could say it was the last encounter between the two that wasn’t
really bad in terms of trouble. The two semi-finals in ’79 were bad,
and the ’83 League Cup Final went down in folklore for its trouble,
but I don’t recall anything too bad in ’77.”
Fans arrived, their flared trousers covering their Doc Marten boots,
Wrangler jackets, feather-cut hairstyles and scarves around their
wrists. Not that it was all fashion and mutual respect. “Trouble was
part of football back then,” says Dave Kirby, an 18-year-old Liverpool
fan at the time. “We arrived in a minibus at 6.30 a.m. and ran into
this group of Mancs. We got into a bit of a battle with them and
suddenly this bottle was flying towards my head.
“I was off to Rome on the Monday so I got a new tattoo with the
Liverpool crest on my arm. At Wembley I put out my hand to stop
the bottle and it smashed. Blood everywhere. I went to hospital for
stitches and still have the scar today. I got the tattoo from a needle
prick, and the scar from a Manc prick!”
Another man with his own problems was a young John Motson,
a jobbing commentator with the BBC now entrusted with his first
showpiece occasion. “David Coleman had some sort of contractual
dispute with the bosses,” he recalls. “That meant the final was up
for grabs and I got it over Barry Davies. I was so nervous. The cup
final was the live game and my first live broadcast – I was worried
I would make some sort of faux pas.”
For both sets of players, there was no such worry. Liverpool were
Liverpool and United arrived on Wembley Way unshackled by the
pressures they felt a year earlier. “I remember being relaxed,” says
Macari. “This time, while we were hugely motivated, the favourites
tag wasn’t with us and we felt good.”
Coppell agrees. “You have to remember that Liverpool were seen
as an express train and we were next in line to be rolled over. We’d
been there the year before, though. We knew what to expect, were
well prepared and motivated not to feel the despair that we had felt
against Southampton. I grew up a Liverpool fan. My brother went to
Rome a few days later, but there were no mixed feelings. I wasn’t
going through what I went through in ’76.”
Liverpool, so used to the burden of being the favourites, wouldn’t
be hindered by it. “I had only made my debut two years before but
it soon became clear you had to deal with pressure to play for the
club,” says midfielder Jimmy Case. “Being good wasn’t enough. You
had to have something above the neck. I remember Ray Kennedy,
who I roomed with for years, sitting up in bed, mentioning all of the
massive games we’d played in. ‘Is this normal?’ he said. It felt like
it was, but looking back, I guess it wasn’t.”
The match itself was a cagey affair, one that only burst into life in
a five-minute spell early in the second period. Stuart Pearson gave
United the lead before John Motson put his professional worries to
one side when he astutely said, “There is a saying in football that
Liverpool are at their most dangerous when behind.” On cue, Joey
Jones lofted the ball up to Case (“I was aiming for Keegan!”) who
controlled it on his thigh, swivelled and fired beyond Alex Stepney.Below United celebrate
Pearson’s opening goal“ PAISLEY SAT IN HIS LIVING ROOM, POURED
HIMSELF A SCOTCH AND WROTE DOWN THE
STARTING XI FOR THE EUROPEAN CUP FINAL”
32 The Story of Man Utd FourFourTwo.com
THE
STORY OF
MAn UTD