by Amy Lawrence
ALAN SMITH:
They were all gathered round the ref. They were appealing. What’s going on? We’re thinking, oh no. Offside? I knew I wasn’t offside. Did I get a touch? I had quite a lot of mud there, which looked good because it made people think that was from the contact. But it was a two-pronged appeal.
DAVE HUTCHINSON:
I looked at my linesman, Geoff Banwell, and he followed my instructions. Right to the very letter. I said if a goal is scored and you’re happy I want you to go back as quickly as you can and hit that centre line and if you’ve got players chasing you go beyond the centre line and my reasoning for that is that if a player goes beyond the centre line he’s had half a pitch to calm down and he deserves to be introduced to my yellow card then. Geoff was on his way as soon as that ball was in the net.
ALAN SMITH:
The ref has got this huddle surrounding him, all the vocal boys: Ronnie Whelan, Steve McMahon. Alan Hansen getting in the ref’s ear. Dave O’Leary was our sole spokesperson. Senior man. Go on, Paddy. Go on. Tell them it was a goal. But you’re thinking, no, 90 per cent chance he’s going to disallow this for whatever reason.
STEVE BOULD:
It was just a strange atmosphere. I don’t think anybody in the ground really knew if we’d scored or not.
DAVID O’LEARY:
I kept saying to the referee and the linesman, don’t you get talked out of it. That’s a goal. It was only seconds but seemed to be ages. I was thinking, don’t you change your mind.
DAVE HUTCHINSON:
The Liverpool players were surrounding me. It wasn’t a nasty vitriolic sort of protest. There was frustration and the theme that was heard from one voice and then two voices then three voices – go and talk to your linesman – and I had no need to in my book. I was convinced Smith had nudged it in but how do you manage a situation like that? You’ve got everybody in the country looking at it. I don’t want to start booking players unnecessarily so I said, OK, I’ll go and talk to him. I was so confident in what I was going to be told that I thought, if it gets the players off my back … I said, leave me alone while I go and talk to him and I went across to Geoff and I said, Geoff, I’ve given a goal, some questions. Did I put my arm up for an indirect free-kick? He said yes, you did. I said was there an offside? No. Was there a foul or any other reason why I shouldn’t allow the goal? He said no, none at all.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
To be quite honest I had no idea what was going on. You are just waiting and waiting as if you’re going to explode.
PAUL MERSON:
I’m sure it came off Alan’s nose. Phil Thompson tells a good story. He was on the Liverpool bench that night. Kenny Dalglish said, ‘Thommo, go down and see if he’s touched that. Have a look.’ Thommo said he watched it in the tunnel about three or four times and he came back and said he touched it. Fair play, though, as the linesman could have melted.
JIM ROSENTHAL:
I’m watching the monitor and I think the Liverpool players protested because they felt they should. I don’t think they actually knew what they were protesting about. As far as I could see it was a legitimate goal and it was underlined on the replay.
DAVE HUTCHINSON:
So, I turned. It’s a goal, lads. I went back to the centre and thankfully the Liverpool lads just moved away and got on with the game and for the rest of the game I can’t recall a single Liverpool player having a crack at me about the goal. They got on with it.
ALAN SMITH:
When he pointed to the centre spot we were thinking, wow. He’s been strong there. What a decision.
GARY LEWIN:
On the bench when the ref gave it we all went mad. Game on.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
Afterwards we were told that both the referee and the linesman knew it was a goal but they did that just to quieten the game down. It didn’t quieten me down I can assure you. Ha ha ha. At the time I was caught up in the moment really. Everything was going to plan.
ALAN SMITH:
We did practise that free-kick until we were blue in the face and it did actually work on the big day finally, after all those weeks and months of it falling flat on its face. Yeah, about time that came off, lads, wasn’t it? I said something similar to the gaffer. See that free-kick? It’s about time it worked.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
When we got the goal you start to realise: wow. The manager has just stood there and said if we score they’re going to panic. We knew after what George had said, getting into the lead, getting that first goal, was so, so important. As the Arsenal end just erupts you know, boy, something special could happen here. You’ve got that massive high but then all of a sudden, you’ve got to recompose yourself again because one’s not enough. You’ve got to get another one.
JOHN LUKIC:
When Alan scores the goal, that’s when it all changed for me. At that moment, the whole thing turned on its head because at that point you’re at a tipping point in a game. You’ve now got half a chance of winning the league so you know now above all else you can’t concede. Had we conceded I think that would have been a long road back. So my concentration levels as soon as Alan scored have gone through the roof.
BRIAN MOORE:
Merson … Richardson … A chance here, Thomas … and Grobbelaar was able to grab it! Suddenly Thomas totally unmarked deep inside the Liverpool penalty area, and what a golden opportunity that was …
PAUL MERSON:
Mickey missed an unbelievable chance to score. I thought that was it.
ALAN SMITH:
It was a bit of a stabby toe poke.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
I wanted to throttle him. Ha ha.
MICHAEL THOMAS:
Oh, stop it, will you? Stop it. God, I’ll always get that. Oh no! That chance. I don’t know. When the ball came to me on the edge of the box and I turned I just thought I had no time. I had two players right beside me so I tried to toe punt it in and … pfft. When you see it now on telly you think, oh, bloody look at the chance you had. But at the time I felt I had no time to do what I wanted to do and so I just basically rushed it. I hate looking at that and getting told about that.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
If I was bigger and stronger and brave enough – oh, what did I want to do to him at that moment! It was the best chance of the game. He’s pretty much around the penalty spot, maybe a little bit further back. It’s a scuffer, hits it straight along the ground and Grobbelaar said, thank you very much, that’s it, the league title is ours. It was an unbelievable chance. Oh, Mickey was so calm as well. Nothing gets under his skin. Nothing.
LEE DIXON:
I went: that’s it. I remember thinking, typical Mickey, with his languid finishing style.
MICHAEL THOMAS:
At the time I thought, I’ve missed that chance but I know I’ll get another one. I believed I’d get another chance.
JOHN LUKIC:
It would have been nice if it had gone in but had it gone in you think you’ve got a long 15 to 20 minutes to hang on. Which would’ve been quite interesting.
BRIAN MOORE:
Quarter of an hour left. Remember Arsenal need two goals. At the moment they have one. If it stays this way Liverpool will be champions for the 19th time. But will it stay this way …?
JEFF FOULSER:
The longer it went on the more you thought there could be something on here. I listened to Brian Moore’s magical commentary – and he was in my view the best in the business. He was the master of making the viewer feel that something special was just about to happen and he created that sense in our OB truck that maybe, maybe, there is something going on here. As the game went on and on and we got down to the last few minutes we had a little clock, a little graphic, running. There were no running scores or times on the screen in those days, which is impossible to believe now. Every single sport has got a running scoreline. We didn’t have that because the technology wasn’t up to it. But we had this little digital clock th
at was counting up towards the 90 minutes and I said to the director, ‘Let’s put that on the screen.’ It had never been done. There had never been a running clock on a football match before and he said, ‘No, no, it’ll look shit.’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter. The story is more important than how it looks!’ He went, ‘All right then.’ So, he put it up there.
JIM ROSENTHAL:
As the clock ticks towards 90 I’m getting ready to talk to Kenny, who was not the greatest if I’m honest in front of a camera. He didn’t like doing it but I am preparing to talk to him about the year they’ve had, about being a Double winner.
DAVID PLEAT:
One of the things that comes out of the game, which was made famous through Nick Hornby and Fever Pitch, concerns one thought I was trying to make on the night and the phrase didn’t come out quite right. Somebody reminded me of the exact words recently: ‘I think in a way if Arsenal are to lose the championship having had such a lead at one time it is somewhat poetic justice that they have got a result on the last day.’ Brian Moore nudged me and said, ‘They would see that as small consolation I would think, David.’ Whenever I did a commentary the first thing I thought about afterwards was have I made any faux pas? Usually I hope to have done OK. The amazing thing was whenever I commentated on Arsenal I almost went out of my way to make sure there was not a hint of bias in any shape or form.
TONY ADAMS:
It did change gear and we were running out of time. I did sense that and decided to run around like a lunatic. I don’t know, I think I lost my head a little bit. Luckily those around me kept calm, in particular Kevin Richardson, good pros that just steadied the ship. But I was getting anxious. Sometimes you get so carried away and so vain you think you can win the game on your own or you try too hard, stupid hard, and I remember chasing Barnesy and chasing someone else and being out of position and just running around.
ALAN SMITH:
There’s not a clock in the stadium like there is today so you look across to the bench or ask the ref. How long? You’re hearing the high-pitched whistles coming from the Kop particularly begging the ref to blow the final whistle.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
With a minute or two minutes to go I thought, we’ve given it our best shot. We’ve been absolutely superb. The way we’d planned it, the way the lads carried it out on the pitch, it was superb. I was a bit down because we’ve given it everything and it’s not happened. I was thinking, what do you say to the fans and the press? You know, we’ve just lost by winning one-nothing. We’ve done our best. I felt really low.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
I knew it was getting pretty late in the game. I had no idea about the time. You’re so wrapped up in what’s going on and what you’re trying to achieve. You’re so focused and I suppose you are dreaming, if I’m honest, that you’re going to get another chance.
BRIAN MOORE:
Richardson is down with a leg injury … and he’s still down but Arsenal want to go on. 41,783 is the crowd here at Anfield and not a soul has left before the final whistle, you can be sure. Treatment for Kevin Richardson, the referee will have to add on time. Unless there is an amazing and dramatic twist now it looks like Liverpool, David.
GARY LEWIN:
I ran on to Kevin. I remember having a conversation with him while I was stretching his leg out. ‘You’ve got to carry on, mate. You’ve got to carry on.’ He said, gimme a sec. I was stretching his hamstring and then relaxing it and I pulled him up and ran off as he carried on. I was just worried we were going to run out of time. Theo said, there can’t be long left, but I knew there was another two minutes of stoppage time as Kevin had been down for ages.
BRIAN MOORE:
One minute to go. McMahon has got the word from the Kop obviously. But nobody knows exactly how much time the referee will add on … The faces of the players are something to behold at the moment.
LEE DIXON:
Obviously, we didn’t see that happen on the night. Steve McMahon and the one-minute signal has become an iconic thing. I always say it to my friends, you know. Instead of one minute, ‘Oh, I’ll be there in a Steve McMahon.’ I didn’t see him do it on the pitch. I just remember at the time I presumed it wasn’t long to go. Just after that moment I actually asked the referee. How long to go? He just went, ‘It’s done.’ It’s over.
JOHN LUKIC:
I roughly knew that it was all over. You can tell by looking at the opposition.
STEVE BOULD:
The whole night was a really strange, surreal atmosphere. I felt we’d done a gallant job but not quite good enough.
BRIAN MOORE:
Just a few seconds more now for Kenny Dalglish unless Arsenal can mount something absolutely spectacular in the minutes that remain.
MICHAEL THOMAS:
After Kevin Richardson went down injured I said to Richo that I’m just going to break forward now. You’d best hold the fort. I’m just going to look for another goal somewhere and he was like, OK, no problem.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
John Barnes went behind me down the right-hand side. So there’s little that I can do. I can’t affect the game. I’m thinking as everybody else is thinking: why is John Barnes not going to the corner flag and flicking it up and booting it out the stand? Everyone would do that, wouldn’t they? But you’re talking about John Barnes. Skilful winger. Unbelievable player. Liverpool Football Club have been brought up and built up on playing and passing and scoring goals. Of course, he’s not going to go to the corner flag. He’s going to go and try and score. Well I’m so pleased he did try and go and score. Because history has been changed by him doing that and Richo comes in and tackles him.
PAUL MERSON:
He was one of the best players in England and not far off the top 10 or 20 in the world. He could have done anything that day. He could have literally flicked it up and booted it 30 miles into the stand and everybody just jog back.
TONY ADAMS:
I remember Kevin Richardson knocking the ball down and just calmly giving it back to the goalie. I was still in the ‘boot it’ phase. Get it up there. Just fucking boot it. Excuse my French.
JIM ROSENTHAL:
I never interviewed Kevin Richardson. I don’t think I ever spoke to him because he was not the most approachable of human beings and he wasn’t one of the stars. But that night for me he was man of the match for Arsenal. He got cramp and the subs were already on and then right at the end he gets the ball away from one of the greatest players in the world, John Barnes. Passes it back – another thing you could do in those days – and then the move starts. I think for that night Kevin Richardson is the unsung hero really.
NIALL QUINN:
Very near the end it was getting really tense and we realised we wanted to get round to the dugout.
PAUL DAVIS:
We were asking a steward if we could go round the perimeter of the pitch but he wasn’t sure. The fans around us were shouting at him to let us through. ‘Look at their blazers! They are the players!’
NIALL QUINN:
We were whisked around. As we were walking down the sideline to the dugout the whole thing suddenly developed. We were running down the side of the pitch. It was mad stuff.
BRIAN MOORE:
Arsenal come streaming forward now in surely what will be their last attack …
JOHN LUKIC:
It was one of those moments in life. Theo says he’s got me to thank for a scar that he’s got on his head. Because when I threw the ball out that night rather than kicked it he went to stand up to give me a round of vitriol and he banged his head on the dugout.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
I thought it was gone anyway. I thought it was all over. You know, whether he kicked it or threw it you think, there’s not enough time. It’s finished.
JOHN LUKIC:
I was absolutely mentally shot at that time, which is probably hard to believe but as a goalie I was always intense and that second half, from Alan’s goal going in, my
concentration levels had gone through the roof so I thought to myself, it’s not going out the box here. That’s as far as I’m going to get it. About five minutes previously I had a kick which I duffed out to the left-hand side. I looked up and I saw Dicko and to me it seemed like he was in oceans of space and it just seemed the natural thing to do at the time and so I bowled it out to Dicko.