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GRAND MEMORIES OF PLAYING ON RACE DAY
As Merseyside prepares for one of its biggest sporting weekends of the year a host of wonderful memories will come flooding back to me.
For once, it's not football that will be under the spotlight in Liverpool over the coming days. The eyes of the world will be on Aintree Racecourse this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but the famous Grand National meeting will always remind of happy times at Anfield.
There was a time when football was a warm up act for the big race in the afternoon. These days, however, Aintree now has the Saturday all to itself.
During my days at Anfield, Grand National week always created a special feel. Our treatment room was as likely to be full of injured jockeys as it was football players. It was a measure of the openness and friendliness that existed at the club then that Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran were happy to treat injured jockeys desperately trying to get fit for the big event.
For the three day meeting Bob Paisley had to issue special orders such was the excitement around Anfield when tips for the races became the main topic of conversation. The boss was a keen horse racing fan but he was also surrounded by them in his famous sides of the seventies and eighties.
Training at Melwood couldn't finish soon enough on the opening day
(Thursday) of the meeting, so that the lads could get to Aintree as quickly as possible. Everyone was allowed to go on the first day but it was a different matter on the Friday. It was a clear indication of how much attention to detail the training staff tried to take in monitoring the amount of activity you were (officially) allowed to take part in before the build up to a game. And walking around Aintree was supposed to be a non-starter for the members of the first team.
Playing on the day of the National
Probably the most memorable game for me was the one against Everton an amazing thirty years ago this week (Monday). At that time all football matches traditionally kicked off at 3.00pm so it was unusual to have an 11.30am kick-off, unlike these days when largely due to television start times can be at all strange times of the day. In this particular game I made my derby debut, coming on as a substitute to replace John Toshack for the last 20 minutes with the score at 0-0. The match had naturally been hard fought but was hardly memorable as an occasion, and I had little else to remember about the game other than the last two minutes. In search of a touch of the ball I wandered over to the Centenary Stand side (then known as the Kemlyn Road) stole the ball off Everton’s Martin Dobson on the half-way line and set off on a run before hitting a low shot past their keeper Dai Davies.
Though there were the odd few who tried to get around the ban, by going to the racing incognito and then dodging the television cameras all afternoon, it was the one weekend when some players weren’t too bothered about being in the reserve squad!
For me the Grand National has a special footballing significance because three times I played in games at Anfield that had an early kick off due to the big race and each time I scored.
Probably the most memorable game for me was the one against Everton an amazing thirty years ago this week (Monday). At that time all football matches traditionally kicked off at 3.00pm so it was unusual to have an 11.30am kick-off, unlike these days when largely due to television start times can be at all strange times of the day. In this particular game I made my derby debut, coming on as a substitute to replace John Toshack for the last 20 minutes with the score at 0-0.
The match had naturally been hard fought but was hardly memorable as an occasion, and I had little else to remember about the game other than the last two minutes. In search of a touch of the ball I wandered over to the Centenary Stand side (then known as the Kemlyn Road) stole the ball off Everton’s Martin Dobson on the half-way line and set off on a run before hitting a low shot past their keeper Dai Davies. Having been brought up on the Red and Blue rivalry, to score the winning goal was a dream come true, though I was grateful Phil Neal missed a penalty in the dying moments because 2-0 might have taken some of the shine off my goal! |
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