The next few weeks will see the culmination of another EFL Cup campaign and in its sixty-four-year existence, the competition has undergone a series of changes as well as fluctuations in its prestige.
In its early years, the League Cup, as it was commonly known, was often derided and participation was not compulsory for the first ten years of its existence. One of the last sides to commit to entering the tournament regularly was Liverpool, who after contesting the initial tournament in 1960-61, refused to do so again until the 1967-68 season.
At the time of writing, the Anfield men hold the record for most successes in the competition, having taken the trophy nine times, one ahead of Manchester City, and are primed to face Fulham in the two-legged semi-final.
Back in 1983-84, Liverpool and Fulham also locked horns in the competition but should Klopp’s men prevail and go on to make it a double-figures of success in the competition, they will have played a mere six games in total which is in stark contrast to the thirteen games played by Joe Fagan’s cohort four decades ago.
As indicated, the competition’s format has changed considerably over the years and while nowadays there are no replays, and sides that have qualified for Europe do not enter until the third round of the competition, the layout was somewhat different forty years ago. Back then, all First Division sides entered the competition in the second round which was played over two legs.
Early rounds and record lows
Liverpool were drawn against Third Division Brentford, with the first leg being played at Griffin Park on 25 October 1983. A very healthy crowd of 17,859 saw Brentford go toe-to-toe with a full-strength Liverpool side and head in at half-time deservedly level at 1-1. Unfortunately for the Bees, Liverpool turned on the style in the second half and ran in three goals from Michael Robinson, Graeme Souness and Ian Rush to pretty much render the second leg at Anfield three weeks later superfluous.
The Anfield faithful pretty much agreed with the pointlessness of the second leg and all but 9,092 hardy souls gave the match a swerve altogether. In front of Liverpool’s lowest-ever attendance for a competitive match (Covid excepting), another full-strength Liverpool side ran out 4-0 winners on the night and 8-1 on aggregate.
Thus, Liverpool were through to the third round and a clash with Fulham, then managed by Malcolm McDonald. Fulham had been promoted from the Third Division in 1982 and had gone within a whisker of a second successive promotion the previous season before finally being pipped at the post by Leicester City. Under McDonald, the Craven Cottage side were building a reputation for playing attractive football, but Liverpool were still expected to make short work of dispatching the West London side.
Well, three games and 326 minutes of football later, Liverpool captain Graeme Souness scored the goal that finally saw off Fulham and put Liverpool into the last sixteen. In the first game at Craven Cottage, Kevin Lock gave the Second Division side the lead before Ian Rush equalised a couple of minutes later; while Kenny Dalglish put the Reds in front in the Anfield replay only for Lock to tie this up again from the spot to necesitate a third game back in London.
With the tie once more into extra time and looking like a fourth game would be required to separate the sides, Souness stepped up with four minutes to go and so set up a Fourth Round trip to Birmingham City.
The week before Christmas saw Liverpool and Birmingham clash twice in three days as a 1-1 draw at St. Andrews was followed up by a more decisive 3-0 replay victory for Liverpool back at Anfield with Steve Nicol scoring and Ian Rush getting a brace.
The last eight and a windy battle
This set Liverpool up nicely for a clash with Howard Wilkinson’s Sheffield Wednesday side at Hillsborough in the quarter-final. Wilkinson had taken over from Jack Charlton in the summer and was overseeing a promotion push, so interest in the game was such that 49,357 people braved a freezing cold January evening and in doing so witnessed a classic.
Liverpool playing without the injured Kenny Dalglish, injured in a horrific clash with Manchester United’s Kevin Moran a couple of weeks earlier, settled better on a plough of a field and in terribly windy conditions, with Steve Nicol putting the Reds ahead on 20 minutes with an exquisite chip. Wednesday hit back and were level before halftime through Gary Megson. When Mark Lawrensonson put through his own goal early in the second half, Liverpool were fighting to stay in the competition. Digging deep in the appalling conditions, Liverpool dragged themselves back in the game courtesy of a Phil Neal penalty following a foul on Ian Rush, and the two sides had to settle for a 2-2 and yet another replay for Liverpool a week later.
Back at Anfield another 40,485 spectators turned up to see the two sides do battle. This time the conditions were more conducive for attractive football, and although Wilkinson’s Sheffield Wednesday side were developing a reputation for directness, a tactic they employed to the extreme in the first game at Hillsborough, in the replay a good game actually broke out.
An Ian Rush goal was all that separated the sides at halftime, and the longer the second half went on, the more Wednesday came back into the match and put Liverpool under pressure. Just when it was looking like Liverpool might be pegged back and forced into extra time once again, a sharp counterbreak move led to Michael Robinson going on a run and scoring a fine individual goal.
A second from Rush with a couple of minutes remaining gave the scoreline a lopsided appearance and Liverpool were through to a two-legged semi-final against Walsall of the Third Division.
With Merseyside rivals, Everton, also making it to the last four and being drawn against Aston Villa, the possibility of the first-ever Scouse final was still on the cards, but if Liverpool thought Walsall would be a walk in the park, they had another thing coming.
A near-miss in more than one sense: semi-final action
In the Anfield first leg, Liverpool huffed and puffed while Walsall, roared on by 9,000 supporters, rose to the occasion and refused to be overawed. Twice Ronnie Whelan gave Liverpool the lead and twice Walsall hit back to emerge with a highly creditable 2-2 draw. Far from being outplayed, such was Walsall’s performance on the night that they were somewhat unfortunate to be leaving the home of the champions with merely a draw.
When the second leg came around just seven days later, Liverpool faced a crowd officially stated as 19,591 but thought to be significantly larger. Walsall’s old Fellows Park stadium was creaking at its foundations under the weight of supporters desperate to see the match and when Ronnie Whelan scored early in the second half to put Liverpool two ahead on the night, it was only by the grace of a higher power that a tragedy was averted.
As Whelan’s effort hit the back of the net in front of the travelling Liverpool fans, a surge by supporters down the crumbling terraces behind the goal led to the perimeter wall collapsing and several dozen fand being crushed on the pitch. Had there been fences up, then there would almost certainly have been numerous fatalities.
As it was, play was held up for several minutes as players from both sides dived into the crowd to help those affected by the crush.
When play finally resumed, Liverpool saw the game out to a 2-0 victory and so secured yet another trip to Wembley.
Liverpool played both legs of their semi-final before battle commenced at all in the other semi between Everton and Villa, so Joe Fagan and his merry men could put their collective feet up and watch as the Toffees took a 2-0 lead to Villa Park. Although the home side prevailed in the second leg, it was by the only goal of the game and so Merseyside had its long-awaited first-ever Wembley derby match to look forward to.
Merseyside, Merseyside, Merseyside!
The final was to be the first-ever League Cup Final to be shown live on television, and the first-ever to be played on a Sunday. Wembley was, needless to say, a 100,000 sell-out, with thousands of ticketless fans locked outside. Played on a desperate day weather-wise, the match turned out to be a 120-minute-long battle of attrition with no goals to show for it, with the balance of play swinging first one way then the other.
Everton took the game to the favourites in the first half and could well have been two or goals ahead at the break. They felt they were denied a blatant penalty when Alan Hansen handled an Adrian Heath shot on the goal line in the eighth minute, but referee Alan Robinson remarkably waved play on. Forty years on, and Evertonians across the globe complain about the decision to this day.
Liverpool came back into the match in the second half and peppered the Everton goal but to no avail with Neville Southall in imperious form. When the final whistle blew, the two teams traipsed up the 39 steps to shake hands with the Queen Mother before combining for a lap of honour together.
The replay (remember them?) took place five days later at Maine Road, and this time Liverpool came out of the blocks a little quicker. In the twenty-first minute, Liverpool skipper, Graeme Souness miscontrolled a pass from Phil Neal but took advantage of the fortuitous bounce of the ball to slam a twenty-yard shot past Southall and put the Reds into the lead.
Despite both sides going at each other hammer and tongs, there was to be no further addition to the scoreline and so finally Liverpool got their hands on the trophy, sponsored by the Milk Board. It was Liverpool’s fourth successive victory in the competition and finally, after 13 games in front of around 400,000 spectators in total, Souness could hold the cup aloft.
