The agony and the bliss of the 1964-65 Liverpool season

When the second leg was eventually played it was another 0-0 draw and in those days there was no provision for extra time or penalty shoot-outs so a decider was arranged, to be played in neutral Rotterdam. At last goals were scored and when we went 2-0 up it looked as though the match was over but, as we have come to realise, no game against a German team is over until the referee has blown the final whistle and, sure enough, Cologne got a goal back before half-time and early in the second half they equalised. It was still 2-2 after 90 minutes and this time it had been decreed that there would be extra time if the scores were level. Thirty minutes extra time failed to produce another goal and the ultimate result of the tie would be decided by the toss of a coin.

The referee took Ron Yeats and the Cologne captain to the centre circle accompanied by a couple of cameramen with both sets of players standing some way away. The coin went up and when it fell there was absolutely no reaction from either Yeats or his German counterpart. It had landed on its edge and stuck in the mud! Up it went again and this time Yeatsie flung his arms aloft to signify that we would be going through. It was an unsatisfactory way to decide a game, particularly one as important as a European Cup quarter final, but the coin tossing persisted for several more years before the penalty shoot out became the accepted way to settle games that could not be decided during normal play. And, of course, we haven’t done too badly in penalty shoot outs over the years with particular reference to Cardiff and, erm, Oh yes, Istanbul.

The drama of the Cologne tie had the effect of deflecting attention from the league performances, which remained erratic, and our progress in the FA Cup, which was maintained via an away victory over Bolton Wanderers and then a titanic struggle with Leicester City in the quarter final. Leicester had become a bogey side in both league and cup and Gordon Banks, their superb goalkeeper had become ‘Public Enemy No 1’ as, game after game, he had kept us out almost single-handedly and the 62/63 season had seen us losing to them in the semi-final and an unfortunately angled photo appeared to show Banks laughing at Ian St John as the teams left the field.

This season’s quarter-final had ended goalless at Filbert Street, thanks again to Banks’s expertise and the replay on the following Wednesday was one of Anfield’s great Cup nights. The Leicester goalie was once again magnificent as the reds attacked from the start and it looked as though he was going to defy us yet again but with less than 20 minutes to go Roger Hunt seized on a weak clearance and rifled a shot that even Banks couldn’t stop and that proved to be the only goal of the tie. Obviously those of us on the Kop were ecstatic when the referee blew the final whistle but a seminal moment had arrived because Banks, before he walked from the Kop goal that he had been defending, turned and applauded our vocal encouragement of our team. Instantly he was transformed from enemy to bosom pal and he became just about the most favourite visiting player ever to appear at Anfield. Rumours persisted for several years afterwards that we were about to sign him but nothing came of them and eventually we got Ray Clemence who was arguably just about as good as Banksie, but never even played in a World Cup Finals game let alone got a winner’s medal.

Beating Cologne in the play-off game in Rotterdam meant that we had to face Chelsea in the semi-final of the FA Cup at Villa Park on the following Saturday. Chelsea’s manager was Tommy Docherty and he said before the game that if Liverpool beat his team, having just gone through 120 minutes in Rotterdam 3 days before, it would be the greatest achievement of any English club side. We did beat them, and decisively as well. We were at the end of Villa Park that still houses the visiting fans and I have fond memories of seeing Peter Thompson gliding away from us at the far end before seeing the net bulge to put us one up and shortly after Willie Stevenson calmly slotting in a penalty to send us to Wembley.

It is difficult to explain the euphoria that surrounded the club during this particular period. This was 27 March 1965. On the corresponding Saturday 3 years before we had played Rotherham and here we were in an FA Cup final and a European Cup semi-final. Bill Shankly could definitely walk on water.

The period between the FA Cup semi final and the final was something of an anti-climax. There were 10 league games to be played and, although we didn’t want to be dragged down to the bottom half of the league, we didn’t want to lose key players to silly injuries. As it happened Gordon Milne, an immaculate wing half (defensive midfielder in today’s parlance) was injured in a game at Chelsea and missed the rest of the season. Results were not good. Three wins, two draws and five defeats meant that we finished 7th in the league which was quite commendable considering the ongoing cup commitments.

The fact that Liverpool were to appear in the FA Cup Final only served to intensify the aura that pervaded the city in the euphoria that had been engendered by the Beatles’ success in the charts. The build up to the game against Leeds was a fantastic time for us red fans. Few of us had been to Wembley before and the prospect of us seeing our heroes lifting the Cup for the first time was almost too much to contemplate. But first of all there was the small matter of getting a ticket for the game. I was hopeful that a friend who was well connected with Tranmere Rovers might be able to get me a ticket but it was unthinkable that I would go to the match without my mate, Bill.

The first home game after the semi-final victory against Chelsea saw Stoke City visit Anfield and, to our bemusement, we were issued with a numbered voucher on our way into the ground. It was announced before the game started that the vouchers ‘might be valid for a forthcoming game’. We couldn’t imagine which game it might be! It was, of course, the FA Cup Final and a couple of weeks later an announcement appeared in the ‘Echo’ that vouchers issued at the recent game against Stoke City which ended with ‘8’ qualified for a ticket for the Cup Final. I will never forget the feeling I had as I realised that my voucher had qualified. My joy was tempered by the fact that Bill hadn’t been as lucky so I was hanging on the unlikely possibility of my Tranmere contact coming up with the goods.

He came up with the goods big time!! Two weeks before the final he quietly told me that he had got me not one, but TWO tickets for the final. I have to admit, over 40 years later, that I omitted to let him know that I had already managed to get a ticket for myself. The outcome was, of course, that I now had THREE tickets for the biggest game that Liverpool had ever played and one of them was superfluous to our immediate needs.

Ironically, this apparently Utopian situation presented me with a major problem. Two major problems, actually. Firstly I had concealed from my Tranmere Rovers contact the fact that I had qualified for a ticket via the ballot and, had I made it known in my local that I had a ticket to sell he would have found out about it. Secondly it would have been impossible for me to have let one of my pub mates have the spare ticket without alienating at least 6 others. As it happened I sold it to a business colleague of Bill, who insisted on giving me £10 over the odds as a token of his thanks. At the time I was earning about £15 a week and the bonus just about paid for our Cup Final weekend including accommodation!