When The Fa Cup Mattered By Way Past 64

Season 1964-65 was somewhat special.

Liverpool had been promoted from the Second Division after having languished there for several seasons, in season 1962-63.

After one season in the First Division, they went on to win the Championship in season 1963-64, which meant they would then be playing in the European Cup.

Liverpool’s Championship success in 1964 had those of us who were there at the time, reaching for the smelling salts! Only two seasons before we had been slogging it out in the Second Division with the likes of Bristol Rovers, Scunthorpe United and Bury. We had managed to navigate ourselves out of those waters and into the First Division, but most of us felt that we were probably punching above our weight and would be fortunate to maintain our place at the top table; not that Bill Shankly harboured those sort of thoughts!

The draw for the first round of the European Cup brought us up against the Icelandic team Reykjavik and the first game in Iceland saw the Reds win 5-0. In the second leg we went on to beat them 6-1, with Ian St John scoring two of the goals. The next round found us pitted against the Belgians, Anderlecht, which became a memorable occasion – why? In Shankly’s own words; “Our game against Anderlecht at Anfield was a night of milestones. We wore the all-red strip for the first time. Christ, the players looked like giants. And we played like giants. We used to play in white shorts with red stripes, white stockings with red tops and white piping on the jerseys, but we switched to all red and it was fantastic. The introduction of the all scarlet strip had a huge psychological effect. I went home that night and I said to Ness: “You know something… tonight I went out onto Anfield and for the first time there was a glow like a fire was burning.”