Liverpool FC: 20 Games We'd Rather Forget

It has been a season of ups and downs for Liverpool, and fans are justifiably disappointed with the club's recent uninspired play against the likes of Norwich City last weekend.  

The struggles prove that Liverpool have a ways to go before Kenny Dalglish turns the club's fortunes around, but things are not as bad as they seem.  

To help keep things in perspective, here are 20 games, in no particular order, which Liverpool supporters would rather soon forget.

1.1950 FA Cup Final: Liverpool 0–2 Arsenal (29 April 1950)

Liverpool defeated bitter rivals Everton to reach the club’s first-ever FA Cup Final against an Arsenal club aiming for a record-tying third title.

It would be a day of bitter disappointment for the Reds, their fans and future club legend Bob Paisley, who was controversially dropped for the match despite having scored the winner against Everton in the semi-final.

2.Reds Relegated: Liverpool 0–1 Cardiff (24 April 1954)

Fifty consecutive seasons of top-flight football came to an end on this day, sealed by Liverpool’s loss to Cardiff City a week earlier.  This was one of the darkest days in one of the darkest periods of the club’s history.

3.Reds Suffer Record Loss: Liverpool 1–9 Birmingham City (11 December 1954)

On this freezing December afternoon, Liverpool sunk to an all-time record low in a humiliating 9-1 loss to Birmingham City.

4.Red Suffer Defeat to Non-League Worcester (15 January 1959)

In what was arguably the biggest shock in Carling Cup history, Liverpool suffered the ignominy of losing to non-league Worcester in front of 15,000 spectators at the away team’s St. George’s Lane pitch. Fans invaded the pitch to celebrate the greatest moment in Worcester football history, and conversely, perhaps the greatest embarrassment in LFC history.

5.Largest UEFA Defeat in Club History: Liverpool 1–5 Ajax (7 December 1966)

Little more can be said about this match other than it was played on a bleary December day at the Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam during a torrential downpour.  The visiting Reds were shut out until Chris Lawler salvaged a goal in the 90th minute to make (barely) the final score line a bit more respectable.

6.Versus Juventus: Heysel Stadium (29 May 1985)

Liverpool met Juventus in the finals of the 1985 European Cup in Heysel, Belgium.  Due to a perfect storm of hooliganism on both sides, ineptitude by local police and poor planning by the authorities, 39 fans lost their lives.

7.Versus Nottingham Forest: Hillsboro Stadium (15 April 1989)

Liverpool met Nottingham Forest in the semifinal of the FA Cup at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C.  Ninety-six fans lost their lives that day in a tragedy that still endures.  

8.Everton Wins as Liverpool Loses: Liverpool 0–1 Coventry City (2 May 1987)

Five defeats in the final nine games were the real reason, but this defeat ended all title aspirations for Liverpool, and cross-town rival Everton’s victory the following day would give the Toffees the 1987 League title.

9.FA Cup Final: Liverpool 0–1 Wimbledon (14 May 1988)

"The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club!" So said BBC commentator John Motson at the end of the shock final.

Liverpool were a highly regarded team and the clear favorites against a Wimbledon team that only a few seasons earlier was at the bottom of English football.

10.UEFA Champions League Final: Liverpool 1–2 AC Milan (23 May 2007)

This time fortune favored AC Milan as Andrea Pirlo’s free kick controversially deflected off the body of Filippo Inzaghi to open the Milan scoring. 

Liverpool wanted a handball on the play, but the referee was having none of it. The goal stood, and the Rossoneri later added another before Dirk Kuyt pulled one back for Liverpool.

11.Fans Protest Hicks-Gillette Ownership in Loss to Blackpool (3 October 2010)

There was an ugly atmosphere off the pitch and an ugly loss on it, as Liverpool lost to newly promoted Blackpool (and was eventually relegated again) at home in one of the final games under the Hicks-Gillette ownership.

12.Beach Ball Goal: Liverpool 0–1 Sunderland (7 October 2009)

The insipid Mike Jones first allows play to continue with a beach ball on the pitch, then controversially allows what would be the only goal of the game to stand after the ball deflects off the beach ball and past Pepe Reina.

13.Embarrassment at Old Trafford: Liverpool 0–3 United (3 September 2008)

Pepe Reina would not be at his best on this day, and Liverpool were made to pay for it.  First Wes Brown, then Cristiano Ronaldo would score off crosses that the Liverpool custodian came for but never claimed, and later Nani would seal the defeat by leaving Reina flat-footed, as he and the Liverpool defense were undressed at Old Trafford.

14.Liverpool 0–1 Stoke City (10 September 2011)

Fresh enough that not much needs to be said, as Reds suffered a controversial loss to Potters on a disputed penalty at the Britannia Stadium.

15.Loss to Northampton in Carling Cup (22 September 2010)

The loss that would in essence end Rafa Benitez’s tenure with Liverpool, and more despairing, begin the Roy Hodgson experiment.

16.FA Cup Third Round: Liverpool 0–1 Manchester United (9 January 2011)

Dimitar Berbatov dives to earn a penalty against Daniel Agger in the first half, then Steven Gerrard is controversially dismissed for a challenge on Michael Carrick in the second. 

Replays showed that Howard Webb wasn’t even looking at the tackle at the time, yet he produced a straight red for Gerrard. Still, the team fought well in Dalglish’s return as Manager, but fans felt rightly cheated.

Webb 2, Liverpool 0

17.Spurs Embarrass Reds (18 September 2011)

Spurs dance all over Liverpool during the whitewash at White Hart Lane, as Reds’ suffer their ugliest loss of the new Premier League season.

18.Arshavin Silences the Kop: Liverpool 4–4 Arsenal (21 April 2009)

Russian striker Andrei Arshavin ran circles around the Liverpool defense on his Anfield debut. Sure, the scoreline was respectable in the end… but this was as much embarrassment as Liverpool has endured at the hands of any one player in quite some time.

19.Reds Tamed by Blues: Liverpool 0–2 Chelsea (2 February 2010)

Steven Gerrard’s uncharacteristically bad decision gifts Didier Drogba a goal in a play that epitomized the tepid, uninspired performance of the team against reigning Premier League champions Chelsea. 

20.The Rob Styles Revue: Liverpool 1–1 Chelsea (19 August 2007)

Fernando Torres scores on his debut for Liverpool, but in a season in which every point counted, a phantom penalty on Jamie Carragher denied Reds the victory.

The hapless referee, Rob Styles then issues two yellow cards to Michael Essien but fails to dismiss the Chelsea midfielder.  Thankfully, Styles would soon leave the officiating to people with a bit more ability, if not common sense.

Fill in the Blank

Which Liverpool games would you include on the list of games that we would rather quickly forget?