Memories of Molby, Man United and the 'Lost Goal' (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

With the Reds preparing to face old foes Manchester United this weekend, I've been reflecting on some of the meetings between the sides that I've witnessed over the years. There have been a lot of highs and lows, but in general the fixture has often favoured the home side. Old Trafford has certainly not been a happy hunting ground for Liverpool -- at least not since Gerard Houllier and Danny Murphy departed -- and most of my good memories have come from games at Anfield.

One in particular stands out for me for a couple of reasons. It was a League Cup fourth round clash in November 1985 and it was the very first game I ever watched from the old standing Kop. It was also the night of the famous "Lost Goal" by Jan Molby, a brilliant strike that for over twenty years was not seen by anybody who hadn't been fortunate enough to have been inside Anfield that night.

Industrial action by the TV companies meant that there were no camera crews inside the stadium and therefore no video footage had been captured of Molby's incredible strike.

Or at least, that's what everyone thought for 24 years. Until grainy footage from a police surveillance camera was eventually made public in 2009, Molby's blockbuster had only ever been witnessed by those who were in attendance that night.

I was one of those 41,291 present at Anfield, which for well over twenty years put me in a privileged group. Any time there was a discussion on great goals, I could wave a dismissive hand in the air and smugly say "pah, you call those great goals? You didn't see Big Jan's screamer against United back in '85. Now that was a great goal." For those of us who witnessed it, the lack of TV footage was not necessarily a bad thing as being able to recount tales of the "Lost Goal" was something of a badge of honour!

My memory of the game itself is very sketchy as I was only 12 years old, although it does stand out more than most from that time due to the fact it was my first experience of being on the Kop. My dad had been taking me to Anfield fairly regularly since I was seven; we'd usually sit in the Main Stand (as we still do), although occasionally we'd be in the old Kemlyn Road. I'd been pestering him to take me on the Kop for ages but he felt I was too young and wasn't ready for it. Then, out of the blue, he tells me that not only are we going to Anfield to see the Redmen take on "the Mancs" but we'd be doing so from the Spion Kop. Happy days!

I'm not sure exactly why he chose this particular game to hand me my Kop debut; thinking back, it would surely have made more sense to ease me into it with a fairly mundane fixture against a West Ham United or Tottenham Hotspur, a game where the crowd wouldn't be whipped into such a frenzy. He had to have known what to expect as he had grown up on the Kop; like so many kids of his generation he'd pay to get into the Boys Pen and then sneak out into the main area of the famous terrace.

Since being saddled with me he'd gotten used to the more tranquil experience of watching from the Main Stand, but my constant badgering must have eventually wore him down and as league leaders United swaggered into town we took our place at the front of the Kop, just to the right-hand side of the goal that Liverpool were defending in the first half.

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