Liverpool FC is arguably as famous across the world for the Kop and You’ll Never Walk Alone as it is for the multiple eras of triumph which have established England’s most successful football club.
The Reds’ iconic home end, even in the modern era of all-seater stadia, still maintains the reputation of housing some of the game’s most passionate and devoted supporters who have time and again proven their ability to be the twelfth man and make a difference (just ask Chelsea, Barcelona and countless others).
The current 12,390-capacity Kop Grandstand has of course evolved from the original Spion Kop terrace, which was given its name by ECHO sports editor Ernest Edwards shortly after construction in 1906 because it evoked memories of ‘Spioenkop’ - the notorious hill in South Africa which was the scene of a British massacre during the Boer War six years earlier where 300 soldiers perished, many of whom served in the Lancashire Fusiliers and would have been from Liverpool.
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Housing 27,000 fans at its peak, Anfield’s Kop became world-renowned in the 1960s for the swaying masses of Liverpudlians who, as Bill Shankly’s first great side laid the foundations for the modern LFC, would regale their heroes and the opposition with witty songs and chants.
‘As rich and mystifying a popular culture as any South Sea Island’, declared the BBC’s John Morgan during the iconic Panorama documentary filmed on front of it during the height of Beatle-mania and Liverpool’s Kop is widely acknowledged as being the pioneer of the more expressive supporter culture we take for granted today but was an eye-opener for many when Britain was still gradually casting off the shackles of World War II and the austerity of the 1950s.
The move away from standing terraces in the wake of Lord Justice Taylor’s recommendations following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in which 97 Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed in Europe’s worst sporting disaster necessitated the construction of an all-seater replacement and, having seen some of English football’s most well-known terraces like Arsenal’s North Bank, Everton’s Gwladys Street and Manchester United’s Stretford End disappear with barely a murmur, Anfield was always going to do its best to make sure their original Kop got the send-off it deserved.
Although the Liverpool team were not able to play their part on the day and lost abjectly 1-0 to Norwich City, the fans ensured it was an unforgettable occasion, packing the terraces with flags, banners and relentless songs from hours before kick off and quite a while afterwards, with the club also putting on a poignant pre-match ceremony with many key figures from the club’s past appearing on the pitch to mark one of the most significant moments in the club’s then 102-year history.
And because the Reds were not able to find the net that day against the Canaries or in the previous home game, it is one of LFC’s great and saddest ironies that, of all the players who could be left with the honour of scoring the final Liverpool goal in front of the standing Kop, it should be one who who is seen as symptomatic of the serious decline the club was descending into at that time.
Only four years earlier, the Kop had been celebrating yet another league title triumph - Liverpool’s tenth in fifteen years - at the conclusion of a campaign which in truth was still regarded as something of a disappointment after defeat weeks before in the FA Cup semi-final to Crystal Palace meant for the third successive year Kenny Dalglish’s side had again fallen just short of repeating their 1986 league and FA Cup double.
Less than 12 months later however, the iconic Scot had resigned after the pressure of keeping Liverpool at the top combined with the unimaginable strain imposed by leading the club through Hillsborough and its aftermath became intolerable, eventually being replaced by his former team-mate and compatriot Graeme Souness.
Although the club’s fifth FA Cup was won in the former Rangers boss’ first season at the Anfield helm, it soon became evident the methods which had proven successful for him in Scotland were not working south of the border and in May 1993 he was thought to be on the brink of the sack after a desperate campaign which had seen Liverpool only three points clear of the relegation zone in March and humiliated at home by third-tier Bolton Wanderers as their defence of the FA Cup ended at the first hurdle.
Chairman David Moores handed Souness a reprieve - despite dissent within the Anfield board which saw director Tony Ensor resign - and backed his manager that summer in the transfer market, supplying funds for him to bring Nottingham Forest forward Nigel Clough for £2.2m and Tottenham centre-back Neil Ruddock for £2.5m.
While Clough had long had the look of someone who could be a Liverpool player, eyebrows were raised at the acquisition of Ruddock who already had a reputation as a ‘hardman’ defender whose uncompromising approach had brought more than his fair share of disciplinary problems and was a world away from the more silky, cerebral approach Kopites were used to from the likes of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson.
But with Liverpool’s defence in recent seasons having looked so frail and vulnerable, there was an acceptance that more steel was required if performances and results were to improve and the initial signs were good, Ruddock keeping a clean sheet on his debut and supplying an assist for fellow new-boy Clough who scored twice in an opening day win over Sheffield Wednesday before getting his first Reds goal a week later in a 5-0 win at newly-promoted Swindon Town as the Reds went top of the Premier League after three successive victories.
Three defeats in the next four games however hinted the problems which had hampered the previous two seasons were still lurking not far beneath the surface and, with the next match being the season’s first Merseyside derby, Liverpool supporters were shocked the day before their trip across Stanley Park to Goodison to learn another of English football’s so-called ‘bad boys’ was heading to Anfield.
Julian Dicks had broken through at Birmingham City in the latter half of the previous decade and received tutelage in the game’s dark arts from some of that era’s most notorious protagonists like Mark Dennis and Mick Harford before moving to West Ham United in 1988. A tough-tackling left back with a strong shot which made him an asset from free-kicks and defenders, the Bristol-born defender was a popular figure at Upton Park despite his poor on-field discipline which regularly brought him to the attention of referees and the footballing authorities.
Despite being sent off three times during the previous 1992/93 campaign which took the 25-year-old’s career tally to eight, Dicks had managed 11 goals in 34 league matches as the Hammers won promotion back to the top flight and, after being involved in a training ground incident during pre-season which left new signing Simon Webster with a broken leg, manager Harry Redknapp - who was eyeing a couple of Liverpool players who he thought would enhance his squad - offered Dicks as bait.
Much to the surprise of many Liverpudlians, Graeme Souness took it and accepted a swap deal which saw Dicks move to Anfield in exchange for 24-year-old left-back David Burrows - who had already won league and FA Cup winners medals since arriving at Anfield five years earlier - and talented young 23-year-old midfielder Mike Marsh whose emergence along with Steve McManaman had been one of the few sparks of hope in the otherwise bleak last couple of seasons, the Hammers also receiving a cash adjustment which enabled them to bring in veteran striker Lee Chapman (who would score on his debut in an away win at Blackburn the next day).
Describing Dicks as ‘my kind of player’, Souness said. “I think - like those who have witnessed Ruddock since he's been here - he's a very good footballer. He's just got a reputation for getting into trouble which he feels he's gone some way to sorting out. He's a good footballer, the same as Ruddock, and sometimes people forget to write about that bit.”
For Dicks, the prospect of being thrown straight into the cauldron of a Merseyside derby held no fears and while he admitted Souness had warned him over the importance of self-discipline asserted he had not been told change his style of play.
''I'm not worried at all", he said. "When I was at Birmingham, I was only 17 when I made my debut against Aston Villa, so I know what derbies are all about. The manager has just said go out and play the way you usually play. Obviously we talked about my disciplinary record, but that's all over and done with now.”
The following afternoon Dicks took his place in the Liverpool line-up to face an Everton side who, like the Reds, had won their first three league games but then slumped by losing the next three although a victory at Oldham Athletic the previous weekend had at least sent them into the 149th encounter between the Mersey rivals on the back of a win. Howard Kendall’s men would only avoid relegation that season by the skin of their teeth after a dramatic final day fightback from two goals down against Wimbledon - by which time the Blues’ most successful manager had quit the club for a second time and been replaced by Mike Walker - but on this sunny September afternoon, it was Liverpool who looked likely to face fears over their Premier League future following a 2-0 defeat which in many ways flattered the visitors.
After all the talk of the need for discipline after Dicks’ arrival, the malaise elsewhere within the squad was brutally highlighted when Everton took the lead shortly before the half-hour mark, Steve McManaman’s poor clearance from Andy Hinchcliffe's corner only finding Mark Ward on the edge of the penalty area who rifled home through a crowd of players with the young Liverpool winger then coming to blows on the pitch with Bruce Grobbelaar as the irate goalkeeper chastised him for the error which teed up the former West Ham midfielder to score.
Despite the Toffees’ own inadequacies (the following Saturday they would lose 5-1 at home to Norwich City), they comfortably repelled Souness’ side’s anaemic attempts to get back into the game with Neville Southall only really tested once midway through the second half when forced to push aside a deflected long-range effort from Dicks.
The Liverpool debutant, wrote the Times, “made a mostly encouraging start and showed his cultured side, passing and crossing the ball well” but was involved in the Everton’s clinching goal five minutes from time, miscontrolling on the edge of the area and being robbed by Tony Cottee who beat Mark Wright and Grobbelaar’s last-ditch challenges to poke home from close range and send Goodison into raptures.
Three days later, a debut goal from 18-year-old striker Robbie Fowler in a League Cup tie at Fulham (which he would follow up by scoring five times in the Anfield return a fortnight later) gave a spark of hope to Liverpudlians desperately in need of one but another league defeat at Chelsea the following weekend was the fourth in succession without a goal being scored and it would be almost a month before Dicks was involved in a first Premier League victory for his new club when two very late goals saw off Oldham at Anfield after the Reds had again trailed.
A knee problem picked up against the Latics meant Dicks would miss much of the next two months and, by the time he returned to action at Sheffield United on Boxing Day, Souness was under increasing pressure with his side having crashed out of the League Cup to Wimbledon and being already 21 points behind Premier League pace-setters Manchester United.
January 1994 initially started with some promise, a New Year’s Day away win at Ipswich Town being followed by an astonishing fightback from three goals down after only 24 minutes against Alex Ferguson’s champions which saw Ruddock crash home a late header to gain a point and Dicks scored his first goal in Liverpool colours eleven days later when thumping home a left foot strike from 20 yards to open the scoring in a 3-0 victory at Oldham.
"The boss took a lot of stick for signing me because of my record but he showed faith”, he said afterwards. "Now I have to show faith in him and I know I can do it. I'll get booked now and again and maybe sent-off but I know how to keep the problem down to a minimum now. I haven't been booked with Liverpool yet. But I'd like a few more goals like that one. It was my first and it gave me a lot of joy."
A last-minute Ian Rush header against Manchester City the following weekend sent Souness’ men up to the dizzying heights of fifth - their highest league placing since early September - but three days later the fragility of Liverpool’s tentative renaissance was starkly highlighted when second-tier Bristol City won an FA Cup third round replay at Anfield to effectively end the Reds’ season in January for the second year running. It was the final straw for the Anfield board whose patience with Souness finally snapped and he was sacked, being replaced by Boot Room stalwart Roy Evans who had been promoted to assistant boss following the Scot’s stay of execution the previous May.
Having missed the Bristol City defeat through injury, Dicks was back in the side for Evans’ first game in charge, a 2-2 draw at Norwich City, and he would start all 15 of the Reds’ remaining matches until the end of the season, writing his first small footnote in Liverpool history in March by providing the assist for Ian Rush’s 25th and final goal against Everton when receiving the ball directly from the restart after Dave Watson had put the Blues in front, he launched the ball forward and found the Welshman who gleefully thumped home an immediate equaliser past bemused compatriot Neville Southall, Robbie Fowler grabbing the winner with his first derby goal just before half time in his first game back after recovering from a broken leg.
And the following month was when Dicks inadvertently became the answer to a pub quiz question by converting a second half penalty which decided a drab encounter against Ipswich Town moved to an 11.30am kick off to avoid clashing with the Grand National at Aintree later the same day.
With the Reds being beaten 2-0 by Newcastle in their penultimate home fixture a week later and failing to get on the scoresheet against Norwich on the day of the Kop’s Last Stand, it meant Bristol-born defender had the honour of scoring the last goal by a Liverpool player in front of a standing Kop but that memorable occasion against the Canaries would be the last time he would wear the famous red shirt at Anfield.
Having finished the season in eighth - Liverpool’s lowest league placing since 1963 - Evans was determined whip his charges into shape for the new campaign and was dismayed to see Dicks return after the summer break overweight and out of shape. Following a shocking performance in a 4-1 friendly defeat at Bolton Wanderers, Dicks and fellow defender Mark Wright were banished from the squad and made to train with the reserves. Wright would eventually come back into favour but Dicks, who would go on to admit he never actually wanted to move to Anfield in the first place, put in a transfer request and within a few months was sold back to West Ham where he slammed Evans for ignoring him.
"The weight thing was just an excuse”, he claimed. “Evans barely talked to me in the time I was there. He just didn't want me. I have nothing to prove to Liverpool or anybody. I still believe in my ability, I just didn't get a chance to prove it at Liverpool. I was training with the kids and playing with the reserves. Evans bombed me out altogether."
Dicks slotted straight back in at his old Upton Park stomping ground, playing another five years and helping the Hammers into Europe before retiring in 1999 at the age of the 31 having played over 300 games over his two spells, scoring 65 goals which put him 17th in the club’s all time scoring charts. He was also awarded a testimonial match against Athletic Bilbao which fittingly descended into a 17-man brawl. He briefly tried his hand at professional golf after retirement before returning to football where he has been involved in coaching at non-league level as well as a spell in charge of West Ham Ladies and as a first-team coach for the mens team under Slaven Bilic.
Looking back years later at his brief spell on Merseyside, Dicks maintained he never wanted to leave West Ham in the first place but had no regrets despite frustration over his treatment by Roy Evans and treasured the honour in Liverpool history he will forever hold because of the Kop end penalty he converted against Ipswich.
“I was happy at West Ham at the time and had no desire to move on. But I'd had a couple of sending-offs that year which upset Billy Bonds and Harry Redknapp, who was assistant manager at the time. Harry told me that Liverpool were interested and that he could make the move happen. I took that to mean that something wasn't right and that they wanted me to go. Graeme Souness had tried to sign me when he was at Rangers and, to be fair, as soon as I met him, I thought he was someone I'd like to play for. He was my kind of man, everything was black and white, no grey areas, and I loved him as a manager and a person. We had some fantastic players - Barnes, Rush, Molby - along with the likes of Robbie Fowler, Jamie Redknapp and Steve McManaman coming through, but we under-achieved that season and finished seventh, which wasn't good enough. Souness resigned, Roy Evans took over and that was really the end of it for me.
“I wouldn't say I disliked Roy Evans, but we just didn't see eye to eye. That summer, I was going on holiday and there were some stories in the papers claiming that Liverpool wanted to sell me. I actually bumped into Roy at the airport, and asked him about the stories, and he said they were complete rubbish. Then I reported back for pre-season and he told me wanted to get rid of me! He said I was overweight and unfit, but that was in the days when you would do nothing all summer and then get yourself back in shape in pre-season. He didn't give me a chance to do that. The thing is, I admit I was a disruptive player at times, I liked to do things my own way, and it needed a strong manager to deal with me. At Liverpool, you weren't allowed a ball before or after training, and that didn't make sense to me. Roy stopped me going on the pre-season tour and made me train with the kids. He tried to send me on loan to Birmingham, which I refused to do, and then he said Tottenham were interested, to which I just told him where to go! Then Jamie mentioned that Harry would take me back, and that was all I needed to hear.
"I know it didn't really work out for me at Liverpool but I always look back and think to myself, for a year, I played for one of the greatest clubs in the world. I got to sign for the mighty Liverpool and while I'll always probably be most associated for my time at West Ham, I don't ever regret joining Liverpool. I still scored the last ever Liverpool goal in front of the old standing Kop and that will be in the record books forever. No one can ever take that away from me."
