Past playersJimmy Melia

Locally born, the inside-forward was a schoolboy international of exceptional promise and clearly destined from an early age to have a long and distinguished football career.

He certainly did so, and it began when he came through the junior ranks at the Reds and signed professional forms on his 17th birthday in November 1954. Liverpool had just been relegated to the Second Division.

Melia had to wait until shortly before Christmas 1955 to make his debut and he played in four games out of five before returning to the reserves. But the following season, when still a teenager, he broke into the first team in the autumn and would be a regular in the side for the next seven years, providing 45 league goals from 1957 to 1960.

The strain of just missing out on promotion for three seasons running finally took its toll on manager and ex-player Phil Taylor and it quickly became apparent that new boss Shankly saw in Melia all the qualities that were needed to help the club back to its position among the country's elite.

He revelled in the challenge and when the breakthrough finally came in 1961-62 he played in all 42 league games and netted 13 times as the team took the Second Division title by eight points from Leyton Orient.

He had a good debut season in Division One, missing only three games, but two-thirds of the way through the following campaign, in one of the most settled sides the club has ever had, he lost his place to Alf Arrowsmith.

Melia was transferred to Wolverhampton Wanderers in March 1964, having featured often enough to claim a medal as Liverpool went on to win the First Division.