Column40 years ago: First all-Merseyside cup final - Ronnie Whelan remembers
In a guest column, former Liverpool midfielder Ronnie Whelan recalls the first ever all-Merseyside Wembley cup final, which occurred exactly 40 years ago today.
Seeing Liverpool win the League Cup final at Wembley once again for a 10th time brought back very special memories for me.
I was there at Wembley working for LFCTV and it was a pleasure to be there to see Jürgen Klopp walking up those steps with the lads to lift the cup.
I managed to score a few goals in the League Cup for Liverpool. I don’t know why that was but it just seemed to happen for me.
I remember my first appearance at Wembley for Liverpool in 1982 when I managed to score twice – Rushie [Ian Rush] got the other as we came from behind to beat Tottenham Hotspur. A year later, I got the winner against Manchester United, which was a great feeling.
It’s incredible to think that it was 40 years ago since the first all-Merseyside cup final.
What a magnificent occasion it was for everybody. I still remember the whole day and getting to Wembley and seeing Everton and Liverpool fans going on the trains and coaches down to London and then walking down Wembley Way together.
It was such a great feeling. Everybody was happy and we all knew how big a game it was. It really was such a great occasion.
In the semi-final we came up against Walsall, who, to be fair to them, pushed us all the way. I scored twice in the first leg at Anfield.
Everton were a very good team around that time under Howard Kendall with the likes of Sheeds [Kevin Sheedy], Brace [Paul Bracewell], Rats [Kevin Ratcliffe], Sharpy [Graeme Sharp], Andy Gray, Trevor Steven and Neville [Southall].
This was a good Everton side we came up against in the final and we had to beat them.
They were two tough games, no give and take from anybody. Because it was the first all-Merseyside cup final, nobody wanted to lose it and it ended up going to a replay at Maine Road. We just couldn’t lose that first one!
We came through the replay and managed to win it 1-0 when [Graeme] Souness scored with a good volley with his left foot. He nearly broke my nose in the celebrations when he swung out wanting to run off!
If you ever look back at the footage of the goal, as I ran over to jump on him, he forearmed me right in the nose and I stopped in my tracks and grabbed my nose!
Beating Everton, of course, led us to the treble, which was just magnificent. We beat AS Roma to win the European Cup on their own patch. We had a lot of big games but luckily we had a lot of good players.
Joe Fagan was a great man and to follow Bob Paisley and in his first season lead Liverpool to the treble, that is just incredible and what a great season for him.
In terms of Joe’s management style, if Joe started shouting then you knew something wasn’t going right and we had to put it right. Everybody listened. He didn’t lose his temper that much but when he did you knew.
Joe was a very good manager and very good man-manager as well. It was so sad his last game as a manager for us was Heysel, but what he did for us that previous season with the treble will never be forgotten.
They were just special times to be a Liverpool player. I think I have been most fortunate to have the 10 years I had at Liverpool from 1981 up to 1990. What a magnificent 10 years of football we played.
Ronnie Whelan was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter