56
The 1905/06 championship was wrapped up with a
game to spare this time despite a 3-2 defeat to Bolton
Wanderers – Jack Parkinson got both late on – but after
runners-up Preston North End also slipped up the Reds
had title no2.
It would be another 16 years until another championship- partly due to the suspension of the Football League due
to the First World War – but Liverpool would enjoy back-
to-back titles under two different managers.
Under David Ashworth in 1921/22, the Reds again hit
the front around Christmas and would seal the title with
another three games to play against fellow hopefuls
Burnley, with a Tottenham defeat elsewhere meaning
they also couldn’t catch up. Harry Chambers’ first-half
goal and Dick Forshaw’s 78th-minute winner meant the
2-1 win saw a first title secured at home, at Anfield, since
the days another football club called it home.
With the champions
again at the league summit
mid-way through 1922/23
season, Ashworth handed
in a shock resignation,
following which he would
return to manage Oldham
Athletic and to live closer to
his family.
Now under club director
Matt McQueen, form was
unrelenting with the Reds
finishing as champions by
six points for the second
year running, while the Latics were relegated.
Chambers was a hero again at Anfield when his late
equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town on
21 April 1923 (a fourth of five successive draws) – and
Sunderland’s loss – confirmed a fourth championship
with another two games remaining.
Captain Don MacKinlay was practically choking back
the tears: “We hope the public realise that we have won it
again, in spite of being right on top early on which is a big
barrier to success in most cases.”
Few season climaxes compare with the 1946/47
campaign finale. George Kay’s Liverpool were fourth
with two games to go and travelled to champions-elect
Wolverhampton Wanderers on the final day knowing a
win could pip their hosts to a fifth title.
This of course wouldn’t be the last time the Reds would
win the league at Molineux, but on this occasion first-half
goals from Jack Balmer and Albert Stubbins set them
on the way to a 2-1 triumph. They were made to wait for
a fortnight for confirmation, though, as Stoke
City, still with games to play due to a number of
winter postponements, were still mathematically
in with a shout.
Their defeat at Sheffield United in mid-June
meant the Reds were champions again, with
Manchester United finishing second a point
behind – and ahead of Wolves by 0.01 on goal-
average in the days before goal difference – with
Stoke in fourth. All four sides were separated by
just two points.
Sadly a period of mediocrity followed including
eight seasons in the second tier, although
thankfully part of this was with new manager Bill
Shankly as he began building his all-conquering
dynasty.
The first of Shanks’ three titles arrived in
1963/64, two seasons after earning promotion
as runaway champions. A thumping 5-0 win
over Arsenal in mid-April – famous PanoramaThe class of 1905/06