In the Sportyman history of
Liverpool Football Club, I jumped ahead last week to the 1950s in acknowledgement of that
League Cup clash with Lincoln City.
So this week it’s back to
the 1940s…
There were only four full seasons
of regular football in this decade, with various regional war-time leagues
played during World War II. Right full back Tom Cooper, who played 160 times
for Liverpool and captained England on two occasions, lost his life during the
war.
Most professional football
players had signed up with the armed forces and were entitled to play with
teams near their bases. During this time, over 80 players from different clubs
played for Liverpool as ‘guests’. This arrangement threw up a few unique
occurrences, not least Corporal Bill Shankly (a Preston North End player)
playing once for Liverpool, when he helped them to a Liverpool Senior Cup final
victory over Everton in 1942. Shankly was joined as a guest player on that team
by Irishman and Manchester United player Johnny Carey, who scored Liverpool’s
third goal in a 4-1 victory over Everton at Anfield – there’s a table quiz
question in that one.
Johnny Carey (1919-1995) of Ireland and Manchester United, who scored for Liverpool (as a 'guest' player) in their 1942 Liverpool Senior Cup final victory over Everton at Anfield in 1942, with Bill Shankly also on that Liverpool team
As with the restart of
football after World War I, https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/09/two-titles-two-irishmen-and-two-macs.html, Liverpool hit the ground running and won the first
post war First Division title, in 1946-1947. Liverpool’s pre-season American
tour was cited by manager George Kay as a factor in the 1946-1947 championship
success. Conditions in America were a far cry from war rationed Britain and the
Liverpool squad had access to delicacies such as American steak and orange
juice. Over the course of the tour, the squad bulked up by an average of half a
stone per man and Kay felt this was key in their subsequent success.
As in 1899, https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/aston-villa-5-liverpool-0-1899-and-2019.html, the 1946-1947 title fight went right down to the wire, with
Liverpool again travelling to Birmingham for their final game. This time the
opposition was Wolverhampton Wanderers. Unlike the 5-0 hammering at the hands
of Aston Villa in 1899, Liverpool came away with a 2-1 victory, with Wolves
having only needed a draw to secure the title for themselves.
Liverpool then had an anxious wait for two weeks until Stoke lost their last match of the season, thus surrendering their own title chances and confirming Liverpool as champions. The final league table shows the narrow margin of Liverpool’s victory, with only two points separating the top four teams and Liverpool jumping from fourth to top in the last two games. The league table stats also give an indication of the erratic nature of Liverpool’s season, losing ten and drawing seven of their 42 matches.
Liverpool FC for 1946-1947 (note the presence of two future managers standing in the back row - Phil Taylor and Bob Paisley)
Back row: Tom Bush, Phil Taylor, Jim Harley, Cyril Sidlow, Ray Lambert,
Bob Paisley, Albert Shelley (Trainer).
Front row: William Watkinson, Willie Fagan,
Albert Stubbins, Stan Palk, Billy Liddell, Laurie Hughes.
The decade ended with Liverpool reaching the FA Cup final in 1949-1950. This would be Liverpool’s first Wembley final, the 1914 FA Cup decider having been played at Crystal Palace, https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/08/liverpool-fc-third-decade-1910-1920.html. Despite now having won the league on five occasions, Liverpool had yet to win the FA Cup. A legend had already developed in the city that the two Liver Bird monuments on top of the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool would fly away before Liverpool won the FA Cup. Unfortunately, the Liver Birds were to continue flightless in 1950 and Liverpool’s FA Cup jinx was to continue, losing the final 2-0 to Arsenal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6J9-14ZzAw
Video from the 1950 FA Cup final
With a league title and FA
Cup final appearance in the space of four seasons, it would seem that Liverpool
had reason to be hopeful heading into the 1950s. However, the reality was that
they had an ageing team and, without any key replacements, the footballing
decade ahead would prove to be Liverpool’s worst of all time.
Despite being only half a
decade in footballing terms, Liverpool had good success in the 1940s and a few
key figures from this period warrant special mention.
Billy
Liddell – Liverpool’s third era defining player
I have already paid tribute to Billy Liddell in last week's blog but, such was his impact on Liverpool over a sustained period, he warrants inclusion again for the 1940s blog.
Liddell played exclusively with
Liverpool for his entire professional career, stretching from before the World
War II in July 1938 right through to those grim Second Division years of the
1950s and on to the beginning of the Shankly era in 1960. Matt Busby, one time
Liverpool player and captain and subsequent quite successful manager of another
club, is said to have tipped off Liverpool manager George Kay to Liddell, saying
‘this Liddell lad might be worth an enquiry’. As stipulated by his parents,
Liddell was contractually allowed to complete his training as an accountant
while playing with Liverpool, thus having another career to fall back on after
football. In fact, he continued to work as an accountant throughout his
Liverpool playing career.
Billy Liddell (1922-2001) and Liverpool forward from 1938-1961
Liddell was extremely
strong, fast and versatile, playing as a left sided winger and centre forward
and scoring 215 league goals in 492 matches. At the time of his retirement his
534 appearances was a club record for Liverpool, and he is currently 12th
on that particular metric, and 4th on the all time top goalscorer
table. In The Anatomy of Liverpool (Jonathan Wilson and Scott Murray) Liddell
is highlighted as being one of five key era defining players for Liverpool,
coming after Alex Raisbeck https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/08/liverpool-fc-second-decade-1900-1910.html and Elisha Scott https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/09/two-titles-two-irishmen-and-two-macs.html and before
Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard. Such was his importance to the club that
Liverpool got the nickname of ‘Liddellpool’ during his career. Accounts of his
contemporaries describe a quiet and religious man who did his talking on the
pitch.
Although he had only a brief
spell playing with Bill Shankly as Liverpool manager, Shankly was well aware of
Liddell’s talents and importance to Liverpool, describing him as ‘fast,
powerful, shot with either foot and his headers were like blasts from a gun. On
top of all that he was as hard as granite. What a player! He was so strong –
and he took a nineteen-inch collar shirt’.
Some other 1940s heroes - Stubbins, Balmer and Kay
Albert Stubbins signed for
Liverpool from Newcastle United in September 1946 for a then club record of
13,000 pounds and he was a key figure in the ensuing championship winning
season, ending as joint top scorer with Jack Balmer, on 28 goals each. In all,
Stubbins scored 83 times in his 178 games for Liverpool and went on to work as
a sports journalist after his retirement from the game.
who played with the club from 1946-1953.
Aside from his footballing
heroics in 1946-1947 and subsequent seasons for Liverpool, Stubbins also has
the honour of being the only footballer featured among the cast of stars on perhaps the most iconic music album cover of all time, from a certain Liverpool band. If you look closely at the
image below you should just be able to make out his smiling face over the right
shoulder of Marlene Dietrich.
Jack Balmer
Jack Balmer was the other scoring star for Liverpool during this period, racking up 110 goals in 309 appearances between 1935 and 1952.
And finally, George Kay
deserves at least a brief mention. In the history of Liverpool FC, only eight
managers (from a total of twenty two) have managed to lead the club to top
flight league success and George Kay is among the lesser known of these. An
intensely dedicated and hardworking manager, he served with Liverpool from 1936
to 1951.
The highlight of Kay’s
playing career was in captaining West Ham United in the first Wembley FA Cup
final in 1923. With an official attendance of over 100,000 and unofficial
estimates of nearer 300,000, the dangerously overcrowded match has come to be
known as The White Horse Final, partly due to the heroics of a policeman on his
white horse. https://www.theyflysohigh.co.uk/white-horse-final/4594609368
Image from the 1923 FA Cup Final that would come to be known as 'The White Horse Final'
Liverpool FC in the
1940s in summary
1939-1945
Regular football suspended
due to World War II.
Trophies won during this
period: Liverpool Senior Cup (1942); Football League Northern Section, Second
Period (1942-1943); Lancashire Cup (1944)
1945-46
Manager: George Kay
Captain: Willie Fagan
Football League North: 11th
FA Cup: 4th round
(winners: Derby County, their 1st win)
Top scorer: Willie Fagan (3)
1946-1947
Manager: George Kay
Captain: Willie Fagan
Division 1: Winners (5th
win)
FA Cup: semi-final (winners:
Charlton Athletic, their 1st win)
Top scorers: Jack Balmer and Albert Stubbins with 28 goals each
1947-1948
Manager: George Kay
Captain: Jack Balmer
First Division: 11th
(winners: Arsenal, their 6th win)
FA Cup: 4th round
(winners: Manchester United, their 2nd win)
Top scorer: Albert Stubbins (26)
1948-1949
Manager: George Kay
Captain: Jack Balmer
First Division: 12th
(winners: Portsmouth, their 1st win)
FA Cup: 5th round
(winners: Wolverhampton Wanderers, their 3rd win)
Top scorer: Jack Balmer (16)
1949-1950
Manager: George Kay
Captain: Jack Balmer
First Division: 8th
(winners: Portsmouth, their 2nd win)
FA Cup: beaten finalists
(winners: Arsenal, their 3rd win)
Top scorer: Bill Liddell (19)
Great insight into the history of this football club. Some great trivia for quizzes. Which Irish Manchester United player played for Liverpool and scored their 3rd goal? Love this!! Thanks Henry.
ReplyDeleteThanks Seán! And Johnny Carey's goal for Liverpool came in a cup final too! (albeit the Liverpool Senior Cup).
ReplyDelete