ColumnPhil Thompson's League Cup final memories: What it meant to lift that trophy for the first time

When anyone mentions the League Cup to me, I never get tired of talking about it as it is a trophy that means so much to me.

I was very fortunate to be the first Liverpool captain to lift it and it’s very special.

When I look back, it actually took us quite a while to crack it and bring the League Cup to our packed Anfield trophy cabinet.

In the 1970s it was all about the league and it was always our thing to win, first and foremost, and then it was the European Cup. They were high up on the list, so we’d never cracked the League Cup, not that we didn’t treat it right.

We played in our first League Cup final and lost to Nottingham Forest in 1978 after a replay at Old Trafford and it broke my heart. Looking back, I wished we had VAR back then.

Chris Woods, the future England goalkeeper, was only 18 and he deputised for Peter Shilton, who was cup-tied. Chris was absolutely magnificent in the two games – everything we hit at him he saved it.

I can remember Terry McDermott chesting the ball down, going through and scoring, only for the referee Pat Partridge to disallow it for handball. To this very day, Terry still says he didn’t handle it.

Nottingham Forest got their goal from a penalty that never was. John O’Hare was racing through the middle towards Clem [Ray Clemence] and I just thought I would bring him down because you didn’t get sent off in those days.

I clipped him right on the edge of the ‘D’ and the referee gave a penalty! It was the most bewildering thing I had ever seen and it wasn’t even near the edge of the box and John didn’t even fall into the box!

I was devastated because it cost us the game. We battered them but just couldn’t score.

That’s why winning it for the first time in 1981 will always mean so much to me.

We needed to crack it and when we did it in 1981, we didn’t half crack it!

I was injured and missed the first game at Wembley but I was back as captain for the replay against West Ham United at Villa Park.

During that first game at Wembley watching on from the sidelines, I was probably one of the few Liverpool fans delighted that it was a draw! I was captain and I wanted to be the first one to lift the trophy for us. Ray Kennedy must have been cursing me!

We actually went a goal down in the replay when Paul Goddard scored after 10 minutes. But my word, talk about a complete performance. Up until half-time, we were just sensational!

It still sticks in my mind now how well we played. They couldn’t get out of their own half, we went 2-1 up and controlled the game. Kenny Dalglish equalised and big Alan Hansen got a rare goal for the winner.

We tried to take big Al’s goal off him but he wasn’t having any of it!

As big Al headed the ball towards goal, Billy Bonds put his knee up to try to block it but he flicked it over the diving Phil Parkes, who would have comfortably saved it. Well, we still tell Al that anyway!

It was then my great honour to lift the trophy in the white away kit. It was brilliant. Winning that, the first of four straight wins it was to be, we realised what a great pick-me-up it gave you for the rest of the season.

I do have quite an amusing tale to tell, as we almost lost the trophy we had won for the first time on the same night.

When we got back to Liverpool, we went straight out into town to celebrate. The next day when we came in, our chief executive Peter Robinson stopped me in the corridor and he said, ‘Phil, do you happen to know what happened to the League Cup last night?’

I said, ‘No, Peter, why should I?’ Peter said, ‘Well I’ll tell you what happened to the League Cup last night. When the coach driver took the bus back to the depot and was cleaning it out, he found the trophy on the back seat!’

I said, ‘Peter, what did that have to do with me?’ He said, and these are words that would come to haunt him come the end of the season, ‘Phil, you are the captain, you should have taken it home if necessary.’

So, of course, fast forward to May and that’s why I ended up taking the European Cup back with me to my local The Falcon in Kirkby!

During my time as assistant manager with the great Gerard Houllier, we managed to win the League Cup twice at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

The first one in 2001 led the foundations to the magnificent treble we accomplished together, which we will never forget.

It was so important for us to win the first trophy with Gerard in 2001. We felt it was important to bring a trophy for our fans and also important for the players to have qualified for Europe so early.

One of the great things about Gerard is that everybody who had started in the League Cup he took down to Cardiff and we had two buses. I think it was the first time we’d had two buses to take everybody down.

Gerard kept saying to the boys time and time again, ‘Win this and it could escalate to everything, give us that vital push to go on. Let’s crack the first one and we can do the rest!’

Little did we know what an amazing season it turned out to be!

In 2003, we were celebrating again when we beat our arch-rivals Manchester United 2-0 to win the League Cup, again in Cardiff.

I watched the whole game back a few years ago and, my word, how well did we play that day?!

They were a proper side from Rio Ferdinand, Mikael Silvestre at the back, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

While we are still coming to terms with the sad news that Jürgen Klopp will no longer be our manager come the end of the season, I still feel this could be a very special campaign and it would be very fitting.

It’s fantastic to be back at Wembley and it should give everyone an absolute lift. We will be favourites after beating Chelsea the other week at Anfield, but sometimes that can affect the way you feel about the game.

But because of Jürgen having made his decision, I think the fans, the players, the whole club will be up for this day and they will be desperate to put one over Chelsea. If we come with our ‘A’ game, I think we will win it.

As we saw back in 2001, we played in every game that we could have played, and this Liverpool team did that the season before last.

I would urge the players to do it for Jürgen.

We did that when Gerard was unwell back in 2001 and we had big signs on the board after every session saying, ‘Do it for the boss!’

Let’s get this first trophy in the bag like we did in 2001 and, as I say, it could escalate to something very special.

Phil Thompson was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter