1989

101

i dont want to talk much about Hillsborough as the conversation will no doubt degenerate but it effected me greatly

It was a wet saturday afternoon and i had bbc radio 2 on all evening, i even wrote down the number for the south yorkshire police helpline

I remember the replayed cup semi final on a Sunday in Wembley , my dad was with me, he was reffing LOI at the time and used to get dogs abuse from the likes of terry eviston , he always maintained cork AUL was the worst he ever had to deal with tho …

Anyway that day and for that year he went out of his way to stop me playing soccer – i can see why now , nothing good was coming out of it- it lasted only a year or two tho as italia 90 came along .

He hated Liverpool tho – I never know/knew why I remember us watching Neville southall disconsolate post the 89 extra time and I could see he was able to relate to him… these things have stuck with me you know,

3 Likes
102

in terms of FA cup finals tho
1989 wow,
i still have my Panini 1990 football sticker album and the picture of John Barnes on the front beating pat nevin on the everton left

103

remember all the dutch fellas playing for aberdeen?
Pat Van de Ven
Leo Van der Aark
Hans Gillhaus

Ian westwater was the dunfermline keeper

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104

I started following Liverpool properly in January '87

I just missed the double in '86, I was sort of aware that Liverpool were playing Everton in the Cup final I think and was aware of Mexico '86 and Maradona and all that but it flew over my head

I think me and a couple of friends from my road watched a 0-0 derby game at Goodison in November '86 hoping Liverpool would win

But the first time I consciously rememeber supporting Liverpool was a 0-0 3rd round FA Cup game on Luton’s plastic pitch in January '87, Luton went on to win the tie in three matches after two 0-0s

I hated Everton and was thrilled when Wimbledon beat them in the 5th round at Plough Lane in '87, live on BBC

I was obsessed with Liverpool winning the double again and beating Everton in the Cup final, just like in '86

I was so obsessed that the day Liverpool beat Forest in the replayed semi-final at Old Trafford, I made a load of fake tickets for the final against Everton on cardboard cut from Corn Flakes packets, coloured in and all with the Wembley logo, I must have made about 10 or 12 of them and gave them to my friends on the street, we were all Liverpool supporters

The Cup final in '89 was the ultimate - it was almost lik the thing was written, with Rush scoring twice, just like '86, which I had missed

And Celtic beat Rangers the same day but we only saw the goal and Ally McCoist blazing over the bar from six yards late on

Then it all went to pot the following Friday night

Everybody supported Liverpool then

There was one lad in my primary school class who supported Arsenal

He was thought of as a freak

Then about 1991, Manchester United supporters suddenly started appearing, these were lads who had up to that followed Liverpool

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105

Unreal internetting, these lads deserve 20 likes each.

106

such was my dad’s anti soccer stance post hillsboro we were forced to attend a cork limerick hurling challenge game in the park the night Michael Thomas scored that friday at anfield
it was a warm dull humid May night
it didnt last tho

2 Likes
107

There was a sticker album in 1987 called Stick With Soccer - it was published by the Daily Mirror

This was my first sticker album and the first I collected stickers for

I did have the Panini one Football 87 but didn’t collect for that

I preferred the Stick With Soccer one as it featured action shots of players rather than the dull portrait style pictures in the Panini one

The Daily Mirror had another sticker album in 1988 with Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen included, only those three Scottish teams, but there were no Daily Mirror albums in subsequent years

World Cup '90 which was the greatest sticker album of all time also featured action shots as opposed to the Panini-style portrait photos

One day about April 1990 I went down to the Piggy Bank and bought 16 packets of World Cup '90 stickers for £4 - at 25p each

The girl behind the counter said to me “you know you’re an idiot wasting all your money on these”

I hadn’t started smoking yet and wouldn’t for quite a number of years afterwards

108

McAvennie went back to London for a Page 3 model , iirc correctly Jenny Blyth

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109

He never lived a Spartan existence though

That’s the second time in 18 days I’ve made that pun here

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110

i presume lads wathced Saint and Greavsie at ten past one on a saturday on HTV hoping to see a few goals
@Sidney when did HTV start showing The Match with live Sunday afternoon kick offs? remember back then MOTD was only for the FA cup so back then you’d be hoping for a south easterly to pick up BBC1 wales and get the highlights of all 64 first round ties with Havant and Waterloovile playing Sutton United who of course beat coventry in the 1989 third round.
Brian Moore on HTV was a sublime commentator, he had a wonderful way of setting the scene for a corner kick or a free kick into the box, " Adams is in there, Butcher is in there, they’re all in there"… by far and away his greatest commenatry tho was the 1993 game when Holland beat England 2-0 at the De Kuip stadium where he famously stated " How is that blonde man still on the field?" in reference to Ronald Koeman who then went on the put the dutch one up with a free kick

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111

six (6) panini stickers cost 26p

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112

BBC and ITV both showed occasional Division 1 live matches up to the end of the 1987/88 season and both showed the FA Cup up to then as well

ITV got exclusive rights from 1988-1992 with BBC having the exclusive FA Cup rights

In Ireland we had it made with RTE showing matches every Saturday

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113

Great theme music, ITV used to have some good football theme music in those days, their 1990 World Cup theme was a belter as well

I always associated Elton Welsby with Everton for some reason even though I didn’t know he supported Everton

He supports Everton

114

Puskás?

115

Jim Leishman was a great character

He was the Dunfermline manager

I think Dundee and Aberdeen both had joint managers, Jocky Scott was a joint manager of Dundee anyway

Actually didn’t Coventry have joint managers in 1987 - John Sillett and George Curtis

116

on the weekend the berlin wall fell , chelsea were playing on sports stadium at stamford bridge can you remember who that was against ?
was that also the weekend contact was made in the channel tunnel?
it was a saturday in late november early december

117

Yeah but he was ostracised and wasn’t allowed back to Hungary until 1981 I think

It seems that in the 1980s communist regimes had very selective rules about who could play abroad and not be ostracised - a bit like Irish rugby now

118

He received a 2 year ban from UEFA for refusing to go back to communist Hungary. Ever the visionary’s the boys in UEFA

119

I think the Channel Tunnel breakthrough was around early February 1990, open to correction, but you’re right it was on a Saturday morning when the kids TV programmes were on

There was a game between Chelsea and Liverpool from around the time the Berlin Wall fell which was live on Sports Stadium, Liverpool scored a load of early goals and I think won 6-2 or something

I can’t remember the exact weekend it was

I know Chelsea went to Goodison Park and won 1-0 around that time as well

Everton started that season really well but faded away after that and have never been a major force since

120

Off the top of my head, some live Sports Stadium games were

Liverpool 3-1 Everton April 18th 1987 (Rush scored two and Sheedy gave the two fingers to the Kop after scoring a great free kick)

Liverpool 2-1 Forest 1988 FA Cup semi-final

West Ham 0-2 Liverpool October 29th 1988 (Rush scored with a left footed shot)
Norwich 0-1 Liverpool April 1st 89 (Ronnie Whelan scored)
Hillsborough April 15th
Wimbledon 1-2 Liverpool May 13th 89

Chelsea 2-6 (I think) Liverpool November/December 89
Liverpool 3-2 Southampton March 1990 (Ronnie Rosenthal’s first game for Liverpool as a sub)
Liverpool 2-1 QPR April 1990 - this game clinched the title

Leeds 4-5 Liverpool April 1991

Liverpool 2-0 Everton August 31st 1991