FeatureBill Shankly's final season: Reds keep up flawless home record in busy December
Our retracing of Bill Shankly’s final season as Liverpool manager has reached a December that featured a mix of highs and lows for the Reds.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the legendary Scot’s swansong year at Anfield, our series is telling the month-by-month narrative of a campaign that would conclude with FA Cup glory and the shock of Shankly’s resignation.
Read on as we cast you back to December 1973…
The month began just as the season had gone before: with Liverpool winning a league game at Anfield.
A 1-0 victory over West Ham United on December 1 made it a perfect nine successes out of nine in home First Division fixtures in 1973-74 for Shankly’s men.
Peter Cormack’s 14th-minute goal was the difference against Bobby Moore and co in an even contest that saw both sides hit the woodwork in the second half and Alan Waddle have an effort disallowed for the hosts.
The Reds were back on home soil just three days later for the replay of their League Cup fourth-round tie with Hull City – which proved to be something of a curiosity.
For a 2pm kick-off on a dreary winter Tuesday against the backdrop of a national energy crisis, a crowd of just 17,120 were in attendance to witness a limited-edition feat from Ian Callaghan.
The man who remains the club’s all-time leading men’s appearance maker, then aged 31, netted the only hat-trick of his career that afternoon, putting Liverpool two up within 20 minutes and then completing a treble in the second half of a 3-1 result.
“They say that timing in life is everything,” Callaghan later wrote. “Well, I could certainly have chosen a better match in a different situation from the one that brought me the only hat-trick of my career!”
By contrast, Waddle timed it just right in the subsequent Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.
Signed from Halifax Town the previous summer, the striker scored just once in his 22 appearances for the club. But it was the winning goal against Everton.
Shankly’s team were depleted by injury and illness for the short trip to the home of their neighbours and Kevin Keegan then had to succumb to the effects of an earlier hefty challenge before the interval.
But a display credited for its “resilience and determination” by The Guardian writer Eric Todd was capped by Waddle’s moment midway through the second half.
“Callaghan centred and Waddle, in spite of the close attentions of [Mike] Lyons, flicked the ball home with the outside of his left boot,” reported Todd. “Waddle confessed later that he did not know how he had scored.”
The Reds had now won nine of their last 12 games in all competitions, losing just once in that sequence, but Christmas would prove to be mostly unkind.
After a 1-1 league draw at Norwich City, a 1-0 defeat on the road at Wolverhampton Wanderers saw Liverpool’s League Cup pursuit end with a whimper, Todd noting: “Although [Phil] Thompson and Callaghan tried desperately hard, Wanderers finished strongly and would not have been flattered by at least two more goals.”
Home comforts raised festive spirits in the final fixture before Christmas, at least, with a defeat of Manchester United always cause for cheer.
This time it was a 2-0 victory for Shankly’s charges, with goals in either half from Keegan (penalty) and Steve Heighway ensuring 10 league wins in a row at Anfield and exactly the kind of strong response to the preceding setbacks the boss must have demanded.
“But for a series of brilliant saves by [Alex] Stepney, Liverpool could have ended with double figures,” wrote Paul Wilcox of The Guardian. “Liverpool savaged United with a mixture of gaiety, adventure and honest ability.”
The reigning champions remained seven points shy of the still-unbeaten Leeds United, however, and that gap was about to grow.
In the 84th minute of the Boxing Day clash at Turf Moor and after Keegan had missed a penalty, Cormack hauled the Reds level at 1-1 – only for high-flying Burnley to go up the other end a minute later and win it through Ray Hankin.
Cormack was on the scoresheet yet again with Liverpool’s final goal of 1973 – heading in John Toshack’s cross – which was sufficient to clinch all three points with a 1-0 result against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The New Year now beckoned and though nobody knew it, 1974 would be a watershed in LFC history.
This article has been automatically translated and, while all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, some errors in translation are possible. Please refer to the original English-language version of the article for the official version.