Source: Liverpool_Echo
Liverpool FC 12 days of Christmas - Nine years of Bob Paisley
As the festive season approaches, we have put together a special online 12 days of Christmas with a Liverpool FC twist. A new installment will be online at www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/lfc and www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/lfc each day up to the 25th[LNB]NINETEEN major prizes in nine years - not a bad haul for a man who reportedly didn't actually want the job in the first place.[LNB]Other more celebrated managers may have surpassed Bob Paisley's overall trophy tally but none have troubled the silver-polishers so heavily in such a short space of time.[LNB] Show Caption Paisley in his wing-half days as a playerGetting stuck in during a training session on the Anfield car-parkWith Bill Shankly and the Anfield coaching staffDuring one of Melwood's legendary five-a-side gamesWith his two young sons at Christmas timeSaluting the Anfield faithful after the trophies started rolling inCelebrating 'the biggest day in Liverpool's life' with Ian Callaghan, Rome 1977Bringing some pots back to show his old pals from his birthplace in Hetton-le-HoleThe bargain of all time? Bob brings in Kenny Dalglish, August 1977Sharing a joke with the Anfield groundsmanSurveying the scene at MelwoodInspecting a snowy pitch at Bangor CityBob's record of three European Cups in five years is unlikely ever to be beatenWith Nessie Shankly at the unveiling of the gates in memory of Bill at the Anfield Road end, September 1982Saluting the Wembley crowd with Matt Busby before Liverpool's Milk Cup win over Man Utd in 1983Bowing out at Anfield in 1983 with an old friendSharing some of his expertise with Kenny Dalglish in the Boot Room, 1986Bob's wife Jessie with his portait inside AnfieldPaisley tribute night before the UEFA Cup tie against Roma in 2001A memorial to Bob was unveiled in his north-east birthplace of Hetton-le-Hole in 2008The Kop shows respect The understated North Easterner had already written himself into Anfield folklore after playing his part in the club's epic 1946/47 League title win and then becoming Bill Shankly's right-hand-man as the Scotsman built Liverpool Football Club's first dynasty of success following his arrival at Anfield in 1959.[LNB]When Shankly shocked the football world by retiring in 1974, 55-year-old Paisley had to be persuaded initially to pick up the managerial reigns and was only able to pick up a League runners-up spot in his first year as boss, although his first European game in charge did see the Reds rack up the club's record win, 11-0, in the Cup Winners Cup first round tie against Norwegians Stromsgodset.[LNB]The following season however saw the trophy landslide begin as the League title was secured with a dramatic final day win at Wolves while a second UEFA Cup in four years was won following an even more spectacular two-legged encounter in the Final against Belgian side Bruges, the Reds' stunning fightback in the first game at Anfield setting the template for many of the ones to follow in future years.[LNB] Paisley's third season, 1976/77, saw the League title retained - making Liverpool the first English side to reach ten championship victories - and also the fulfilment of the mission Bill Shankly had started over a decade earlier.[LNB]The Reds breezed past Irish side Crusaders and Turks Trabzonspor in the opening two rounds of the European Cup but were drawn against French champions St Etienne, runners up to Bayern Munich the previous season, in the quarter finals.[LNB]A goal down from the first leg, Dominique Bathenay's stunning away goal cancelled out Kevin Keegan's leveller and left the Reds needing two goals to progress but Ray Kennedy and supersub David Fairclough, just six minutes from time, sent Anfield into raptures and the Reds, via a comfortably won semi-final against FC Zurich, into the club's first ever European Cup Final against German side Borussia Moenchengladbach in Rome.[LNB]
