FeatureBill Shankly's final season: A tough October but Anfield remains a fortress

The Scot had been in charge for almost 15 years, transforming the Reds from a mid-table side in the second tier to a club that won league titles and European trophies.

We are marking the golden anniversary of Shanks’ final season with Liverpool by reliving it month by month via a look back at the matches and players with whom he signed off a fabulous career.

Our recap has reached October 1973...

October of Shankly’s final campaign at the helm saw his side complete eight matches in three different competitions.

The month began with the second leg of the European Cup first-round tie against Jeunesse d’Esch of Luxembourg. Despite an unexpected 1-1 draw in the first match, Liverpool progressed as everyone assumed they would with a 2-0 win at Anfield.

It was a harder game than they might have anticipated, though. Part-timers Jeunesse had 31-year-old steelworker Rene Hoffmann in goal and he made several excellent saves. It even took an own goal to break the deadlock shortly after half-time, with John Toshack adding the second to take his tally for the season to two goals from four appearances.

The Reds maintained their 100 per cent winning record on home soil with a 2-1 victory over Newcastle United (and future Liverpool star Terry McDermott) the following Saturday. Just as in the previous league game at Anfield, Alec Lindsay scored a penalty, except that this time it proved to be the winner.

The first goal, from Peter Cormack, sounds like a fabulous passage of play. “Smith and Lawler started the movement, Heighway headed the ball on, Keegan back-heeled it inside and from 25 yards out Cormack’s left foot swerved the ball wide of McFaul’s right hand,” wrote Eric Todd in The Guardian.

Todd also expressed his opinion that “Newcastle will go close to winning something this season,” and indeed they did. Sadly for them, they ran into Shankly’s Liverpool at Wembley seven months later.

But before the Reds could contemplate winning the 1973-74 FA Cup, they had a League Cup campaign to contend with. It was not a competition Shankly had taken particularly seriously since its inception in 1960, with Liverpool not even entering in some seasons.

His view had perhaps shifted a little by this point, as by reaching the fifth round the previous season the Reds had enjoyed their best League Cup campaign to date. They travelled to Upton Park in October 1973, the site of their exit from the competition two years earlier.

Despite taking the lead twice, with Cormack scoring for the second successive game and Steve Heighway also netting, the visitors had to settle for a 2-2 draw. It earned them an Anfield replay later in the month but as West Ham United had yet to win a game that season it was a disappointing result.

Better a draw than a loss, though, and unfortunately for Shankly his side would taste defeat in their next three matches, all of which took place away from Anfield.

The sticky spell began at Southampton. While the game only ended in a 1-0 loss, the fact Saints scored as early as the sixth minute (from a Mick Channon penalty) and the Reds were unable to respond will have disappointed Shankly.

“Pretty threadbare stuff” was the verdict from Frank Keating for The Guardian and it got little better for Liverpool when the scoreline repeated at Elland Road the following weekend. Leeds United were the league leaders, though, while Southampton would end the season by suffering relegation.

The game in Yorkshire was one where the defenders on both sides were praised in the post-match analysis, though Don Revie’s team were able to score once to take the points. Guardian writer Todd’s view was that “Liverpool have gone off the boil particularly in their forward play where the old sharpness has vanished,” and successive blanks backed up that assertion.

Shankly’s team were back in European Cup action next with an away game against Red Star Belgrade (who are now known as Crvena Zvezda and faced Jürgen Klopp’s Reds in 2018).

It was a very different age of European football. These days it’s easy to look up an opposition club and watch matches online but, of course, that was not possible back then. Boot Room legend Reuben Bennett would be dispatched to watch opposing sides in advance and compile reports.

However, even if he had found that the team the Reds were facing were incredibly strong, Shankly would talk them down to inspire confidence in his players. “We’re not interested in them, Reuben,” he’d bark as the scout tried to explain their strengths in a team meeting, even though the manager and coaches undoubtedly needed to know how they played and who their key men were.

The match did not go well for Liverpool. They went two goals down, first to a long-range effort from Slobodan Jankovic before Vladislav Bogicevic beat the offside trap to score early in the second half.

A goal from Chris Lawler halved the deficit – and an away goal was worth extra at that time – but Shankly’s men suffered their third straight defeat in all competitions. With the cup draw at West Ham prior to that, the Reds were on a run of four without a win, and with all having been on the road, they would be grateful to get back to Anfield.

They closed out October with a pair of matches in front of their adoring faithful. The first of the two visiting sides were Sheffield United for a league game.

They were a mid-table side in this era, finishing 14th the season before and ending this campaign one place higher. It was therefore little surprise that Liverpool maintained their spotless home record with a 1-0 victory.

While there is no match report available for the game, a look at the goal combination makes it easy to imagine how the Reds might have scored. Toshack provided the assist and Kevin Keegan grabbed the goal, in an example of their very productive strike partnership.

The former would often win the ball aerially in the box from a cross, with the latter profiting from the second ball. This was seen in the first leg of the UEFA Cup final the previous season, with BBC commentator David Coleman bellowing “Toshack, Keegan, 1-0!” as the move for the opening goal of the match unfolded. It’s highly plausible the Blades were seen off in similar fashion.

The final fixture of the month was the replay against West Ham. It reads like a classic cup tie, with the Reds taking the lead then wasting some chances, which allowed the visitors the opportunity to pile on pressure towards full-time.

The tie was settled by the aforementioned combination of Toshack and Keegan but in reverse order, with the Welshman heading in from a cross.

Liverpool would go on to face Sunderland in the next round of the League Cup in November, but first they had to tackle a trip to Arsenal and the second leg against Red Star Belgrade.