Bill Shankly - Blast From The Past. Liverpool v Dundalk September 16th 1969

Liverpool 10 Dundalk 0

Fairs Cup 1st round 1st leg
September 16th 1969

Liverpool notched up their biggest ever victory in a one sided encounter at Anfield. The game started a love affair between a young Frenchman and the club that was to culminate in marriage nearly 30 years later.

With a comfortable victory expected, Bill Shankly tried some new tactical formations for the game. Alec Lindsay was given his debut and Ray Clemence finally got his chance in goal after two years as understudy to Tommy Lawrence. In attack Bobby Graham was played in a deep role in place of the rested Ian St John. The whole low-keyness of the affair was emphasised by the gate, which at 32,656 was the lowest for a European tie at Anfield since the visit of Reykjavik in 1964.

However, it became impossible to gauge the true success of the new tactics as Liverpool's relentless surge towards the goal totally overwhelmed the Irish part timers. The Reds were 2-0 up in the first ten minutes through goals from Alun Evans and Chris Lawler. By half time the score was 5-0 thanks to strikes from Tommy Smith, Bobby Graham and another from Evans.

After the break Lindsay got in the act with the first of his 18 goals for the club before Smith and Peter Thompson scored goals seven and eight. With 20 minutes still to play Liverpool sensed that the club's record victory of 10-1 could be bettered and Ian Callaghan made it 9-0 six minutes later.

Then with eight minutes to go double figures were reached through Graham and it was only now that Liverpool finally eased up and didn't push for any more. Despite the severity of the defeat, Dundalk manager Liam Toohey remained upbeat, saying that there was bound to be a good crowd for the 2nd leg as everybody would want to see a team who could score so many goals.

Someone else who was impressed was Gerard Houllier, who was a student teacher in Liverpool at the time and had watched the game from the Kop. Seeing how Liverpool never stopped playing, even at 5-0 was what drew him to the club and after learning the managerial ropes in France, he eventually returned in 1998 to take over the Anfield reins.

Liverpool: Clemence, Lawler, Strong, Smith, Yeats, Hughes, Callaghan, Graham, Lindsay, Evans, Thompson. Att: 32,656

Scorers: Evans 1,38, Lawler 10, Smith 24,67, Graham 36,82, Lindsay 56, Thompson 69, Callaghan 76

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