As snapshots of a lifetime spent following Plymouth Argyle, two wins against Liverpool, almost 70 years apart, stand out for Jed Griffiths. Few among the Home Park faithful attended both but Griffiths, a proud member of the Green Army since 1953, was there for the 4-0 win on 11 February 1956 in the old Second Division, his beloved club’s previous defeat of Liverpool. As for the FA Cup fourth-round giantkilling on Sunday, when the Championship strugglers sank the Premier League leaders, it was “one of the highlights of my footballing life”.
In 1956, Griffiths was a schoolboy at Devonport High school, watching the game from the old “Pop Side” of the old Home Park. “No seats in those days,” he says. “We were opposite the grandstand, and we younger kids would get passed down the front, and we hung on the railings for a closeup view.”
The Liverpool of 1956 was a faded force, relegated in 1954 though still featuring Billy Liddell, the great Scottish winger who had inspired a First Division title in 1947; the club was nicknamed “Liddellpool” after him. Other familiar names featured. The full-back Ronnie Moran became famous as an attack-dog coach under Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and all further Reds managers until 1998. The left-half Roy Saunders would later father Dean, a future Liverpool striker.
Geoff Twentyman, Liverpool’s centre-back, was given a real runaround by Plymouth’s centre-forward Neil Langman. “He scored,” Griffiths says of Langman, whose brother Peter also played at centre-back. “He was a big old lump but quite skilful on the ground and he made a right mess of the Liverpool defence.” Twentyman remains legendary in Liverpool lore after becoming the scout who uncovered the talents of future club greats like Phil Neal, Ian Rush and Alan Hansen.
Up front for Liverpool was Alan A’Court, who played in England’s forward line at the 1958 World Cup finals. “They were still one of the famous clubs in the country, and everybody in Plymouth wanted to see the game, the crowd was over 27,000,” Griffiths recalls. These were the times of Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and the Busby Babes, when photos of the soccer stars of the day were collected on cigarette cards.
“It was a big occasion, but it was a league match,” Griffiths says, throwing himself forward to Sunday’s heroics where Argyle, rock bottom of the Championship, held off the previously all-conquering 2025-issue Liverpool for their famous victory. “I didn’t expect to win by any means. All I wanted was one goal, even if they lost 6-1 but … Wow.”
Now 83, longtime resident in Hertford, Griffiths still works as a self-employed town planner, numbering himself among the 800-strong London branch of the Green Army, taking in local away games as well as regular returns to Home Park.
He can now compare schoolboy heroes like the Langman brothers, tough-tackling full-back George Robertson, the flying winger Gordon Astall and the inside-forward George Dews, who also batted right-hand for Worcestershire, to their modern equivalents.
The goalkeeper Conor Hazard was heroic on Sunday. The No 9 Ryan Hardie slotted the decisive penalty. Nikola Katic, the recently arrived Bosnian central defender, threw himself at every challenge and then cheerleaded his teammates on to the finish line. For Jack Rowley, Argyle’s manager in 1956, read Miron Muslic, who Griffiths congratulated when they met on Monday. “He’s very calm, very focused, he immediately made a good impression.” The Wayne Rooney misadventure consigned to the past, Argyle now have a fighting chance of Championship survival. “They don’t fanny about at the back,” Griffiths says, approvingly.
A first whiff of a possible Sunday shock came when seeing Arne Slot’s Liverpool selection. Ten changes were made, with Mohamed Salah idling back on Merseyside. “I was encouraged. That was disrespecting Argyle. They clearly hadn’t done their homework. Surely they must have known we had brought in a new manager, that they have brought in two amazing defenders. [Muslic]’s got them organised. They must have realised that, surely. Though obviously not. It was disrespectful not to have some of the more accomplished players in the side.”
Argyle’s exploits this season, winning at Brentford in the third round, and taking down Liverpool, have redressed some of the purported lost magic of the FA Cup. For Griffiths, it delivered glorious, golden moments to reward seven decades of loyal support.
