Billy Liddell: the player who sustained Liverpool

Billy Liddell played 534 games for Liverpool and scored 228 goals. He won the league once, in his first full season, and reached one FA Cup final. Then the club went down, and he stayed. Supporters called the team "Liddellpool", according to the club's own profile of him, because so much of it rested on one player.

A teenager from Fife

William Beveridge Liddell was born in Townhill, near Dunfermline, on 10 January 1922. Liverpool signed him from Lochgelly Violet on 27 July 1938, when he was 16, and he turned professional in April 1939. Matt Busby, then a Liverpool player, recommended him to the manager, George Kay.

His parents did not want him to depend on football. They made it a condition of the move that he carry on studying accountancy and work part-time as an accountant in Liverpool. LFChistory records that he trained only twice a week once the season began, and that he was the only Liverpool player with two jobs.

The wait

The war took the years when he would have made his name in the Football League. He scored on his wartime debut for Liverpool, against Crewe Alexandra on 1 January 1940 in a 7–3 win, joined the RAF in December 1942 and played for Scotland in wartime internationals. His official debut did not come until 5 January 1946, in an FA Cup tie at Chester. He scored in the 30th minute of a 2–0 win. Bob Paisley made his first official appearance in the same game.

His league debut was at home to Chelsea on 7 September 1946. Liddell scored directly from a corner after two minutes and added a second in the 50th minute, which made it 6–0. Chelsea then scored four times, and Willie Fagan's goal in the 87th minute made it 7–4. Paisley also made his league debut that afternoon.

Champions

Liddell scored seven goals in 35 games that season, according to LFChistory, as Liverpool won the First Division. The title took until the summer to settle, because a severe winter had pushed the fixture list into June. Liverpool ended their programme with a 2–1 win at Wolves on 31 May, with goals from Jack Balmer and Albert Stubbins. Stoke City could still overtake them by winning at Sheffield United on 14 June. Stoke lost 2–1. Liverpool were playing Everton in the Liverpool Senior Cup final at Anfield that day, and the news reached the ground about ten minutes from the end of a 2–1 win. Liverpool finished on 57 points, one ahead of Wolves and Manchester United.

How he played

Liddell usually played on the left wing and later moved into a central attacking role. The club's profile says he played in almost every outfield position. Stubbins described a player who was very fast and had a deadly shot with either foot, and Ian Callaghan remembered his strength, his dribbling and the way he could cross the ball from anywhere. Wikipedia records that he was Liverpool's top scorer in the league in eight of the nine seasons from 1949–50 to 1957–58. The National Football Museum says he was never booked in his career.

Wembley, 1950

In the 1950 FA Cup, Liddell scored the winner in the quarter-final against Blackpool, an 81st-minute goal in a 2–1 win at Anfield on 4 March. In the semi-final at Maine Road on 25 March, Liverpool beat Everton 2–0. Paisley scored in the 30th minute and Liddell in the 62nd. A reporter writing as Ranger, whose account LFChistory reproduces, was sure the ball had gone out of play before Liddell scored.

Arsenal won the final at Wembley on 29 April 2–0, with both goals from Reg Lewis. Liddell wore the No. 11 shirt. Reports of the time suggest he was kicked out of the game, the club's profile says.

The Second Division

Liverpool were relegated in 1953–54. Liddell played his last First Division game on 24 April 1954 and never played in the top flight again. He stayed, and he scored. In 1954–55 he got 30 league goals (31 in all competitions), and in 1955–56 he got 32 (27 in the league and five in the FA Cup). He scored 21 in 1956–57 and 23 in 1957–58. He took over as captain in August 1955. Liverpool did not win promotion while he was playing.

In the 1956 FA Cup, Liverpool lost a fifth-round replay to Manchester City at Anfield. In the closing moments, with Liverpool 2–1 down, Liddell's shot went in, but the referee ruled that he had already blown for full time. The National Football Museum says Liddell left the pitch without complaint.

Scotland and Great Britain

He won 29 caps for Scotland and scored eight goals, beginning with two in a 3–1 win over Switzerland at Hampden Park on 15 May 1946. He also played for Great Britain against the Rest of Europe in 1947, at Hampden Park, where Great Britain won 6–1, and again in 1955 at Windsor Park in Belfast, where Europe won 4–1. LFChistory says he was one of only two players to appear in both games. By 1955 he was a Second Division player.

Records, and the end of his career

On 9 November 1957 Liverpool beat Notts County 4–0 at Anfield, and Liddell scored the third goal. It was his 430th league game for the club, which equalled Elisha Scott's record. At the time, Scott's total was believed to be 429, so the day was treated as the one on which Liddell broke it. He went on to play 62 more league games.

On 18 October 1958 the manager, Phil Taylor, left him out at Fulham for the first time in his career, even though Liddell had scored nine goals in nine games that season. Louis Bimpson came in and scored the only goal. In the programme for the next home game, against Sheffield Wednesday, the club said players reach a point where they need relief, and that the decision was in his interests as well as the club's. His appearances became less frequent from then on.

Bill Shankly became manager in December 1959. Liddell's last game was a 1–0 home defeat by Southampton on 31 August 1960. Roger Hunt played in it and Gordon Milne made his debut. It was Liddell's 534th appearance, which was then a club record, passing Scott's 468. A testimonial against an International XI followed at Anfield that September. He retired in 1961.

Afterwards

Liddell became a justice of the peace in 1958, while he was still playing. After football he worked for the University of Liverpool's Guild of Students as bursar. He died on 3 July 2001, aged 79. He won one league title and no other major honour with Liverpool, and supporters still chanted "Give it to Billy", the club's profile says.