NewsLiverpool's Greatest - No.30: Steve Heighway
Years: 1970-1981
Appearances: 475
Goals: 76
Trophies: First Division (1972-73, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1979-80), UEFA Cup (1973, 1976), FA Cup (1974), European Cup (1977, 1978), UEFA Super Cup (1977), League Cup (1981)
With Steve Heighway on the wing, Liverpool supporters had dreams and songs to sing.
The Irishman was a full-throttle winger down the left flank, with his only intention to ride challenges, dribble past opponents and serve or score goals.
Remarkably, he arrived at Liverpool straight from playing non-league football at Skelmersdale United, after being spotted by Bob Paisley’s sons.
“When I first saw him he almost took my breath away because he had ‘star’ written all over him,” Bob once said.
The Paisleys’ belief was justified as Heighway took to the elite game with the same ease with which he would glide past defenders.
He played 49 times during his debut season, the beginning of a brilliant decade at Anfield that included 12 major honours won under Bill Shankly and then Paisley.
Heighway’s game was adapted during the back end of his Reds career, with a move to a more central role. His brilliance still shone, though.
The Dubliner is credited with two assists in the 1977 European Cup final, when Borussia Monchengladbach were defeated in Rome to clinch the club’s first triumph in the competition.
He also appeared off the bench in the following year’s showpiece, which also ended in victory for Paisley’s men, this time against Club Brugge at Wembley.
Heighway was part of the supporting cast in his final two seasons but would still lift the League Cup for the first time and earn a fifth First Division winner’s medal.
His name etched into Kop folklore, and later its songbook, he departed for the USA in 1981 after 475 matches and 76 goals.
“At first I found it intensely embarrassing,” he later said of Anfield honouring him at every match.
“But when I hear it now, sometimes I sit at home and watch on the telly, and you’d be amazed how many people call me afterwards and say, ‘You’re still on the wing, Steve!’
“It gives me great pride, of course it does. The crowd were always great with me.”
Heighway enhanced his legacy further with two spells totalling 25 years within the Reds’ Academy – during which he nurtured the likes of Jamie Carragher, Robbie Fowler and Steven Gerrard.
He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the club in 2016.
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