First Division
January 20th 1984
On a freezing cold Friday night, Ian Rush's hat trick went a long way to securing the Reds' position at the top of the league in a year in which he was also to become Liverpool's all time record goal scorer in a single season.
Liverpool led the league by two points from Manchester United, but had suffered a shock 1-0 home defeat to bottom side Wolves the previous Saturday and were keen to get back to winning ways. The game was arranged for a Friday night for live television and only a few thousand Reds at most braved the conditions and travelled down to the Midlands. Once in the ground they were stuck in the corner of the terracing with the police keeping the area immediately behind the goal closed.
The pitch was virtually frozen solid and the game would probably have been called off if it hadn't been televised. In the difficult conditions, Liverpool struggled in the first half and at half time were 1-0 down. However, they immediately got back into the game from the restart, when a long ball was played to Rush, who despite the icy conditions, controlled it well on the edge of the box and knocked the ball home.
Rush's second goal came on 70 minutes and was a sweet left foot volley, but even better was to come ten minutes later when he scored with an outrageous chip over Nigel Spink. Rush was so full of confidence that he chipped the ball rather than do the obvious and blast it, although he did admit that if the score at the time had been 0-0 he wouldn't have attempted such a bold move. The goals took his tally to 27 for the season so far and completed the sixth hat trick of his Liverpool career.
These goals were three of 47 that Rush would score that season, breaking the record of 42 set by Roger hunt in 1961-2. Liverpool won the league from Manchester United and completed English football's first treble by collecting the European Cup and League Cup too.
At the end of the season, Rush's exploits attracted the attentionss of Napoli, who were willing to pay £4.5 million for him, a colossal sum then. Unfortunately for them chairman John Smith was watching the tennis at Wimbledon and refused to talk until after this had finished, which would take things beyond the Italian transfer deadline. This meant that they turned their attentions to Diego Maradona instead allowing Rush to remain and terrorise defences for three more years before Juventus finally persuaded Liverpool to let him leave.
Liverpool: Grobbelaar, Neal, Kennedy, Lawrenson, Nicol ( Whelan ), Hansen, Robinson, Lee, Rush, Johnston, Souness
Att: 19,566
Scorers: Rush 46,70,80
