David Fairclough: LFC must avoid another Trabzonspor horror trip

Welcome to Hell 300OCTOBER 1976 and Liverpool are through to the second round of the European Cup.A 7-0 aggregate win over Belfast part-timers Crusaders has set up a journey into the unknown to face Turkish champions Trabzonspor.In contrast to the short hop across the Irish Sea, this next trip took Bob Paisley's side to one of Europe's furthest outposts.Nestled on the Black Sea coast of north eastern Turkey it was the furthest flung venture in Liverpool's fledgling travels. It was also a journey Paisley's European champions in waiting would never forget.'Trabzonspor in 1977 was the worst European trip,' said Ray Clemence some years later.'The pitch had rocks all over it. The hotel was awful, we were woken by the noise of farm animals at 5am, the food was terrible and we lost 1-0.'In short, nothing went right.As Liverpool host the Turkish Cup winners at Anfield tomorrow night ahead of next week's return in the Europa League play-off tie, another player on that trip, David Fairclough, sheds further light on the last time the Reds travelled to Trabzon.

Source: Liverpool_Echo