billy liddel

What was it that frightened defenders in the Liddell era?

Was it the power or guile of his left foot?
Was it the power or guile of his right foot?
Was it the power with which he headed the ball?
Was it his lightning pace?
Was it the awesome presence he demanded on the pitch?
Was it the adoration of everyone who watched him?
Was it his reputation?
Was it because he would never quit and continued to push forward for 90 mins?

Alf Ramsey and other defenders of the time will confirm it was all of the above. Ramsey once said, that playing against Billy was an absolute nightmare, cos you knew you were going to get run ragged for the whole game. I have read that he once said to Billy mid-game "Any chance you can go play on the other wing for a while Billy, I'm knackered"; Billy just gave him a look that confirmed he would be staying put.

It makes you wonder what all the other defenders thought about playing against Billy. Would he go round the outside and smash a cross in, that even Albert Stubbins said he didn't look forward to getting on the end of, cos it'd take yer head off? Would he cut inside and send another exocet toward the goal? Goalkeepers at the time must have been terrified of Billy cutting inside from either wing, cos they knew they were going to get hurt if the ball hit them.

How many keepers must have thought 'Sod this' and dived the wrong way on purpose? Probably more than most, if they were honest. When the opposition had the ball Billy would always be stood on the half way line, taking a breather and on occasion was seen chatting to fans sitting nearest to the pitch. What must he or they have said? "Which way are you going to roast him this time Billy"? Liddell often had full backs trussed up like the Christmas Turkey.

Paisley would have just won the ball off the opposition again; he was a brilliant ball winner was our Bob and then he'd pass it up the line to "our Billy"...........

Immediate thoughts from the defenders........ "Oh no, here he comes again"
Immediate thoughts from the goalies........... "Please Lord, let me survive this attack"
Immediate thoughts from The Kop............... "One nil"

Then the ball came to Billy's feet; he lifted his head and looked where all the defenders stood. With lightning thought the path to goal shone like an infra-red beacon. He dragged the ball around with his majestic right foot, onto the formidable left. He then dropped his shoulder and feigned a move inside and he was gone, with the dummy having been bought by the hapless right half!

With pace which had never seen before, Billy was now going full pelt down the left wing, the right half still stood where Billy had left him. Were his feet stuck in the mud? He hadn't moved since Billy had gone passed him.

The full back waited as Billy came heading towards him, quick time for a guess? Waste of time believe me, Billy could go anywhere! With a step over Billy dragged the ball inside with his right, "Got him" thought the full back, Billy had done it again, as the full back leant inside, Billy switched again onto his left boot. "Oh Shit!" the full back shouted, Billy was now three yards past him. Yes Billy was that fast.

In came racing the cumbersome centre half, with all the stealth and dexterity of a bull rushing a matador. Only one thought on his mind, which row should I put him in? Billy nutmegged the hapless fool and jumped over the centre half's lunge. One drag with the left boot and Billy was looking right down the goalkeeper's open mouth and the ball was rolling forward onto the dynamite right. Time for the goalie to make a decision......

Do I dive right and get out of the way?
Do I dive left and get out of the way?
Do I close me eyes? "Any chance of a blindfold and a last fag", nah sorry mate.

The thinking time had elapsed, the goalie had made his choice. But alas Billy had made his decision on the halfway line and the ball was already billowing out the net.



The crowd roared, the goalie picked the ball out the net.
The crowd roared, the goalie picked the ball out the net.
The crowd roared, the goalie picked the ball out the net.

No, its not a stutter or a record that's stuck its another LIDDELL hat-trick. It's just a case of spotting the difference, between the first paragraph and the following two.

The third goal was a near perfect copy of the first. You would think that defenders would get to know which way to go after a while, but they never did. I sometimes wonder whether Billy had an internal? "Tossing of a coin" heads - left, tails - right, whatever he was doing the defenders rarely guessed right.

On the occasions they were right, you could see them pushing their chests out and either looking at the crowd or one of their own players and saying "Did you see that? I won the ball off LIDDELL". Yes, they held Billy in very high esteem and winning the ball off Liddell was a major achievement. They would probably get home to their wives and kids and sit by the coal fire and repeat the whole incident over and over again.

It would start like this: "The game wasn't very good, but the thing that I will always remember is.............. there I was facing the great Liddell (far more tricky than that Houdini fellah). Billy jinked right, Billy jinked left and guess what? (the kids all look bemused) "I took the ball off Billy Liddell !"

"Gerroff wid yer Dah, you must have dreamt it, no one takes the ball from Billy Liddell". Perhaps they never would believe, but the defender's memory would have a treasure that would live with him forever.

People old enough to remember the legend that was Liddell will also treasure their memories of Billy, perhaps, until the day their maker calls their name and remember this............

When your maker calls your name,
He will not ask if you won or lost,
But how you played the game.
and believe me when I say
"Boy, did Billy play the game"
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How do you start a Story about a LEGEND ?

The answer is quite simple really, its easier than you think. "WITH A TEAR IN YOUR EYE"

The 'Flying Scotsman' was born in Dunfermline on January 10, 1922, and could play as either a winger or centre forward. But by the time he made his 'official' first team debut for Liverpool, delayed by the war, Billy was 23-years-old but it wasn't long before he embarked on the success story that made him a legend in our City and earned the club he played for the nickname 'Liddellpool'. After 21 years and 534 games in which he scored 228 goals Billy 'hung up his boots' in 1960 as a hero.

And so the story starts.

Billy throughout his life, lived up to the highest standards and was a role model and inspiration to all playing the game then and for future generations to come, both ON & OFF the field. A superb athlete, he was one of the most complete players of his day and to many OLD FOGEY'S like meself, is still the greatest performer the club has seen. Away from the game he did a vast amount of voluntary work for local boys' clubs and after his retirement he became a magistrate, a lay preacher and bursar of Liverpool University. The unselfishness and sense of duty that guided his life outside football was also echoed on the park. Billy was never anything less than a model professional.

Billy was unfortunate that for the greater part of his career at Anfield, there were not enough other players of his ability at the club. A very modest man, he would deny that he was forced to carry the team by himself for long periods of any game. The fact that our team was called by the nickname "Liddellpool" only proved to be an embarassment to our Billy. Liddell won 28 caps for Scotland, a figure that does no justice to his amazing skills. Billy's modest international career was only compensated for by the sheer ADULATION he earned from his beloved KOP.

On his full debut, after the war, the hat-trick he scored showed that the powerful outside-left intended wasting little time in making his presence felt. Although Albert Stubbins scored the goals that won the championship that year, Albert never hid the fact that the vast majority of his chances were carved out for him by Liddell. During the 50's Billy's goals often pulled Liverpool out of trouble. But throught the same period the team began to go into decline and even Billy's individual brilliance and bravery could not prevent them from dropping out of the top flight.

The task of trying to haul Liverpool to promotion grew tougher and tougher, and when Billy finally decided to hang up his boots in 1960 the Anfield side were still stranded in the Second Division. It took another Billy (SHANKS) to restore them to the top flight, but the exploits of OUR BILLY throughout his 20yr+ career devoted to Liverpool Football Club show that greatness should not always be measured by a single Championship medal. Fans should always remember that Billy was Liverpool Football Club. He was its spirit. He was also its honesty, he was its integrity, he was its heart, and last but not least, its passion.

To fans such as my Dad, Grandad and others of the pre-Bill Shankly generation he represented the true way the game should be played. The "Liddellpool" tag the club was awarded was no hype or coincidence. It was fact. My Dad always told me that Billy kept the team going virtually single-handed during that dispiriting eight year Second Division spell we endured in the fifties. I only saw Billy play once meself and so I have no real understanding of what he truly meant to the masses who adorned the KOP week in, week out.



Liverpudlians really did appreciate the knowledge that in "Our Billy" they possessed someone who was as good as any other footballer around including Mathews and Finney who were plying their trade at that time. Billy Liddell was the REAL DEAL. Billy's skills meant he was virtually unstoppable down either left or right wing, he was just as unstoppable at centre forward too. How hard he could hit that ball with either foot. His right foot was Dyamite and his left foot Thunder (borrowed from me DAD). Above all else he was a gentleman and a true sport. Whatever the provocation, whatever the circumstances, he was always a peerless ambassador for his club, his adopted City and his Country.

A man to be revered. I suppose it was the reverence for him that stood out above everything else. The sheer respect that existed for this truly unassuming man. Believe me when I say that, both Red and Blue alike had a mutual respect and awe of Billy Liddell. I have only ever encountered this for two others, one was Dixie Dean (another Billy) and the other was Bill Shankly himself. I think that says everything about the man.

Billy Liddell, I salute you. You were a true legend. You were my first footballing hero. You were the best of all because of your LOYALTY, you were ours alone. A true Hero. For the likes of me growing up in Liverpool during the late 50s, I am too young to have seen the man at his best, we simply hung onto the stories that our parents and families told, with a determination and gobsmacked awe. Liverpool were not the most successful side when I was a lad and we were desperate for any success (especially the FA Cup) which we still hadn't won and we were reminded daily by the snotty blue noses in our street. Even at that young age, deep down I knew our lowly place in the footballing echelon and craved success with every breath, but this was not something that you mentioned when talking to the SNOTTY's.

Every new season that started I stood firm in our street and shouted from up the tallest lampost that we would indeed win both the League and Cup that year. I had to be up the lampost they were all bigger than me and certainly too fat to climb a lampost. 40 years have passed now and I'm far too old to be climbing lamposts, but remember this....

You're never too old to stand in the middle of your street and scream at the top of your voice...

"LIVERPOOL ARE GONNA WIN THE CUP"
"LIVERPOOL ARE GONNA WIN THE PREM"
"LIVERPOOL ARE GONNA WIN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE"

and so the LEGEND grew ....................

The present generation of 30 to 40 year olds out there will no doubt one day reminisce themselves about King Kenny to their grandkids and rightly so, Kenny was the most outstanding talent of his time and deserves all the plaudits they will give him. Rushie will also have his apostles and his goals record I believe will never be beaten, that's right never!

So here goes.

Indulge me for a while and try and imagine with this Old Fogey if our greatest player Billy Liddell had been born in 1981 and had been blessed with half the footballing talent that those that saw him play knew he had.

He would now once again be a strapping 21 year old and just beginning his career. He'd have just signed a lucrative 5 year contract and would be a millionaire in the making. Liverpool and Scotland would be boasting a world class footballer, something Scotland would die for at the moment. The Kop would drool over his every touch and we would have a winger who was likely to score 20 goals a season. "3 goal a season" Damien Duff eat your heart out, this new winger can really play and has a ferocious shot in both boots. His popularity would not only rival that of Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen, it would dwarf it. The club shop would do a roaring trade in replica shirts emblazoned 'LIDDELL 11'. Funny really as Liddell played most of his games without a number.

The media would no doubt be full of speculation of the possibility of £35 million swoops from all the top European clubs, including the likes of Juventus, Inter or AC Milan, Real Madrid or Barcelona. But there would be no chance of Gerard Houllier parting with the jewel in the Anfield crown. Imagine as well a Liverpool attack boasting Liddell, Heskey, Baros, Owen and Diouf! I know it sounds daft, but in those days 2 wingers, 2 Insides and a Centre forward was the norm.

We would be the scourge of the Premiership and the giants of Europe would bend at the knee in his presence, but Billy Liddell would have probably hated it all as well, because he was a very modest man. He was above all the stuff and nonsense of the so called great players of today, Yes, there was only one Billy Liddell.

"One Billy Liddell, there's only one Billy Liddell,
"One Billy Liddell, there's only one Billy Liddell"

"He gets the ball, he scores a goal, Billy, Billy Liddell.

"I'd walk a million miles for one of your goals, oh BILLY"

"Left foot Goal, Right foot Goal, up with his head and its another Goal".

Hat-trick king Liddell strikes again. Billy strikes more often than the miners, Fords and Standards does together.



OK dream over, Billy came from a different era, but I still doubt he would have been seen celebrating a goal by running to the corner flag or worse diving along the floor. 'sniffing' the touch line? I think not. Also despite his God given talent he would never earn more than the majority of his team-mates of the forties and fifties. His career came to a finish with players earning around twenty quid a week, plus a few extra pound notes if they won and not the £40,000 a week earned today. Fair enough, back in the fifties that sort of money would have meant a reasonable standard of living, but it was hardly the sort of money that would allow a footballer to retire once he turned thirty, let alone drive around in custom made cars. You were more likely to see Billy riding a bike!

Today we fans often get criticised for daring to criticise the multi millionaires that are supposed to be entertaining us. The players did not create the ever increasing wage bill, rather it was directors who offered the money and lengthy contracts. So all this furore about asking players to take a cut should, well first tell their directors to look at their own wages and then beggar off. Following the Treble year, the Kopites were a happy bunch and so, no doubt, were all the players as their bank balances increased by a few more noughts. Throughout the nightmare nineties we had players earning a mere ten grand a week complaining that they were underpaid.

In Billy's day fans would vent their feelings, probably far more strongly than they do today, if they thought that someone wasn't pulling their weight, but even during the worst of times nobody could ever level that charge against Billy Liddell and the Famous Kop never booed the team off the pitch. No manager ever had to tell Billy Liddell to go out and do his best because Billy never gave anything less than his best in every game he played and he played EVERY week.

I argue with mates regularly about the pampered and over protected players of today. I am more of a cynic now than I ever was. People try and tell me how different the game is now and I have to agree that it has changed. But Billy Liddell never had the benefit of being part of a thirty-man squad. The manager couldn't rotate the team then and anyway if any of them had been brave enough to drop Billy Liddell the walls of the Kop would have come tumbling down around their ears. The game in the fifties might have been different but the likes of Billy Liddell would face uncompromising defenders week in week out and those defenders would have one thing on their mind and that would be to kick Billy Liddell as hard and as often as they could. Did Billy roll around the pitch like he'd been shot? Of course not, he just picked himself up and carried on. If someone kicked him on the right leg, he'd start shooting with his left, if someone kicked him in the left leg, he'd just shoot with his right.

Many defenders thought it wise to kick him in both legs, what was Billy's answer? Yes, you're right, he'd head the ball home from anywhere in the area. Can you think of any attacker now who can boast the same? Owen is a world class striker, there is no doubt in my mind, but I aint kidding when I say me Mam could kick a better ball with her left peg than Mikey. Heskey's talent of playing in a variety of roles and trying his best wherever he plays is admirable, but the chances of him scoring as regularly as Billy did is about as likely as the Mersey Tunnel stopping the toll (anyone old enough will remember it was only going to be tolled for the first year?).

Fowler was the next hero of mine after King Kenny hung up his boots, and I think his stance on the dockers strike earned him much deserved popularity, but his off the field activities often got him into trouble. Billy on the other hand spent a lot of his time helping boys clubs and never made the headlines unless it was refering to a game. Why? Well he didn't drink for a start. It also wasn't the done thing to go to a nightclub in Chester and show yer ARSEnal like another favourite player of mine. Here's where someone will pick holes in this, I dont think Billy was ever booked, let alone SENT OFF and as for getting locked up by the local plod, Billy never gave anyone the opportunity or the reason.

If players think that facing the likes of some of todays hard men is a chore they should think themselves lucky because in Billy's day they would come up against some real hard nuts, the sort that would have made Tommy Smith think twice. Billy would be out there facing the likes of Stan Milburn, Frank Mountford, Eddie Clamp, Maurice Setters, Alf Ramsey and a few others, and if you haven't heard of them, ask yer Dad or Granddad. Yet despite knowing that a kicking awaited him, you'd never question the desire or commitment of Billy Liddell.

In the fifties Billy Liddell was in an elite group of players. A group that included the likes of Stan Matthews, Tom Finney and the late great Duncan Edwards. I've written before about Duncan as my old fellah still goes on about what a talent he was. OK he played for the Mancs, but according to my Dad there had never been the likes of Duncan in his time. Hence references to Stevie G being Edwards-like is very high praise indeed. Stanley was a wizzard on the wing also according to the old fellah, but very one footed and scored goals only rarely. I believe Stanley only got more praise than Billy because he was English.

These were the players that everyone wanted to see play. Although Liverpool spent a good part of that decade in the second division the fans of our rivals loved it when Liverpool were due to pay a call. So did their club's chairman and treasurer because they knew that if Billy Liddell was in the Liverpool line-up then a few extra thousand would be added to the gate! Dads would take misty-eyed sons to games and those lads would soon tell their schoolmates, "I've seen Billy Liddell" play. The reason being was that fans of teams like Bristol Rovers, Doncaster Rovers, Grimsby or Leyton Orient didn't get too many opportunities of seeing a genuine world class player gracing their grounds. In fact to be honest in the fifties world class players weren't in great abundance anywhere on these shores, but Liverpool definitely had one.

I was a bit young to go to Anfield when Billy played, therefore never got the opportunity to watch him peel an orange with either foot (yes he was that good), but my one opportunity came at Holly Park, Garston (South Liverpool FC). Billy may have been past his sell by date, but the match will always remain special to me. It was the Billy Liddell International All Stars vs Merseyside Select XI. I'll never forget that match and the chance to see Billy play but had no momento of the game when recently, with the help of a mate Andy Roper, I was able to get hold of the programme from that match for just £6. Yes six quid! I dare not tell you how much I would have been prepared to go, you really will think I'd lost me marbles. (Special thanks once again to Andy - cheers la).

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.

He showed a LOYALTY to Liverpool unlike any player had ever done and in todays mercenary climate of playing for whoever pays the highest, Billy deserves a lot of respect and that is why so many of the older fans still sing his praises. On the other hand the club would never have dared sell him anyway because it would have led to a rebellion in the Red parts of the city and that is fact. Yet thinking back had Liverpool been brave enough and daft enough to have done just that, the money, even back then that a transfer would have commanded, would have been enough to have brought in at least three or four new players. However, such was the status and standing of Billy Liddell the idea would never have been even considered.

In September 1959 'King Billy' was presented on Sportsview with a cheque for £2,000 to mark his twenty years with the club. Yes, you're right £100 a season doesn't seem alot. However, It was a measure of his standing in the game that the BBC deemed it a worthy enough event to show on what was then Prime Time TV. Other players received awards like this, but they didn't televise them. They broke new ground that night did the BBC, and it was all for Billy Liddell. And don't forget Billy wasn't playing for one of the nation's top sides at the time, he was playing for a second division team called Liverpool.

Shortly after this Billy broke the Club appearance record and was awarded a drinks cabinet, yes, a drinks cabinet. Of course the funny thing was Billy was a teetotaller and you've got to think it was another Billy's sense of humour that picked the present. I can hear Shanks now, "make sure its got Scotch in it Billy when I come round with Nessie and the kids."


The only time I ever saw Billy Liddell at Anfield was when he strode onto the pitch at the 'Kop's Last Stand.' I was in tears, I really wish I could have seen him play when he was in his prime. I cried twice that night, anyone who could hold the tears back, when Nessie came on the pitch to roars from the Kop of "Shankly, Shankly" mustn't have had a heart. I wonder what he and the team would have achieved had he played for Shankly? I also wonder what he and the team would have achieved had he played for Paisley? I know it would have been hard to improve on Bob's record, but when Billy and Bob played together on the left for Liverpool they seemed to have a telepathic understanding.

We watch football now in an age where the also rans of the game get paid a king's ransom. We watch as other clubs honour their greats. Its a real sickener to me to see Denis Law honoured at Man Utd, after all he was the one who scored the goal that put the Mancs in Div 2 not so long back and they still honoured him!

None of them will ever be able to hold a candle to the man they called 'King Billy' and a smaller section referred to him as "William the Conquerer". God Bless you Billy, you will always have pride of place in our house mate, and I'm sure others who can remember your God given talent will always have a special place in their hearts.

One Footed Wonders of Today beware

Copyright - Wooltonian

Un seul mot résume à lui seul ce que fut ce joueur de légende pour le club: Liddellpool !

exactement.
un exemple de fidèlité au club.
pendant 8 ans où le club vegètait en D2,il n'a jamais voulu partir et portait l'équipe à bout de bras.

total respect à billy liddel.

Certains anciens disent qu'il est le meilleur joueur à avoir porté nos couleurs. Même meilleur que Dalglish. C'est dire !

my dad was an everton fan then his uncle took him to see liverpool and billy liddle, thank god ! because now he is a liverpool fan and so am i.

ant

et il a joué à quelle époque ?

naim_gerrard wrote:

et il a joué à quelle époque ?

L'immédiate après-guerre (45 ou 46) jusqu'à la fin des années 50. Je crois qu'il était même encore dans l'effectif au tout début des sixties, à pas loin de 40 ans.