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<\/p>\nThursday, 25th May 2017 saw the anniversary of one of the most famous nights in the history of Liverpool Football Club. It was 40 years since The Reds overcame Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach in Rome, to claim their first European Cup. The match, which coincidentally shares the date with Liverpool\u2019s most recent European triumph in 2005, was celebrated at the Hilton Hotel in Liverpool. Fans were invited to celebrate and share the evening with four players who played in the 1977 final, Phil Neal, Terry McDermott, Joey Jones and Ray Clemence. The event, which was hosted by the \u2018Voice of Anfield\u2019, George Sephton, gave fans a chance to meet with the legends, pose for photos with THAT banner and a replica European Trophy, as well as enjoy a meal and take part in a charity auction to raise money for the #saveourkatie campaign.<\/p>\n
One of the main attractions from the evening was the original Joey Jones banner, probably the most famous banner in the club\u2019s long history. A replica is currently used at Anfield but Jones, who owned it himself for 20 years, returned it to the club for a rare public appearance. The Welshman became a fans favourite during his time on Merseyside which was mainly down to his relationship with the people of Liverpool and his character.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as much of that banner as I do the winners’ medal,\u201d he said. \u201cPhil Downey and Jimmy Cummings, who has sadly passed away now, they made the banner. When I saw it at Rome, I couldn’t believe it. There are so many famous players in the Liverpool team, the other 10 were household names. To have a banner, it certainly wasn’t for my skill! It made me feel 10 feet tall.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI had the banner at home for more than 20 years, because when I left Phil and Jimmy actually presented it to me. I had it wrapped up in the garage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four players took part in a Q&A session, which was led by Sephton, but there was also an opportunity for questions from the crowd. There were a few recurring themes when it came to the player’s answers. For instance, they kept referring back to the importance of the fans on that night, and how the presence of a so-called \u2018twelfth man\u2019 helped to inspire them over the line. Ray Clemence explained that the win wasn\u2019t for the players, but was instead for all the fans that had made the long journey to Rome. \u201cWe were expecting 11,000 fans there,\u201d Clemence said, \u201cBut there wasn\u2019t, there were 26,000. We just thought \u2018how can we lose this game?\u2019 So many people had made so many sacrifices, we\u2019ve got to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentiment was shared by Phil Neal, who described his conversation with Stevie Heighway, once the players had returned to the dressing room after a pre-match pitch inspection. \u201cStevie said we\u2019ve got to win it for the people in red there. There are miles more in the stadium than M\u00f6nchengladbach supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n
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While there was a lot of praise flying around for the supporters and manager, Bob Paisley, there were many compliments given to goalkeeper Ray Clemence, with Sephton describing him as \u201cthe best\u201d. Clemence\u2019s teammate, Neal explained, \u201cRay made two fantastic saves when it was 2-1. They were really important in a European final.\u201d The saves obviously gave the rest of the players a confidence boost and acted as an inspirational catalyst which led them to push on and eventually run out 3-1 winners. Heaping\u00a0even more appraisal onto the goalkeeper, Neal said \u201cWhen Clem made those saves we believed then \u2013 we could win this. That led us to go on and win this.\u201d With so much acclaim given to goal scorers, along with Liverpool\u2019s current issues between the sticks, it was nice to see so much admiration given to a true Liverpool legend.<\/p>\n
At the other end of the pitch, Terry McDermott talked the crowd through his strike which gave The Reds an all-important 1-0 lead. He explained that the M\u00f6nchengladbach defenders, especially the captain, Berti Vogts, paid so much attention to Kevin Keegan to ensure that he didn\u2019t score, there was plenty of space for the other forwards to run into. \u201cI was running through the middle and I couldn\u2019t believe the space I was in.\u201d He then played down the quality of the finish by simply saying, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t [technically] a great goal, it was a good goal but it was great because of the importance of the match.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was then Phil Neal\u2019s turn to describe his mark on the scoresheet. The penalty in the 82nd minute, which was won after Keegan was felled in the box by Vogts, took the scoreline to 3-1 and gave Liverpool an all-important cushion to comfortably see out the rest of the game. Although the ball ended up in the back of the net, Neal wasn\u2019t as cool and collected while taking the penalty as you might think. \u201cI\u2019m running up to the ball,\u201d Neal said, \u201cand I\u2019m thinking, he\u2019s seen the one against Zurich, I better change my direction. And I did. You shouldn\u2019t really do that and I did. Thank goodness it went in.\u201d While facing up against the 6\u20194\u201d Wolfgang Kneib, Neal assured that his thought process was to just \u201ckeep it low\u201d. He proceeded to roll the ball along the floor into the bottom left corner, as Kneib dived the opposite way.<\/p>\n
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Each of the players present stayed with the club to win the competition again the following season. These were the only two European Cups that Joey Jones won, but both McDermott and Clemence won three, while Neal went on to pick up four. However, they all agreed that, although they\u2019d played in better games and won more trophies, that this was definitely the most special victory. Clemence summed it up by explaining the pre-match thought process of some of the players. He said \u201cThis was a prize this magnificent club had never won before and this was our chance to make history. Other teams have won it since, but we were the first, and when you\u2019re the first, it is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not all the stories given by the players were serious and it was clear to see that, even after all these years, they are still very good friends. There were plenty of jokes, especially towards McDermott regarding his off-field antics. The crowd were treated to an exclusive, as the backstory behind Keegan\u2019s infamous black eye was revealed. Neal started off by talking about the celebrations after the match and he said, \u201cWe were all around the pool area and Keegan, he\u2019d got a bruised eye.\u201d This led the \u2018more-refreshed\u2019 section in the crowd to begin chanting Jimmy Chase\u2019s name. The way the story was told in the press was that Chase or Tommy Smith had hit Keegan after an argument about the latter leaving the club. Neal took great delight in informing the crowd that this was not the case. \u201cYou can be misled,\u201d the former fullback said, \u201cthe boys are throwing people in the pool. I\u2019ve said look, Kevin, I\u2019ve got some expensive shoes on, let me kick my shoes off. He grabbed me because I was the next one into the pool. Anyway, I\u2019ve flicked out and his eye went boom, so I\u2019ve caught him. He came home to the tour round Liverpool and all the thought of the press were that Tommy Smith\u2019s given him one\u2026no, it was me!\u201d The conclusion of that tale was met with a tremendous cheer and raucous laughter.<\/p>\n
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Overall the night was massively successful, with loads of money being raised for the #saveourkatie campaign. The celebrations were fantastic and the fans had a wonderful time reliving some of the former glory years of the club, as well as having a chance to meet some of their childhood heroes. For me, someone who was born\u00a0long after this famous night, it was great to have an in-depth look at a snippet of history from this great club. Here\u2019s to hoping that there will be many more reasons to celebrate in the years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday, 25th May 2017 saw the anniversary of one of the most famous nights in the history of Liverpool Football Club. It was 40 years since The Reds overcame Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach in Rome, to claim their first European Cup. The match, which coincidentally shares the date with Liverpool\u2019s most recent European triumph in 2005, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n