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The Liverpool and Celtic Connection – A story

Links as far back as I can remember then. Perhaps mirroring their respective cities. World-renowned west coast seaports. Gritty dockers and resolute men of the shipyards. The intrinsic humour and toughness of the natives. That shared vitality. Those uniquely distinctive accents. Two bastions of sheer working classness. No religious links in the Reds case but as far removed from the establishment as it was possible to get. Just like the Celts. Leave that sort of stuff for yer Man U”s and yer Rangers. The aristocracy. Our loyalties lay with the proletariat. We know our place in the class structure. Down here mate! I say down here!

Not when it comes to football, I hasten to add.

The” immortal” Jock Stein. Our own Bill Shankly”s term for his great friend. The great protestant Celt – a contradiction in terms? [nah Kenny was too] – and his team arrived at Anfield in 1966. Before he had become immortal, of course. The second leg of the European Cup Winner”s Cup semi-final. Accompanied by hordes of green and white enhooped Caledonian revellers bowing and prostrating themselves all across our fair city to our matching colour Corporation buses as they swished past on their way down Sheil Road, would you believe ? Collaring one such denizen, I asked him why all the genuflections to a mere bus. He put it to me that the Pontiff himself was driving the blessed thing. It took me a good five minutes to convince the poor soul that the Pope hadn”t driven the 26 since they’d got rid of conductors. Still, that”s blind faith, I guess!

Generous to a fault as well, these Glaswegians. Like their Scouse cousins. That common thread of human decency. That milk – or should it perhaps be spirit? – of human kindness. Three thousand empty whisky bottles bequeathed to us following the match. And that was just in the Boy”s Pen! Do you know that with the deposits on those bottles we went out and bought Emlyn Hughes? I’d had my first taste of such bountiful spirit a week or so earlier. It was an away game at Roker Park.

The Red hordes had taken up their usual position behind the goal. Utter disrespect for the rightful Mackem occupants but who gave a damn back then when we were busy spreading the Gospel according to Shanks? Anyway, a bit of scuffling to our rear. A guy around five foot nine dressed all in green was challenging all-comers to a fight. Now I have to confess here that there weren”t many takers amongst our lot. But who could blame them? I mean have you ever seen shoulders five foot nine inches wide? This guy made Victor Mature look like Charles Hawtrey for god”s sake.

Fear not, though. My mate Billy to the rescue. ”Soft Billy” as we used to term him. With good reason too. There followed some rather dynamic ballroom dancing and a few ****** noses. All of them Billy”s. Having strutted their stuff, the battlers went on to become firm friends. Later following a sex-change, they wed and Billy bore our coat-hangered Celtic warrior three strapping boys. One a Celtic fan, one a Red and the other a hybrid supporter of Tranmere and Queen of the South.

It”s a funny old game you know. Big Ron Yeats”s testimonial was our next communion. Early seventies. I was late home from work. Quickly donning my all Red paraphernalia I legged it up Utting Avenue to the Anfield Road End to pay my respects to the big fella…

Disaster!! How on earth was I meant to know that so many screaming Celts would come all this way for a ****** midweek testimonial for one of our players?!? Don’t these guys have anything better to do? I jest, of course. What on earth could be better than a day out to Anfield? Still it would have been comforting to have been the owner of five foot nine inch wide shoulders as I took a deep breath and attempted to camouflage my Redness amongst ten thousand Highlanders resplendent in their green and white. Only one dodgy moment.

As the green hordes chanted reverently for Shankly so the Kop responded in kind for big John Stein. Well sort of reverently, anyway. “Jock Strap!” they chanted as only witty Kopites, wanting to put at risk the life of one of their own, can! Fortunately our Celtic cousins never deciphered this light-hearted affront to their messiah. In any case I do them a great disservice. They would probably have merely dismembered me. Seriously folks, they were magnificent to me, our Celtic cousins. And to big Ron, too. It was just that I was more relieved by the end of the proceedings than Big Ron. A limb is a limb when all”s said and done! Even mine.

Back to our links. Kenny”s from Heaven! Er, no. Glasgee actually. Oh I see. You”re saying it”s the same thing? Sure, pal, but try telling that to this out-of-work claymore sharpener I happen to know from Cumbernauld!

Can any player ever have been more worshipped in the entire history of the game? Why I alone used to pray to him twice every day – once at morning, once at night. Not forgetting Grace three times a day. That”s my sister Grace by the way, another big Kenny devotee as you might gather from the number of times she, too, prayed to him. Finally, some poignancy to follow all this frivolity.

We at Anfield shall never forget the magnanimity of Kenny”s former club to invite us up to Parkhead to play our first game following Hillsborough.

John Pearman of Red All Over The Land tells me that the singing that day by both sets of supporters of our mutual hymn You”ll Never Walk Alone was the most emotional he”s ever heard. I don”t doubt him. On that day – not for the first time as you will have gathered from this piece – Red and Green stood as one. Uniquely in football? More than likely. Brothers and sisters united in emotion.

The one entrusting its grief to the other. The other embracing it willingly. Big heartedly. Two of the world”s great clubs shoulder to shoulder at a time of adversity for the one. Football can produce poignant moments. That occasion was undoubtedly one of them.

And since? Well, as with most things that run deep, so the relationship has endured. The kinship has surfaced in several other testimonials down the years and was particularly evident in our stirring UEFA cup clashes of several years ago when that Steve McManaman wonder goal stretched Green magnanimity to its limits. Then, a few years back, to coincide with the return home of the last itinerant Celt from the ”67 European Cup Final in Lisbon, we had the latest of the green and white invasions of our precious Anfield citadel.

The occasion was Ronnie Moran”s farewell game, a glittering spectacle at which it was rumoured that the fallen Red”s hero Titi Camara was so impressed by the glorious din emanating from the Celtic supporters – including no doubt our belated Lisbon straggler – he was considering buying himself a kilt. A red and white one, of course! And the Celts? Well for their part they decided to bust our stand. But hey we won”t carp. After all, what”s a broken stand between long-time friends.

You know, it can often prove fruitless trying to explain certain things. For every shared anthem, shared maestro or experience that shapes a relationship there can be a hidden nuance just as important. Equally as instrumental. Sometimes, then, some things are best just celebrated. That is what I have tried to do here. That underlying kindred spirit binding many Reds and Greens together is simply a bit special. Full stop. Explanations are not required.

The fact is, somewhere along the way it happened and it is now there for all to see. And while not everybody approves of it – Liverpudlian Ibrox devotees and their Glasgwegian counterparts especially will rightfully be less than enamoured with it all – I know of one dear departed dog-collared soul who will be delighted how things have panned out.

Why it must seem like heaven for Father T. In more ways than one.

Liverpool’s Celtic connection: shared values, songs and a legend

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James Nalton
@JDNalton

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2018/06/liverpools-celtic-connection-shared-values-songs-shared-legend/
27 June 2018

Liverpool’s connection with Celtic is often talked about, but it’s origins aren’t as clear or as historical as is often portrayed.

The clubs are linked by players, managers, songs, and shared values between the two (generally) anti-establishment sets of fans from working class cities.

Events of 1989 created a strong bond, but prior to this a shared anthem was disputed as much as it was celebrated, and a meeting between two sides who were rising forces in European football in the 60s wasn’t exactly laced with respect.

The Cup Winners Cup tie of 1966 was fiercely and at times bitterly contested clash during which fans from both sides pitted their wits against each other.

Rather than being a meeting of two friends, it was a clash between two sides with great ambition, and thanks to the quality of the managers involved it was also a tactical battle.

According to The Celtic Wiki “both men showed the same deep concern about the game and showed a tactical nous rarely seen before.”

Before the first leg at Celtic Park, which the home side went on to win 1-0, a small group of Liverpool fans broke into the stadium for a kickabout, only to eventually be kicked out themselves by the police.

In the return leg the supporters erupted after the game as bottles and cans were thrown onto the pitch. There are differing reports as to the reason for the commotion, but most cite the main cause as a late disallowed goal for the visitors.

By all accounts none of it was malicious, and reports from the day point to the Celtic fans enjoying themselves throughout the city on their way to Anfield in a way many Liverpool dwellers would probably respect, and be familiar with.

Liverpool’s legendary Bill Shankly. Turning towards the Kop end of Anfield, Shankly gets an ovation from the fans who idolised him when Liverpool became League champions.

The managers of the respective sides, Liverpool’s Bill Shankly and Jock Stein of Celtic, had great mutual respect for each other, and after the bottle throwing at the end of the tie Shankly quipped: “Jock, do you want your share of the gate money or shall we just return the empties?”

The shared values of the two managers reflected the makeup of the cities they represented. Both were working class settlements built on industries brought to them by the rivers they sat upon.

The Clyde in Glasgow and the Mersey in Liverpool naturally brought industry related to shipbuilding and seafaring, but other industries attracted to these thriving areas which facilitated the distribution of goods created a large working class population in both cities.

Shankly and Stein were both working class Scotsmen from coalmining heritage, and they transferred these values onto the pitch by instilling them in their players.

A year after the sides met in the Cup Winners Cup, Celtic became the first British side to lift the European Cup when they beat Internazionale 2-1 in Lisbon.

Shankly was there to congratulate his friend after the game. “John, you’re immortal now,” stated Shankly in typically emphatic style.

DUBLIN, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND – Saturday, August 10, 2013: Glasgow Celtic supporters sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ during a preseason friendly match against Liverpool at the Aviva Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

It’s around this time that both clubs adopted ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone‘ as their football anthem.

In 1964 a Liverpool tour of the east coast of America coincided with a Gerry and the Pacemakers tour of the same area. Fans had already sung the hit on the Kop in the previous season when the pop chart were played over the PA system before games, but this coinciding trip to America consolidated the track as a Liverpool song.

“Gerry my son, I have given you a football team, and you have given us a song,” said Shankly after the band’s performance on the Ed Sullivan show.

Celtic picked it up shortly after, and it could regularly be heard throughout their domination of the Scottish league between 1966 and 1974.

There are still disputes as to which team adopted the song first, but the local connection with Gerry and the Pacemakers, and the fact neither club is likely to have picked up on the original — a song from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel — gives Liverpool more of a claim to it.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – Friday, April 15, 2011: Scarves and floral tributes left at the Shankly Gates at the Memorial Service to remember the 96 victims of the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster in 1989. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

But events in 1989 dismissed any notion of owning the anthem, and it became a shared tribute to those who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster.

On April 30, just two weeks after the tragic events in Sheffield where 95 had lost their lives (Tony Bland became the 96th in 1993), Liverpool were invited to Celtic Park for a memorial match to raise funds and spirits.

The event was an emotional one, but also an important one for Liverpool who were yet to play a game since the disaster. It created strong ties between the two clubs which lasts until this day, and if the connection between the clubs prior to this game was a loose one, the emotion poured out on this day strengthened it.

It was a show of solidarity between to like minded cities, football clubs, and sets of supporters.

It was “a new beginning for the pride of Merseyside,” wrote Allain Laing in his report of the occasion. “Not for a moment did they walk alone, as a huge crowd of fans, neither barrier nor prejudice to divide them, once again made the song an anthem rather than a requiem.”

Liverpool and Scotland striker kenny Dalglish waits for the ball. He joined Liverpool from Celtic. (PA Images)

60,437 fans filled the Glasgow stadium as Kenny Dalglish — a legend at both clubs — played his first game in over a year. He opened the scoring and received a standing ovation when he was replaced by John Aldridge with just under an hour gone.

It was also an important day for Aldridge who had questioned whether he would ever play football again after witnessing events at Hillsborough. The thought must have crossed the minds of many of the players, but this game seemed like an appropriate way to return to action, and it raised around half a million pounds for the disaster fund.

There was no taking of sides on the day. No winners or losers. Fans cheered players on both sides, and the skill of John Barnes was especially appreciated by the Celtic supporters. Hugh Keevins wrote in his match report that “Barnes, whose variety of ways to worry Peter Grant drew applause from the Celtic support.”

“Over the years we have had a happy relationship with Celtic but that relationship has become much warmer today,” said the then Liverpool chairman, John Smith. “I can’t speak too highly of the warmth between the two clubs and also between the two cities.”

The game showed how revered Dalglish was, and still is, by both sets of fans, and he is another reason for the link between the two sides.

They’ve met in Europe a couple of times since. The Reds triumphed in a UEFA Cup first round tie in 1997, but Celtic claimed an impressive 2-0 victory at Anfield to progress in the same competition in 2003.

These games were nowhere near the level of Shankly vs Stein, but the 1997 game did see one of the best goals scored in the fixture when Steve McManaman scored a last minute goal which eventually saw Liverpool through on away goals.

This 2-2 draw at Parkhead was massively hyped prior to the game, and luckily the match lived up to its billing. McManaman’s dazzling solo effort was the icing on the cake after other good goals from Michael Owen, Jackie McNamara, and a skilfully won penalty from Henrik Larsson.

Prior to the 2003 games both sets of fans sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, and the half-and-half scarves, for once, didn’t look out of place.

These games were still dubbed battles, and there was no time for niceties once the games got underway despite an obvious increasing bond between the two clubs.

In some ways the Liverpool-Celtic connection isn’t as clear cut as it’s often portrayed, and looking back at the history of the two clubs it’s difficult to pinpoint its roots.

But, despite some murky religious undertones which have been much less of a problem in Liverpool than in Glasgow, the similar character and shared values of the people in these two cities would naturally lend themselves to some kind of bond once their paths cross.

This is why Dalglish took to Liverpool as he did, and why Shankly and Stein’s was a friendship built on mutual respect and common ideas.

DUBLIN, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND – Saturday, August 10, 2013: Liverpool fans’ banner ‘Irish Blood Scouse Heart’ during a preseason friendly match against Glasgow Celtic at the Aviva Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

The clubs still borrow songs from each other to this day, and while ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ went from Liverpool to Celtic, the terrace hymns sung since tend to have travelled down from north of the border.

This includes ‘The Fields of Anfield Road’ which borrows from the Celtic rendition of ‘The Fields of Athenry’, although given the Irish origins of the song there’s a good chance this could also have been sung in it’s original form at Anfield via the city’s Irish immigrants.

Both have plenty of Irish connections and fans, and this could also be another reason for the ties between the two.

But the main reason for the bond which exists between the two was without a doubt that day in 1989, when Celtic stepped forward to help Liverpool begin the healing process following tragedy at Hillsborough