LIDDELL'S SCOTLAND DEBUT

Jack Harkness gives Billy Liddell and Jock Dodds a big hand for their part in Scotland's shock win. But the inspiration, he says, came from the Busby - Shankly victory service.

Hail Caledonia! Once again, a Scottish eleven, with a "doubtful" label on it, has risen magnificently to the occasion and sent the Highland blood surging through Scottish veins! War or no war, this was Hampden! And these white shirts were England. "Welcome to your gory bed - or to victory!" That's how this gallant Scots eleven took the field - and if ever victory was merited this one certainly was.

And wherein did these Scots so excel themselves? Well, right off I say Busby and Shankly. These two more than anyone else turned this ordeal into an ideal. Those devastating side-of-the-foot passes to the man up in front. Each one shrewder than the last.

It was all Scotland for a time, and it looked as if a goal had to come. It did. But at the wrong end. Some teams might have reacted to this shock. Maybe have said: "Ach, they're too good for us" and stopped trying. But not this side.

MAESTRO LIDDELL

Liddell, for instance. Carol Lewis has nothing on the S.F.A. when it comes to discoveries. Ten minutes was sufficient for this boy to play himself into these criticial, hard-beating Hampden hearts. He took the equalizer with a lovely timed header. But it was the way he had in the second goal which put him in the Maestro class.

Liddell did the spadework and Dodds did the finishing for what must be one of the greatest goals Hampden has ever seen. The outstripping of the defence, the quick pass with the "wrong" foot, and then Dodds' glorious first-timer. What a goal!

England had reduced Scots' lead to 4-3 when Shankly struck for Scotland in the 71st minute: "And amongst all these great goals we had probably the strangest national goal ever. Here's a goalkeeper, the hero of his side, losing a goal from 50 yards range. Willie Shankly was the devil in the piece. He placed a beautiful shot goalwards. Out came Marks to collect. Suddenly he stopped. In a twinkling he had the old saying brought home to him - "He who hesitates is lost." The ball bounced on the ground, sailed over his head, and into the empty goal."

Liddell's last international was played on 8th of October 1955. His international record for Scotland reads 28 games and 6 goals. His 9 wartime games and 5 wartime goals are not counted towards his total.

(Click on the match report for a bigger image)

King Billy quote
"Given the history of the club for much of the second half of the twentieth century it is hard to understand that for so much of an era one man carried the hopes of the fans. But as I've said before these were the LIDDELL days and we were proud at the time to call our team LIDDELLPOOL. You see as the club slid from the level of Championship Winners to Championship contenders and Cup Finalists to having what many fans believe was our worst ever team there was only one ray of hope and that was Billy Liddell. Once the rot had set in the decline was swift and as the press reports of the time would tell you only Billy Liddell kept the team afloat. Yes I know you've heard it all before, but you're going to hear it again and again until my fingers bleed. There was a time when one man did make a team and when one man was bigger than the club. When the inevitable relegation came there wasn't any transfer demand from Billy Liddell, there was just a determination to restore pride and status to a fallen club and Billy was determined to play his part. Wooltonian

King Billy quote

"Given the history of the club for much of the second half of the twentieth century it is hard to understand that for so much of an era one man carried the hopes of the fans. But as I've said before these were the LIDDELL days and we were proud at the time to call our team LIDDELLPOOL. You see as the club slid from the level of Championship Winners to Championship contenders and Cup Finalists to having what many fans believe was our worst ever team there was only one ray of hope and that was Billy Liddell. Once the rot had set in the decline was swift and as the press reports of the time would tell you only Billy Liddell kept the team afloat. Yes I know you've heard it all before, but you're going to hear it again and again until my fingers bleed. There was a time when one man did make a team and when one man was bigger than the club. When the inevitable relegation came there wasn't any transfer demand from Billy Liddell, there was just a determination to restore pride and status to a fallen club and Billy was determined to play his part.

Wooltonian

Site News (Archive)
A nice story about Billy - the gentleman 01.09.2010 During the season 1953/54 I was living in the tenements of Glasgow (The Gorbals) and my father who was a merchant seaman and ran the Atlantic Convoys during the war 1939/43 and would often sail into Liverpool before coming up to Glasgow for R&R during those war-time years where he met my mother, and my earliest recollections of meeting the great Billy Liddell was when my father met and struck up a friendship with Billy and he came to our house in that room and kitchen in Glasgow. At the time there was 7 of plus my mother and father and I can remember this very smartly dressed person and my curiosity over all those years and especially lately when I discovered that 1953/54 was a particularly difficult season for Liverpool Football Club. I was often full of wonderment that that man could be so humble as to come and visit what was very grim accommodation at the time. I can, therefore, understand that people could say so many good things about him both on and off the pitch. - Reg Isaacson
Billy in color 19.08.2010 JK Williams sent us a few classic pictures of Billy Liddell which he has colorized. Click here to view his efforts.

Site News (Archive)

A nice story about Billy - the gentleman
01.09.2010
During the season 1953/54 I was living in the tenements of Glasgow (The Gorbals) and my father who was a merchant seaman and ran the Atlantic Convoys during the war 1939/43 and would often sail into Liverpool before coming up to Glasgow for R&R during those war-time years where he met my mother, and my earliest recollections of meeting the great Billy Liddell was when my father met and struck up a friendship with Billy and he came to our house in that room and kitchen in Glasgow. At the time there was 7 of plus my mother and father and I can remember this very smartly dressed person and my curiosity over all those years and especially lately when I discovered that 1953/54 was a particularly difficult season for Liverpool Football Club. I was often full of wonderment that that man could be so humble as to come and visit what was very grim accommodation at the time. I can, therefore, understand that people could say so many good things about him both on and off the pitch. - Reg Isaacson

Billy in color
19.08.2010
JK Williams sent us a few classic pictures of Billy Liddell which he has colorized. Click here to view his efforts.