Arrowsmith’s Liverpool career combined a spectacular rise with a cruel interruption. Bill Shankly described him as “a born goalscorer”, and his contribution to the 1963/64 championship justified that assessment. For a few months, Arrowsmith looked capable of becoming a lasting member of Liverpool’s attack. A serious knee injury then changed the course of his career, leaving supporters with memories of an outstanding scoring spell and the question of how much more he might have achieved. His ability to find the net had been apparent long before Liverpool signed him. Arrowsmith scored an extraordinary 96 goals for Tintwistle Villa during 1959/60 before joining Ashton United in April 1960. He scored on his Ashton debut against Fleetwood and followed it with a hat-trick against Lancaster City in his second match. At the beginning of the next season, he scored in each of Ashton’s opening four games, playing alongside another young footballer destined for greater things, Alan Ball.
Liverpool moved quickly. By the end of August 1960, the seventeen-year-old was on his way to Anfield after scoring nine goals in seven Ashton appearances. Shankly was still rebuilding Liverpool in the Second Division, and Arrowsmith represented a promising investment in the future rather than an immediate addition to the first team. Arrowsmith's debut came at Middlesbrough on 7 October 1961, when Ian St John was away representing Scotland. Liverpool lost 2–0, both goals coming from unfortunate deflections credited as Dick White own goals. Arrowsmith twice put the ball into the net himself, only for both efforts to be disallowed for offside. It was a frustrating introduction for a young forward whose principal strength was finishing. That remained his only first-team appearance during Liverpool’s promotion season. Three further outings followed in 1962/63 as the club re-established itself in the First Division. Roger Hunt and St John were central to Shankly’s plans, and Arrowsmith had to wait for an opportunity to show that his prolific reserve form that had returned no less than 81 goals from 1961-63 could be reproduced against stronger opposition.
Arrowsmith's first goal for Liverpool's first-team arrived almost two years after his debut. Selected against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield on 16 September 1963, he scored in the opening minute of a 6–0 victory. Another appearance followed at Sheffield United, but he then disappeared from the first team until Boxing Day. His return brought a goal in the 6–1 defeat of Stoke City, beginning the spell that would define his Liverpool career. On 4 January 1964, Arrowsmith scored four times as Liverpool overwhelmed Derby County 5–0 in the FA Cup third round. Hunt supplied the other goal, but the afternoon belonged to the young forward, whose finishing provided emphatic evidence that he could thrive in the senior side. A week later, he scored the late winner in a 2–1 league victory over Chelsea at Anfield. Within two matches, he had demonstrated both his ability to dominate an opposition defence and his value in deciding a close contest. Arrowsmith became an important contributor as Liverpool’s championship challenge gathered momentum. His strongest sequence came in April: two goals in a 3–0 victory over Manchester United, another two in a 3–0 win at Burnley, and one against Arsenal as Liverpool secured the title with a 5–0 triumph at Anfield.
Arrowsmith's goals were a substantial part of the team’s decisive run to the league title. The victories over Manchester United, Burnley and Arsenal brought Liverpool nine points under the two-points-for-a-win system, with Arrowsmith scoring five of their eleven goals. Having spent much of his early Liverpool career waiting for selection, he was now helping turn a championship challenge into a championship victory. Arrowsmith finished 1963/64 with nineteen goals in twenty-four appearances across the league and FA Cup. Fifteen came in twenty league matches, an exceptional return for a player who had not become a regular until midway through the season. Hunt scored 31 league goals and St John 21, giving the three forwards a combined total of 67 as Liverpool won their first championship since 1947. At twenty-one, Arrowsmith appeared to have established a platform for a much longer career at the top.
The opening fixture of the following season brought a devastating setback. Liverpool hosted FA Cup winners West Ham United in the Charity Shield on 15 August 1964, but Arrowsmith suffered a serious injury to his left knee and had to leave the field after fifteen minutes. Phil Chisnall replaced him, becoming Liverpool’s first recorded substitute. The match ended 2–2, but for Arrowsmith its significance lay in the injury that interrupted his progress just when he had earned a regular place. He missed much of 1964/65 and was unable to recover the momentum of his championship season. Liverpool continued developing while he worked towards fitness, winning the FA Cup in 1965 and another league title in 1966. Arrowsmith remained at Anfield, but his appearances became scattered and his opportunities to build another sustained scoring run were limited.
After the Charity Shield injury, he made only twenty-seven further competitive appearances for Liverpool and scored five goals. His final totals were 56 appearances and 24 goals, with nineteen of those goals concentrated in the remarkable 1963/64 campaign. Those figures illustrate how sharply his career divided between the breakthrough season and the difficult years that followed. Arrowsmith eventually joined Bury in December 1968, ending more than eight years at Liverpool. He spent two years there before moving to Rochdale in 1970, then joined Macclesfield Town for the 1972/73 season. His first Macclesfield goal came in his second appearance, a 2–2 draw with Bradford Park Avenue. He scored seven goals across league and cup matches during his solitary season with the club before leaving semi-professional football in 1973. He subsequently continued playing at amateur level around Tameside.
Arrowsmith died in May 2005, aged sixty-two. His Liverpool career had never fulfilled the promise of those exhilarating months in 1964, but his contribution to Shankly’s first championship should not be diminished by what followed. He earned his place in that title-winning team through goals, and when Liverpool needed results during the closing weeks of the season, he repeatedly delivered.
Daughter Julie, one of his three daughters, said after Alf's passing in 2005: “He lived life to the full, he had lots of energy and made a lot of people smile. Apart from my mum and us three, there was only one love of his life - it was Liverpool Football Club until the day he died."
