125 GREAT
71 DAVE HICKSON
V ASTON VILLA
7 NOVEMBER 1959
There were grumbles aplenty
when Everton goalscoring hero
Dave took the bold decision to
cross Stanley Park. But complaints
turned to compliments when 'The
Cannonball Kid' scored twice on
his debut as Liverpool beat Villa
2-1. His second was a brave flying70 BILLY LIDDELL V
BLACKBURN ROVERS
22 NOVEMBER 1958
King Billy claimed another
matchball with a treble in a
3-3 draw at Blackburn's Ewood
Park with all six goals coming in
the second half. It was a perfect
hat-trick: right-footed hook, left-
footed thunderbolt and finally a
deft header. The second was
the best, according to the
Liverpool Echo: “Liddell went
past [Roy] Vernon with a
dropped shoulder, past the
lunging [Mick] McGrath, hurdled
over a desperate tackle by
[Bill] Eckersall, kept the ball under
control and thumped it from
25 yards out.
"Goalkeeper [Harry] Leyland
again looked shocked at what
he had just seen, but just shook
his head and picked the ball out
of the net. Liddell's thump had
flown past him at the speed of
light and in his wake lay four
Blackburn players still picking
themselves up.
"The crowd was so silent you
could hear a pin drop, no-one
could believe their eyes. We've
seen it all before, but this must
go down as the hardest hit of
Liddell's career."header, the Liverpool Daily Post
reporting: “With victory in the air,
Anfield erupted. Dave had found a new
home where adulation, spontaneous
and overwhelming, promised to outdo
anything he had known before. Instead
of the 35,000 or so attendance which
might have been expected, there were
49,981 spectators – the biggest gate
since March 1958. Hickson is the tonic
Liverpool needed.”