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Birthdate:
27.02.1948
Birthplace: Bury, England
Other clubs: Bury, Stoke, Oakland Stompers (USA), Toronto Blizzard (CAN), Newton (amateur)
Bought from: Bury
Signed for LFC: £67000 March 1969
International debut: 22.05.1974 vs. Argentina
International caps: 4/0 - 05.06.1974
Liverpool debut:
16.09.1969
Last appearance: 16.05.1977
Debut goal: 16.09.1969
Last goal: 10.09.1975
Contract expiry: September 1977
LFC league games/goals: 170 / 12
Total LFC games/goals: 248 / 18
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Player Notes:
Promising wing-half starlet Lindsay was signed by Liverpool from his home-town club Bury in March 1969 when he was 21 years old. Bill Shankly gave him his first-team debut in a 10-0 Fairs Cup thrashing of Dundalk in September that year but he didn't taste any First Division action until the middle of October, when he came off the bench to strike an equaliser against Ipswich Town at Portman Road. But that was one of just 6 First Division matches he figured in that debut season. Lindsay was frustrated with life at Liverpool and handed in a transfer request which was accepted. Liverpool gave him a chance in the left-back role against Newcastle in his first full season and he made the position his own. The left-back slot was a 'problem position' for the club at that time; no fewer than four men - Ian Ross, Roy Evans, Ron Yeats & Lindsay played there at different stages of the 1970-71 season but by the end of the year it was Alec who had got the vote and he was picked for the 1971 FA cup final against Arsenal.
Liverpool had moved him further back but he still put frequently to use his attacking skills. Lindsay was clever at overlapping the defence on the left flank. He always chipped in with a couple of goals himself, possessing a powerful left foot. He only missed 4 League matches the following season and just 5 in 1972-73, when he was an important part of the team which won the League championship and UEFA cup. His strong left-foot brought him 5 goals that season and he also took over from Kevin Keegan as the club's penalty-taker a year later. That was also the season when he wiped out the disappointment of the cup final defeat to Arsenal in 1971 by being a member of the side that outplayed Newcastle United at Wembley. In that game, with the score still locked at 0-0, his strong run and thunderous shot into Iam McFaul's net was harshly deemed to be offside, when television replays later showed that the ball had come to him not from Kevin Keegan but a Newcastle defender.
Alec lost his place to Phil Neal, Bob Paisley's first signing, mid-way through the 1974-75 season but remained at Anfield until August 1977 when he was transferred to Stoke City. He always enjoyed his football and received four international caps, a run which allegedly began when Joe Mercer was caretaker England manager and whilst deliberating on his squad for a forthcoming European summer tour said to one of his colleagues "Let's have that Lindsay from Liverpool. He's always smiling!" After finishing his playing days in the Potteries, Alec returned to the North-West and became a publican in Leigh. |
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