On The Ball | Liverpool’s greatest day: driving an open-top bus through Everton’s hopes and dreams in 1986
- It was an occasion which went some way to repairing the damaged reputation of people, specifically Liverpool supporters, in Merseyside
- The 1986 FA Cup final was the denouement to a restorative season for English football
The most important game in Liverpool’s history took place on May 10, 1986. Kenny Dalglish’s team beat Everton 3-1 at Wembley in the FA Cup final and sealed Anfield’s only league and cup double. There was more than silverware at stake. The match helped salvage the honour of a city and restore faith in the game.
For the Kop it remains a glorious memory. Everton and their followers emerged from the day with their reputation enhanced but the sting of humiliation still lingers at Goodison.
Just 12 months earlier, 39 people were killed before the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus in Brussels. A number of factors caused the disaster at the Heysel Stadium but paramount among them was the behaviour of Liverpool fans. A wall collapsed when hundreds of predominantly Italian supporters fled an outbreak of violence, resulting in a fatal crush.
The tragedy provoked worldwide horror and had significant consequences. English clubs were banned from international competition. Everton had won the title and the Cup Winners’ Cup in the weeks preceding the disaster but Howard Kendall’s brilliant side were unable to test themselves against the continent’s best teams in the European Cup. They were collateral damage in a bigger catastrophe.
It was the age of hooliganism’s lowest point. The public appetite for football hit an all-time low. There were dire predictions for the future and attendances at the start of the 1985-86 season seemed to confirm the darkest forecasts. The Sunday Times called the game “a slum sport played in slum stadiums increasingly watched by slum people, who deter decent folk from turning up.”
