Observer Sports Monthly: 50 hearbreaking moments: number 27
Remember 1989? This is from today's Observer. A reconstruction by Andrew Hussey of events then. I understand that Hussey has written quite a bit about the events in Heysel.
The final match, the final minute - a city looks on in disbelief
Arsenal's moment of ecstasy was agony for Liverpool fans, including Andrew Hussey, as the league title was prised away from a club still mourning Hillsborough
26 May 1989, Anfield, Liverpool
There have been many dark moments in the history of Liverpool FC, most notoriously the deadly hooliganism led by the club's fans at the Heysel stadium in Brussels in 1985, which resulted in the death of 39 innocent people, mostly Juventus supporters, and the catastrophe at Hillsborough, in 1989, when 96 Liverpool fans died as a result of a crush. Both events have cast a dark shadow over the history of the team, which has never quite gone away. (Notice how blame is attributed in Heysel but not Hillsborough)
In pure football terms, the true moment of horror for any Liverpool fan came in the final minute of the final game of the 1988-89 season. Arsenal, needing to win by at least two goals to take the Championship, were 1-0 ahead - and so Liverpool were poised for another Double - when midfielder Michael Thomas scored the goal that stole the title.
The experience of defeat was too raw for many Liverpool fans and players; David O'Leary, then of Arsenal, remembers being told to '**** off' when he tried to help an exhausted but still snarling Liverpool player, John Aldridge, to his feet. Today, no Liverpool fan can think of that night at Anfield without recalling the complacency and poor defending at the vital hour - and an almost physical pain.
The 1989 season had been overshadowed by Hillsborough on 15 April. Life in the city had been hard enough throughout the unemployment-ridden 1980s. The cliches that music and football offered the only creative outlet for the city's youth were all too real. Then came Hillsborough, which made it seem, even to non-superstitious fans, that some obscure vengeance was being wreaked on the city. The collective guilt over Heysel - which had never properly been dealt with - revisited Liverpool fans as they began to mourn their own dead. Nobody who was in the city at the time could forget the eerie atmosphere as news of the deaths was reported first in Lime Street station and then in the surrounding streets, which were stilled into silence at the height of a busy Saturday afternoon.
So the local wisdom before the Arsenal game was that for Liverpool to take the Championship would not only be a sporting achievement but would also, in that deeply Catholic city, help to atone for Hillsborough. 'We're playing for the dead of Hillsborough,' was the mantra of the players in the run-up to the match. (Liverpool does have a large Catholic population and it is the spiritual centre for Catholics in the North of England but it is a majority non-Catholic city)
After the team had resumed with a goalless draw at Everton on 3 May, four league wins had taken the Reds three points clear of the long-term leaders, Arsenal. George Graham's side now had to beat Liverpool by two goals in their Anfield fortress - a feat which in those days of the Reds' supremacy seemed impossible - to take the Championship on goal difference.
Liverpool had beaten Everton in the FA Cup in a 3-2 thriller a week earlier and, as they marched out on to the pitch to 'You'll Never Walk Alone', they seemed invincible. This was the heroic, attacking team of John Aldridge, Peter Beardsley and John Barnes, all famous for their flair and passion, and led by the steely player-turned-coach Kenny Dalglish. By comparison, Arsenal were a dour collection of drinkers, dilettantes and hard men - the team of Paul Merson, Lee Dixon, Tony Adams and Steve Bould. Liverpool fans reserved a special dislike for Arsenal - and their supporters, Cockney wideboys to a man. These were the people who had chanted 'Murderers!' at Liverpool fans in the bleak and emotionally fraught months after Heysel. The Anfield cauldron was ready to exult in the much deserved humbling of an ancient foe.
The match never went Liverpool's way. In a tense, goalless first half, Arsenal calmly threatened to take control. Then, in the 52nd minute, Alan Smith headed past Bruce Grobbelaar to score the first goal. Liverpool players surrounded the referee, claiming that the pass had been an indirect free-kick from Nigel Winterburn and Smith had never touched the ball. The game was now on a knife-edge, the Kop silenced. Arsenal were a constant threat, but the clock seemed to be against them.
It was the 92nd minute when the impossible became a reality. Thomas dashed forward with a flick-on from Smith and chipped the ball over an amazed Grobbelaar. Our Scouse hearts were broken all over again.