Bill Shankly - Blast From The Past. Leeds v Liverpool August 10th 1974

Liverpool 1 Leeds 1
Liverpool win 6-5 on penalties

Charity Shield
August 10th 1974

The first Charity Shield to be played at Wembley marked the last time Bill Shankly led the Reds out, Liverpool's first penalty shoot out victory and a red card for Kevin Keegan following a punch up with Billy Bremner.

In the previous few years the Charity Shield had begun to decline as an event, with either the league champions or FA Cup winners declining to take part. Liverpool, for instance hadn't taken part in 1973 despite being league champions. So to make it more attractive the fixture was switched to Wembley and Liverpool, as FA Cup holders and Leeds, as champions, accepted the FA's invitation to play.

Despite having resigned from his position as team manager, Bill Shankly still took the Reds side onto the field as Bob Paisley would not be officially taking over until the following Tuesday. Leeds too had lost their manager, Don Revie, to the England national team.

However, his replacement Brian Clough stood aside to allow Revie to lead his club side out for one last time. Liverpool's starting line up was the same as had won the FA cup final against Newcastle except for absence of the injured John Toshack. He was replaced by Phil Boersma, while there was no place for Ray Kennedy, who had been signed for a club record Ł180,000 in the summer.

Boersma put the Reds ahead on 19 minutes, scrambling the ball over the line when Leeds keeper Jim Harvey failed to hold on to Keegan's cross. But the incident that proved to be the game's main talking point took place 15 minutes into the second half. It had been a niggling match that erupted in comical fashion after a case of mistaken identity.

Keegan was floored by Johnny Giles, but not knowing who had hit him, took out his frustration on Billy Bremner, who happened to be standing nearest. A scrap ensued before referee Jack Taylor, who had taken charge of the previous month's World Cup final, brandished the red card at both players.

As they left the field, the two players threw their shirts down into the turf in disgust. They were the first British players ever to receive their marching orders at Wembley. Leeds then fought their way back into the match and ten minutes later Trevor Cherry beat Phil Thompson to head home the equaliser from Peter Lorimer's ball into the box.

It was customary for the competing teams to share the prize for six months each in the event of a draw. But, as well as the switch to Wembley, it had been decided that a penalty shoot out would take place and each side converted all five penalties, meaning it went to sudden death.

Leeds keeper Harvey took their sixth penalty, only for him to shoot wide. This left Ian Callaghan to step forward for the Reds and he duly converted, giving Liverpool outright victory in the Charity Shield for only the second time.

Afterwards the FA took firm action against the two disgraced players. Both were charged with bringing the game into disrepute and banned for 11 games, of which 8 were for the shirt throwing incident. It was a huge ban given the nature of the offence and it was thought that the Home Office had applied pressure, as a fan had been stabbed to death at a game between Blackpool and Bolton.

For Keegan the ban may have been worse as he had also been sent off in a friendly at German side Kaiserslauten, but the referee from that game had been unable to attend a hearing so the matter was overlooked. It meant he was out of the game until the end of September. He made good use of his enforced holiday by getting married.

Liverpool: Clemence, Smith, Lindsay, Thompson, Cormack, Hughes, Keegan, Hall, Heighway, Boersma, Callaghan. Att: 67,000

Scorers: Boersma 19
Penalty scorers: Lindsay, Hughes, Hall, Smith, Cormack, Callaghan

The Blast From The Past series ...

Reykjavik v Liverpool, Aug 17th 1964
Leeds United v Liverpool, Aug 10th 1974
Liverpool v Dundalk, Sep 16th 1969
Liverpool v Vitoria Setubal, Nov 26th 1969