goal. It’s as perfect as perfect can be, pure footballing poetry in motion, but until watching these highlights I was completely unaware of the lead up to the award of the free kick itself and writing this now, how it perfectly encapsulates the somewhat controversial and particularly ill tempered game that followed it. The free kick itself was awarded following a niggly clash between Reds legend Kenny Dalglish and City’s central defender Kevin Bond. With Dalglish prostrate on the ground and the ball between his legs he rises and seems to lose control of the ball, but with the physical contact continuing with Bond he petulantly kicks out at the defender deliberately and crudely, giving the referee an opportunity to sternly lecture him on the incident. Presumably the referee had already whistled for the foul on Dalglish prior to the spiteful kick out at Bond as the free kick goes Liverpool’s way, and Sammy Lee drills an unstoppable shot into the roof of the hosts net who find themselves trailing 1–0 with less than 10 minutes on the clock.
From the resultant kick-off to restart play the Reds immediately win the ball back through a combination of Ronnie Whelan and Kenny Dalglish before Alan Kennedy’s long through ball splits a wide open defence for Craig Johnston to run clear of Tommy Caton and force a smothering save from Joe Corrigan in the City goal. Pressure mounts on the City defence and a Mark Lawrenson lobbed through ball again demonstrates the holes in the Blues defence. Ian Rush is wrestled to the ground inside the penalty area by Tommy Caton for as obvious a penalty as you could wish to see but the referee bizarrely waves away the minimal Reds protests.
However mere seconds later, Rush and Caton clash again.
GOAL! Manchester City 0 Liverpool 2 (Neal 42)
“Referee Mike Peck of Cumbria has given a penalty which from our commentary position appears to be a fair challenge on Rush by Caton”
As Rush and Caton clash inside the penalty area, the tall City central defender cleanly and clearly wins the ball from the feet of the Reds striker but, as bizarrely as his decision was from just seconds earlier, this time the referee points directly to the penalty spot. Phil Neal dispatches his perfectly placed penalty into the top corner of his England teammate Joe Corrigan’s net, and the Reds cruise to half-time with a 2–0 lead.
The home team Blues commence the second half with a more progressive, aggressive and attacking sense of purpose forcing corner after corner as well as creating a fantastic goal scoring opportunity for striker Kevin Reeves. After a sweeping move from the halfway line and a brilliant cross into the penalty area from Steve Kinsey, Reeves dives to head home and just gets underneath the ball to clear the crossbar by a yard or two. Reeves should score and had he done so the game and result could have been so, so different.
From their next attack, the Reds score a third goal, the next a fourth, and the game is now well and truly over as a contest.
GOAL! Manchester City 0 Liverpool 3 (Johnston 58)
“It must go in! Johnston. Had to do! What a bright bit of play from Liverpool”
A team move involving players from defence, midfield and attack and all within 40 yards of the City goal. Phil Thompson, Sammy Lee and Mark Lawrenson all combine to eventually release a pass to Kenny Dalglish who instantly relays it to the eventual goal scorer, Craig Johnston. The Australian international loops a pass to Ian Rush over the City defence and with a simple square ball return pass, Rush finds Johnston who brings the pass under control before shooting under the body of Joe Corrigan.
GOAL! Manchester City 0 Liverpool 4 (Kennedy 59)
“Oh what a goal from Alan Kennedy! They’re going in from all angles!”
Just a minute later, and after recovering the ball again almost instantly from the kick-off restart, another niggly foul results in a free kick quickly taken and after exchanging passes with Ronnie Whelan, Alan Kennedy attacks down his favoured left wing. Cutting back inside, his cross shot loops and curves over a stranded Joe Corrigan and whether Kennedy meant to shoot or not (he didn’t!), the Reds have instantly doubled their half-time lead to 4–0 and with more than half an hour still left to play, the game was over.
GOAL! Manchester City 0 Liverpool 5 (Rush 73)
“It’s number 5! It’s so easy!”
Another team goal and another stretching from back to front, defence to attack, and another example of the glaring holes in the centre of the Manchester City defence as they can’t defend a rudimentary long kick from Bruce Grobbelaar. Craig Johnston wins the initial header and footballing “knock down” to Ian Rush who heads into the path of Kenny Dalglish before continuing his run through a vacant City defence. Dalglish’s looped, overhead return pass finds Rush in stride and with a simple dab of his left foot he sends the ball past Joe Corrigan in the City goal for a fifth time on a sunny after afternoon in east Manchester.
The “humiliation” is complete.
Manchester City would ultimately end the season in 10th place and fully 29 points behind their victors today and a Reds team just a month, 6 wins and 3 draws from their remaining 9 league games of the season away from winning their 5th League Championship in 7 years, and 13th all time League title in their illustrious history.
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.