Liverpool v Leeds, League. 10th October 1981. I was six, and stood in the Anfield Road. Didn't really know what the point was, and standing for 45 minutes was too much for me - I thought half time was the end of the game, and asked my dad if we were going home! I believe that season was the last standing in the Anfield Road.
We won 3-0, Rush (18, 89), Cherry OG (26).
Liverpool: Grobbelaar, Neal, A Kennedy, Thompson, Lawrenson, R Kennedy, Dalglish, Lee, Rush, McDermott, Souness.
Leeds: Lukic, Hird, F Gray, Hamson (Stephenson), Hart, Cherry, Harris, Graham, Thomas, E Gray, Barnes
Attendance: 35,840 (HODGSON!!!)
Bloody hell, just seen this report - I was at the game when Rush finally scored his first league goals for the club. Never knew that! Only scored another 333 for the club!
In a game that we dominated from start to finish, Ian Rush scored his first league goals for Liverpool. They came after an unhappy six months for the Welshman and ensured he would never again be out of the team as some great psychological work by Bob Paisley paid dividends.
Rush signed for #300,000 at the end of 1979-80 and made a handful of appearances in 1980-1 without finding the net. When he failed to make the bench for the European Cup Final against Real Madrid he thought about moving away from Anfield and was hardly boosted when Bob Paisley said he wasn't scoring enough for the reserves.
Rush responded by scoring five goals from the first five reserve games in 1981-82 and an eye injury to David Johnson led to him being selected for a League Cup tie with Exeter. Two goals in this game saw him keep his place the following Saturday for the visit of Leeds as Johnson had still not recovered. But there was disappointment for another youngster, Ronnie Whelan, who dropped back to the bench to make way for Ray Kennedy.
The Reds were struggling, lying in an uncharacteristic 13th, but Leeds were doing even worse. They were on the bottom of the table and had won just one of their opening nine games. This led them to splash out #400,000 on Kenny Burns but the club failed to complete his medical in time to play at Anfield.
After losing the toss and being forced to kick into the Kop in the first half, the Reds went straight for the jugular and hit the post twice in the opening five minutes. First, Rush's shot was deflected onto the post by Hird before going widethen Souness? shot from the edge of the box struck a post and was cleared. It was a certainty that we would take the lead and on 18 minutes Souness found Rush who beat Lukic to squeeze the ball just inside the post and celebrate in front of the Kop like a headless chicken.
Ian RushLeeds were offering nothing and immediately afterwards Kenny Dalglish shot just over the bar and then inches wide. After 26 minutes the inevitable second came when Trevor Cherry turned Ray Kennedy's cross into his own net. Dalglish almost scored another straight away when he hit the bar from a free kick after Sammy Lee had been brought down just outside the area. Leeds finally had a shot in the 37th minute but Grobbelaar easily saved Frank Gray's speculative long-range effort.
In the second half we continued where we left off, with full backs Phil Neal and Alan Kennedy pushing forward at every opportunity and Lee's bursting energy causing constant problems. Dalglish was involved in every build up as well as getting into positions to score himself. He glanced a header wide and tried an audacious chip that went over the bar. On another occasion he set up Rush but Lukic managed to save from close range.
Around the hour mark Leeds rallied very briefly and Grobbelaar was called into serious action for the first time when he saved from Eddie Gray and Paul Hart. But #900,000 buy Peter Barnes was totally lacking in confidence and enthusiasm and after this small flurry they offered nothing else.
With a minute to go the Reds got the comprehensive result the performance deserved when Rush slid the ball in from close range. Then in injury time Dalglish failed to get the goal his display merited when he screwed his shot just wide. After the game Leeds assistant boss Howard Wilkinson offered no excuses, saying 'Liverpool had us running round in circles'.
Rush's performance meant that he would never again be droppedby Bob Paisley. The boss's words had had just the desired effect, making him greedy for goals rather than looking to lay the ball off. He went on to become the club's record scorer, with 337 goals in all competitions. Ironically, when Rush's Reds career ended in 1996 he joined Leeds and spent one season there before moving on to Newcastle.
