WE HAD TO WIN IT FOR HILLSBOROUGH VICTIMS
Ian Rush nets the winner
Friday April 13,2012
By Daily Express reporter
LIVERPOOL'S FA Cup semi-final with neighbours Everton tomorrow will evoke memories of the Wembley finals in the mid-to-late Eighties, when Merseyside routinely decamped en masse to the capital. The last time the teams met at the national stadium was for the FA Cup final in 1989 in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster. EXPRESS SPORT relives the occasion and the game, which Liverpool won 3-2, through the words of some of the main protagonists.
Ray Houghton (Liverpool midfielder)
I can remember the weather was baking and some of the fans were allowed to sit on the track around the pitch because that many had come to the game.
Everyone knew somebody who had been affected by Hillsborough, whether it was a family member, a friend of a friend or someone they knew from the city. John Aldridge scored early on for us from a brilliant pass by Steve McMahon and that was a great moment for John.
Hillsborough had a deep affect on him because he was a local boy, but the goal also helped him exorcise the ghost of his penalty miss against Wimbledon the previous year in the final.
Steve McMahon (Liverpool midfielder)
We started the game like a house on fire, which I think everyone expected, flying out of the blocks.
We wanted to win desperately, make no mistake about that
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Steve McMahon |
I don't remember too much for the opening goal. I made a run, Steve Nicol found me and Aldo (John Aldridge) put the pass away brilliantly. Only four minutes had gone so I knew this was going to be our day.
Kevin Ratcliffe (Everton defender)
To be honest, I never really had a good feeling about the game.
There was such a wave of emotion behind Liverpool because of what happened at Hillsborough that it was tough.
The world wanted them to win. I understood that. We started badly, but managed to hang on in there and when we equalised in injury-time I hoped we would go on and win.
Stuart McCall (Everton midfielder)
There were four of us fighting for the two places on the bench – myself, Neil Pointon, Wayne Clarke and Ian Wilson – and I remember worrying that I wouldn't make the cut. After lunch we went back to our rooms and Colin Harvey, the manager, was walking up the stairs behind me. He said nothing as he went up the first flight and I'm thinking, 'That's not good. Speak to me'. Then he just said, 'Macca, you're on the bench today'. Cue a huge sigh of relief.
With it being so hot, I thought I'd get a chance to come on in the game and I replaced Paul Bracewell after an hour.
We were pressing and pressing towards the end of normal time and eventually Pat Nevin got a cross in, Bruce Grobbelaar pushed it out and I bundled it in. I was deadly from a foot away.
It's only afterwards on TV that I saw Steve Nicol had taken a swipe at me with his boot as I got up to celebrate. The thing was I used to give him lifts from Liverpool up to Scotland on international weeks as well, so that was some way to treat me. But he could have taken a swing with a sledgehammer and I would have got back up.
Steve Nicol (Liverpool defender)
Yes, I was just so p****d off, I took a kick at him. Not the smartest thing I've ever done and it's a good job I missed him. We're good mates as well. It was stupid.
McMahon
The equaliser was a blow, but we were a fantastic team and so there was never any case of panicking. We just stuck to our principles and believed we would take the lead again.
Graeme Sharp (Everton striker)
Everyone remembers the final for what it stood for, but you forget that it was actually a great game as well. Liverpool's early goal, then ours in injury-time, the ebb and flow in extra-time.
We wanted to win desperately, make no mistake about that. I lived next door to Ronnie Whelan at the time, so there was plenty riding on the game. Rushy gave Liverpool the lead back, but when Stuart scored again to make it 2-2, I thought, 'This it. We're going to lift the cup'.
McCall
I think Alan Hansen headed a free-kick out and I controlled it and then caught a volley just right for the second goal. It wasn't a battered finish. I hit it sweetly but quite softly and it just went in the corner.
I became the first substitute to ever score two goals in the FA Cup final and then three minutes later Rushy, who was also a substitute, grabbed his second and the winner from a great cross from John Barnes.
It's nice for my kids that I scored two goals in an FA Cup final, but I'd have swapped it all for a 1-0 win and to lift the cup. I don't even know where my losers' medal is now.
Nicol
What can you say about Rushy and Barnesy? You would look at them on the pitch and think they can always pull something out of the bag. Rush, the club's record goalscorer, speaks for itself and Barnes at his best was just unstoppable, pure magic.
McMahon
Once we came to terms with playing football again after Hillsborough, there was only one team going to win the final.
Nottingham Forest were never going to win the rearranged semi-final and Everton were never going to win at Wembley.
We had to win it for the fans who had lost their lives and their families.
We celebrated that night, yes. There had been weeks and weeks and weeks of trauma and hell so we let our hair down a bit. The feeling was of sheer relief in lots of ways.
Sharp
Wembley is a place to win, it's not a place to lose and I lost twice for Everton against Liverpool in finals. That feeling is horrible, believe me.
I think more pressure will be on Kenny Dalglish than David Moyes and if Everton continue the form they have shown of late, they have a good chance to reach the final.LIVERPOOL'S FA Cup semi-final with neighbours Everton tomorrow will evoke memories of the Wembley finals in the mid-to-late Eighties, when Merseyside routinely decamped en masse to the capital.
The last time the teams met at the national stadium was for the FA Cup final in 1989 in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster.
Express Sport relives the occasion and the game, which Liverpool won 3-2, through the words of some of the main protagonists.
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