A rivalry is born: The day Liverpool relegated Manchester United
Kristian Walsh rewinds to 1894 to look at the first meeting between the Reds and United
April 28, 1894
Liverpool 2-0 Newton Heath (Gordon, Bradshaw)
Liverpool and Manchester United always seemed destined to be rivals from their first meeting, almost 120 years ago, when Liverpool effectively relegated United (then known as Newton Heath) at Ewood Park with a 2-0 Test match victory.
The game effectively acted as a play-off between the two sides, determining whether Liverpool, champions of the Second Division, or Newton Heath, bottom of the First Division, would play in England's top-flight.
Effectively. Victory was not enough for Liverpool to be automatically promoted into the First Division. Instead, they would have to be elected by the league.
Goals from Patrick Gordon and Harry Bradshaw within the opening half-an-hour ensured the league would have a dilemma – one that they would eventually vote in Liverpool's favour.
The Liverpool ECHO wrote of “each place sending a strong contingent of supporters” to Ewood Park, which was selected as the neutral venue. The paper also reported how the Reds – well, at that point, the Light Blue and Whites – undertook special preparation in Hightown ahead of the fixture.
Liverpool started strongly. The Liverpool Mercury, which would later become the Liverpool Daily Post, felt the match itself deserved little comment because “so superior did Liverpool prove themselves in every department over Newton Heath”.
The Mercury continued: “It may be truthfully stated that the Liverpool team had fairly got the measure of their antagonists, who never at any period of the game afterwards played with confidence or showed signs of winning, or even of holding their own”.
It was no surprise. Liverpool had won the Second Division unbeaten, eight points clear of Small Heath (now Birmingham City), having won 22 and drawn six of their 28 games.
Newton Heath, by contrast, had been far more green than gold, winning just six of their 30 First Division fixtures and finishing five points adrift of Darwen at the bottom of Division One.
The first goal came from outside-right Gordon, heading on a powerful shot by the stocky Duncan McLean, with 20 minutes played.
Ten minutes later, Liverpool went 2-0 ahead – inevitable given the siege laid upon John Fall's goal. Bradshaw, who scored his 10th of the season, put the gloss on a fine first season with a club after his move from Northwich Victoria.
”Liverpool then racing off in good combination, several good shots being sent in to Fall, who kept a good goal, but was beaten by a grand shot from Bradshaw after some clever passing by the right wing and centre,” the ECHO reported.
United came back, but both Andrew Hannah and McLean were playing well, and saw out the two-goal win. “The Liverpool halves [who] have rarely played a better game,” the ECHO continued.
The Mercury focused on the tactical intricacies. “The game was virtually settled after an half an hour's play, when the Liverpool forwards by smarter and more methodical football had secured two goals.”
It continued: “These points were so magnificently worked for that it took the sting – if they ever possessed any – out of the Heathens completely, whose forward play was almost useless against the fine half-back tactics of [John] McCartney, [Joe] McQue and [Jim] McBride.”
The Mercury were loathe to single out particular players, but did mention the performances of McBride, Bradshaw and Gordon, the latter two “for the meritorious manner in which they in particular brought about the downfall of the Manchester team”.
Praise was also reserved for Hugh McQueen, who “utilised his opportunities to the utmost” - this despite “nearly being drowned at Southport baths on Friday”. Further information on his brush with death is frustratingly sparse.
With the season over, the Mercury wrote of how the season deserved “nothing but credit and congratulation...to both the team and executive”, both for choosing the players and training so well.
It added: “The achievements of the team have aroused an enormous amount of curiosity and interest throughout the country, and have made them about the best drawing club of the season.”
The match came in the same year when tensions between the two cities had emerged over Manchester's construction of the Manchester Ship Canal - the city of Liverpool's protestations meant supporters were unable to gain the necessary Act of Parliament to allow the scheme to go ahead until 1885.
If that was the start of an inter-city rivalry, then this could be considered the start of the rivalry between the two football clubs; that the two aspects are so intertwined is no coincidence.
First blood went to Liverpool, but there have been plenty of opportunities for both to draw some more ever since.
