SCOTLAND

Scottish legend Alex James singled out Shankly for praise for his contribution
to the Scotland team: "He is a real Scotland player who will fight until he drops."

Preston North End's correspondent, Walter Pilkington, wrote at the end of Shankly's debut season in 1934: "I was returning by train from a match at Plymouth in a 'sleeper', with Bill Shankly and Jimmy Dougal as bunk companions. I asked Bill what he wanted most: 'To play for Scotland, sir' he replied without a moment's hesitation."

Captain of the Scotland team

Shankly was first selected to play for his country on 9th April 1938 against the auld enemy England at Wembley. Scots won the match 1-0 with a late goal from Tommy Walker.

He won 4 further caps before war broke out, playing against Northern-Ireland, Wales, Hungary, and England once more.

"It's fantastic. You look af your dark blue shirt, the wee lion looks up at you and says 'Get out after those English bastards!'"

During the war, Shankly played a further 7 times for Scotland, captaining them against England in a 3:1 defeat at Hampden on 3rd of May 1941 in front of 78,000 fans.

Shankly featured in the game Billy Liddell made his debut for Scotland in a dramatic 5-4 win at Hampden Park on 18th April 1942. Shankly played a big part and scored a memorable goal, which turned out to be his only goal for Scotland: "Jack Harkness gives Billy Liddell and Jock Dodds a big hand for their part in Scotland's shock win. But the inspiration, he says, came from the Busby - Shankly victory service... And amongst all these great goals we had probably the strangest national goal ever. Here's a goalkeeper, the hero of his side, losing a goal from 50 yards range. Willie Shankly was the devil in the piece. He placed a beautiful shot goalwards. Out came Marks to collect. Suddenly he stopped. In a twinkling he had the old saying brought home to him - "He who hesitates is lost." The ball bounced on the ground, sailed over his head, and into the empty goal." (Reported by Jack Harkness at Hampden Park).

International record

Nr.	Date	Opponent	Result	Goal
1	09.04.1938	England	1-0
2	08.10.1938	Northern-Ireland	2-0
3	09.11.1938	Wales	3-2
4	07.12.1938	Hungary	3-1
5	15.04.1939	England	1-2
6*	11.05.1940	England	1-1
7*	03.05.1941	England	1-3
8*	04.10.1941	England	0-2
9*	17.01.1942	England	0-3
10*	18.04.1942	England	5-4	1
11*	10.10.1942	England	0-0
12*	17.04.1943	England	0-4

*Shankly's international record for Scotland reads 5 games and no goal. His 7 wartime games and 1 wartime goal are not counted towards his total.

Shanks quote
"But the second leg of the semi-final was not a game, it was a war. We stayed at Lake Como, and we had trouble with the church bells. It wasn't so bad until about eleven o'clock at night, when the noise of the day had ceased and there was nothing to hear but the bells. One in particular was like doomsday. Bob Paisley and I went to see the Monsignor about it. We tried to get him to stop the bells ringing for the night so the players could sleep. 'It's not very fair', I said to him through an interpreter. 'We didn't know about this noise and we've come here on the eve of the most important match in the world this year, Inter Milan versus Liverpool.' That was right, because if we had won it, we would have won the European Cup. He was sympathetic towards us, but he said he could not do what we asked. So I said, 'Well, could you let Bob here go up and put a bandage on them and maybe kind of dull them a bit?' Crepe bandages and cotton wool! Bob was killing himself laughing. That would have been one of the funniest things Bob had ever done, one of his greatest cures as a trainer, creeping up the aisle with cotton-wool and bandages! But, we just had to put up with the noise." Bill Shankly talking about when Liverpool were in Milan waiting to face Inter in the second leg of the European Cup semi-final in 1965

Shanks quote

"But the second leg of the semi-final was not a game, it was a war. We stayed at Lake Como, and we had trouble with the church bells. It wasn't so bad until about eleven o'clock at night, when the noise of the day had ceased and there was nothing to hear but the bells. One in particular was like doomsday. Bob Paisley and I went to see the Monsignor about it. We tried to get him to stop the bells ringing for the night so the players could sleep. 'It's not very fair', I said to him through an interpreter. 'We didn't know about this noise and we've come here on the eve of the most important match in the world this year, Inter Milan versus Liverpool.' That was right, because if we had won it, we would have won the European Cup. He was sympathetic towards us, but he said he could not do what we asked. So I said, 'Well, could you let Bob here go up and put a bandage on them and maybe kind of dull them a bit?' Crepe bandages and cotton wool! Bob was killing himself laughing. That would have been one of the funniest things Bob had ever done, one of his greatest cures as a trainer, creeping up the aisle with cotton-wool and bandages! But, we just had to put up with the noise."

Bill Shankly talking about when Liverpool were in Milan waiting to face Inter in the second leg of the European Cup semi-final in 1965

Site News
50 years of Shankly 18.12.2009 Several honours have come Shankly's way as in December 50 years had passed since the Scottish legend signed his contract to become manager of Liverpool Football Club. On the 16th Anfield was the stage for an emotional parade of legends along with nine members of Shankly’s family. The sounds of ‘Amazing Grace’ – Shankly’s favourite hymn reverberated at half-time during the game vs Wigan Athletic. A "SHANKS THE LEGEND" mosaic was unveiled on the Kop prior to kick off. The following day Shankly was awarded an Honorary Citizenship of Liverpool in recognition of the 50th anniversary of his arrival as manager of Liverpool FC and his dedication to the region. The award was presented by Lord Mayor Mike Storey on stage during the Shankly Show at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool.
Download two original songs about Shankly! 11.09.2009 Paul Wilkes is a singer/songwriter from Liverpool who is a big fan of Bill Shankly. He wrote two great songs in Shankly's honour as 2009 is the 50 year anniversary of when Shankly became Liverpool's manager in 1959. George Sephton, 'The Voice of Anfield', has already given his thumbs up and calls the songs 'gems'. Download the songs here.

Site News

50 years of Shankly
18.12.2009
Several honours have come Shankly's way as in December 50 years had passed since the Scottish legend signed his contract to become manager of Liverpool Football Club. On the 16th Anfield was the stage for an emotional parade of legends along with nine members of Shankly’s family. The sounds of ‘Amazing Grace’ – Shankly’s favourite hymn reverberated at half-time during the game vs Wigan Athletic. A "SHANKS THE LEGEND" mosaic was unveiled on the Kop prior to kick off. The following day Shankly was awarded an Honorary Citizenship of Liverpool in recognition of the 50th anniversary of his arrival as manager of Liverpool FC and his dedication to the region. The award was presented by Lord Mayor Mike Storey on stage during the Shankly Show at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool.

Download two original songs about Shankly!
11.09.2009
Paul Wilkes is a singer/songwriter from Liverpool who is a big fan of Bill Shankly. He wrote two great songs in Shankly's honour as 2009 is the 50 year anniversary of when Shankly became Liverpool's manager in 1959. George Sephton, 'The Voice of Anfield', has already given his thumbs up and calls the songs 'gems'. Download the songs here.