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Those first few minutes…… Part 2
Note: references to individual games use an abbreviation such as [63:32]. This signifies the 1963/64 season, and the thirty-second competitive match as listed by lfchistory.net.
Part 1 gave no pleasure to research, write, or (for LFC fans no doubt) to read, concerning LFC going behind in under ten minutes of a match. Enjoyment would have been as incongruous as watching smiling actors happily advertising funeral and cremation firms on TV. Hopefully Part 2 will be what the doctor ordered to recover from such displeasure.
Figures from the 1930s are unpromising, with far fewer early goals for (40) than goals against (71), the only shining light being Liverpool ‘great’ Berry Nieuwenhuys who scored in the first minute of three matches [35:8, 37:5, 38:43].
Happily, the overall picture is much better after 1962, reflecting the club’s successes over six decades - 430 scored by Liverpool before ten minutes into a match, in contrast to 235 by our opponents. Some sixty per cent of those 430 goals have been scored at Anfield, and a creditable forty per cent away.
Alan Dunn reported in 1979, having seen David Johnson score against Bristol City on three minutes, ‘In all football, nothing compares with the opening half hour of a match at Anfield, when waves of red-shirted figures swarm relentlessly over the opposition.’ These goals have come from all positions on the field except goalkeeper, but pride of place in any list of early scorers must go to Ian Rush, whose 25 is over twice the number by anyone else. However, they were merely seven per cent of all the goals Rushie scored, and I have found only two LFC players who scored more than ten percent of all their goals for us in the first nine minutes. One was Steve McManaman at 10.6 per cent, but head and shoulders above the others (literally as well) was Tony Hateley. In his short time at Anfield, he scored five in the one season (1967/68), which amounted to some 18% of all his goals. (One, admittedly, came off his shoulder.)
Unexpectedly, Roger Hunt scored only five of his 28 goals before 10 minutes were showing on the clock, though his first [63:6] took only 30 seconds when the ‘muddled and confused’ Wolves’ defence at Molyneux was ‘not yet settled’.
Players who have also given the fans something to celebrate in under one minute have been Lawler [65:46], Strong [66:13], Hateley [67:24], Evans [69:12], Alan Kennedy [78:52], McDermott [80:16], Walsh [84:3 fastest on 14 seconds], Dalglish [85:10], Rush [85:52, 93:15], Johnston [86:41], Burrows [91:5], Collymore [96:20], Fowler [96:24, 97:16], Riise [04:43], Hyypia [05:53], Cole [10:9, his debut goal], Maxi [10:52], Skrtel [13:29], Keita [18:48, fastest in the Premier League on 15 seconds], and Salah [20:20]. Suarez’ fastest was 67 seconds [12:12].
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You have to feel sorry for fans on the Kop. Not only do they see fewer of these early LFC goals from close range – they have to suffer seeing more early opposition goals too! Even in the good old days, during the thirty years before the Premier era, the Kop saw 41 of these early goals, whereas fans on the Anfield Road stand saw almost twice that number (79). During the last thirty years, it has become even rarer for an early goal to be scored by LFC in front of the Kop, the last (apart from an own goal by Tomori of AC Milan in 2021) being by Salah in 2017. Since 1992, only 25 early goals have been scored in front of the Kop end compared with 111 at the Anfield Road end.
By 2022/23, we were made to start towards the Kop only four times – this season so far, three times, including by MUFC [23:25] who chose to frustrate LFC rather than give their own travelling supporters a chance to see a winning goal. (As noticed in ‘Attacking the Kop’, when visitors win the toss, they normally choose to play the second half towards their own fans.) Soon only Everton will think it’s a smart move to make us play towards the Kop end first. It isn’t.
(Don’t overdo the sorrow – the Kop gets to watch Liverpool score winners late on in the match instead.)
Ian Rush started his hat-trick against Ipswich early
About eighteen of the early LFC goals have been variously described as ‘lucky’, ‘flukey’, a ‘catalogue of errors’, and various other critical, or cynical, assessments – but we’ll take them in our stride because going one goal up at the time seems unobjectionable, and the picture they throw up can be quite amusing. They include a few which still rankle with the more knowledgeable fans of opposing clubs, and referred to ad nauseam by commentators. These are:
1. Everton’s own goal on 34 seconds at [72:42] in front of their own fans. Gordon West, in goal, mis-kicked a clearance; it hit Tommy Wright and rebounded into his own net. I expect the Liverpool fans gave the players some good, friendly advice on the matter. (Another own goal followed in the second half.)
2. To anyone who once watched Bert Trautmann bundled into the back of his own net clutching the ball and the goal given, Ian Rush’s exploit against Ipswich [93:15] seems mild indeed – on 48 seconds into the match, Rush kicked the ball out of the ‘fumbling hands’ of Craig Forrest for the first of his winning hat trick.
3. Eight years later [01:31], Andy d’Urso demonstrated how a referee can be hero and villain to the same crowd though doing nothing wrong. On nine minutes, the Aston Villa keeper, Peter Schmeichel, threw the ball up field from the edge of his area towards players advancing on Liverpool. By chance, it hit the referee on his back and rebounded to Jari Litmanen who had the simple job of lobbing it 35 yards back over Schmeichel and into the net.
Peter Schmeichel gave Liverpool an ideal start
4. Could VAR have solved this one, described in two descriptions of the same incident? (I’ve been unable to find a video of the game.) It was a rare gift during Roy Hodgson’s reign.
Version 1 Four minutes into a Sunderland game at Anfield [10:12], the visitors were awarded a free kick. Michael Turner, 15 yards out of the area, backheeled the ball towards Simon Mignolet who, he believed, was coming forward to take the kick. Alive to the possibility, Torres nipped in before Mignolet could take the free kick, passed the ball to Dirk Kuyt, who slotted it home.
Version 2 Four minutes into Sunderland game at Anfield, [10;12], the visitors were awarded a free kick, which was taken by Michael Turner 15 yards out of the area, backheeling it towards Simon Mignolet. Alive to the possibility, Torres nipped in, passed the ball to Dirk Kuyt, who slotted it home.
Stuart Attwell, not one of Sunderland’s favourite referees, waved away their protests after consulting his assistant, deciding that the ball had been in the right place for the free kick to be taken, and that there was no legal necessity for a whistle to bring the ball back into play.
5. Best known among these gems is probably the ‘goal that never was’, against Chelsea [04:57], LFC’s own version of the 1966 World Cup Final goal, though this was the only goal of the match. It was the second leg of the European Cup semi, the winner going on to Istanbul.
Mourinho had won the toss, and played tricks with the Kop end by making Liverpool play towards them in the first half. There was still no goal-line technology, of course, and whether the ball crossed the line is disputed. Garcia dinked the ball over the keeper, who promptly floored him in the area. Afterwards, the referee said, ‘If my assistant referee had not signalled a goal, I would have given a penalty and sent off goalkeeper Petr Cech.’
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It has been relatively rare for the annual number of early LFC goals to be in double figures since 1962 (1986/87, 1989/90, 1995/96, 2000/01,and 2013/14) but under the present manager, we’ve scored 10 in 2021/22, and 12 in 2017/18 when the terrific force of Salah, Firmino and Mane could be unleashed.
In summary, an early goal at Anfield is twice as likely to have been scored by Liverpool than by the opposition since 1962, but only three have been scored at home so far in 28 games during 2023/24, and three by the opposition. Even discounting the current left back ‘crisis’, that statistic alone suggests that we have a problem in defence which needs attention.
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Imagine then, one more time, to see if and how this historical ramble has affected you.
‘There’s been an early goal at Anfield,’ says an excited anchor in the studio.
‘Wait a minute, wait a minute,’ cries the commentator, further extending the period of tenterhooks; ‘the ball’s in the net, but the ref’s been advised to go over and look at the VAR monitor.’
We hear a strange background noise, an angry buzz supplemented by indistinct shouting from the crowd. It’s neither the hush of horror as an opponent’s goal goes in, nor the deafening cheer telling the listener that we’ve scored.
Now knowing the stats, but not yet knowing whose goal is being questioned, how do you feel about this VAR check - relief or trepidation?
Article by Dr. Colin Rogers for LFChistory.net
