I Came Out Sideways by George Porter

Author:George Porter
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Tags: Liverpool, Waterloo Liverpool, Mersey, Southport, Scouse, Scouser, memoir
ISBN: 9781909183667
Publisher: Andrews UK
Published: 2014-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

The Spion Kop

“Behind a paper-strewn desk high in Liverpool University Students’ Union building, two famous feet twitched. Feet that belonged to the original, uncrowned king of football lore - Billy Liddell. Feet of power and romance that longed for the old days as their owner reflected on past affairs of plunder.

“It is said that when Liddell called at the Anfield ground one day last year - five years after the close of his career - work stopped on the new stand that was being built. ‘There’s Billy Liddell’, a navvy gasped. To a man they removed their industrial helmets, clutched them reverently to their waists and bowed their heads. The old master was passing through.”

30 November 1966 - from Sunday Express

Billy Liddell imparted life skills by shining example. Do not give up. Never be afraid of trying. If you are knocked down, don’t stay down unless you are unconscious. Never cheat. Be generous in your applause for a worthy rival. Of course he never said these things; he exemplified them by his own actions. The myths about him which circulated in my generation were not myths at all. He did break a crossbar with a powerful shot. He did burst a ball with a blistering header. He did burst the net. He did fracture the arm of a goalkeeper with a shot from a free kick. He did plead with the referee not to send a player off the field for a violently brutal attack on him, and he won this strange yet gracious appeal. Unlike his legions of fans he never swore, and he was respected because of it - not for being a pedant but for his self-control. He didn’t drink alcohol and yet he never reproached others for doing so. He never committed a foul on purpose. He ran a boys’ club and was a magistrate. He became bursar of Liverpool University. He walked on water, and he epitomised everything that should be taught by example and not learned by repetitious written rules.

The first time I saw him play was at Anfield when I was eleven. Liverpool was a second division team then and the opposition was Grimsby Town. My father took me - not into the famous Spion Kop (named after the disgraceful shambles of the Boer War battle) which would cram over 27,000 supporters into its roaring cavernous hooded vault behind the goal which, from the upper terraces, resembled matchsticks with the players like marauding red ants - but into the lesser chaotic seated area known as the paddock. The swaying ocean of red and white and the wonder of so many men shouting with one voice ‘GIVE IT TO LIDDELL’ sent a shiver down my young spine. Then came the thunderous roar and the clattering of thousands of wooden red-and-white rattles when the ball was passed to Billy to do his best with. He always did his best. He never, ever, let them down. His spirit survives in the adopted anthem which is bawled out by thousands and thousands all over the world - You’ll Never Walk Alone.

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