There is an excellent book on this season called ‘On The March With Kenny’s Army’ by Gary Shaw which covers what happened much better and in more detail than I could ever hope to. However this was very much a coming of age time for me Liverpool FC wise. It would be the last time a campaign started where I wasn’t a season ticket holder. Additionally the prospect of being close to Anfield had inspired me to do relatively well in my ‘A’ Levels and to my surprise I began a degree in the city in September 1985. Now feels as good a time as any as to record my memories, which despite being nearly forty years ago feel like only yesterday.

To be honest the season had started under quite a cloud. The Heysel disaster was hanging over the club and politically times were turbulent in the city with Militant Tendancy to the fore. On September 21st I found myself behind the Park End goal at Goodison Park with thousands of other Reds. At that point I believed I had already ascended to football heaven. The events of the whole season were to prove there was still a long way to go though. Within one minute of kick off new player manager Kenny Dalglish had given us the lead with a wonder strike. My own world had gone very dark at that moment. In the middle of the wildly celebrating masses I had been grabbed by a man mountain I’d never met before. ‘I’m from Denmark, I’m from Denmark’ was all I could hear. Eventually he did release me and Liverpool went on to when a fantastic game 3 2.

By the middle of October an unpalatable truth had to be faced. Liverpool were second in the league but ten points behind Manchester United in first. The away trip to Old Trafford was next on the agenda with the afternoon getting off to the expected hostile start. A large Mancunian greeting parting awaiting the travelling supporters on the concourse at the away end. On the pitch Liverpool appeared to be the team with the ten point lead. A superb team goal finished by Craig Johnson putting them in front just after half time, only for a fortunate Paul McGrath effort to see honours even at the end.

Into November I was part of the Liverpool support at both Coventry and Birmingham for what turned out to be relatively routine 3 0 and 2 0 victories respectively. In retrospect what is surprising though is the attendances. A meagre 16,947 at Coventry, followed by an even worse 15,062 at Birmingham. This was a time when the West Midlands had been hit equally as hard by the recession in Britain as Merseyside and football wasn’t always at the top of people’s priorities. The good news on that front though was that over in Manchester the wheels had fallen off (yet again) and the gap to the top was down to a mere two points at the end of November.

December produced a few unexpected stumbles for Liverpool also though and following a home draw with Sheffield Wednesday on New Years Day it was five games without a win, third place (behind Everton) and a Manchester United lead of five points. So it was that I departed Lime Street on Sunday 12th January for the televised match at Watford.

Older readers will remember that during the 1970s British Rail began running so called ‘football specials’ to ferry travelling supporters around the country. This was in no small part because football fans were beginning to scare regular travellers with their boisterous behaviour, so this was a simple way of removing the problem at source. This particular day in 1986 suggested the concept had seen its day. The many carriages pulling away from the platform containing at most twenty people. It had been similar earlier in the season when I travelled on the special to Queens Park Rangers.

Watford had a more than capable team back then, including John Barnes. When they took an early lead it looked like Liverpool’s winless run would continue, but inspired by an increasingly impressive Paul Walsh they came back to win 3 2. Interestingly the attendance was another very poor 16,967. The novelty of a televised game on a Sunday coupled with the recessionary times not helping.

As February rolled round matters were now incredibly tight at the top of the table with Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United and Chelsea separated by only three points. That meant the next two games at Anfield against Manchester United and Everton respectively were going to be huge.

The Manchester United game must have been a disappointment though, to the point I had to look up the score (a 1 all draw) to jog my memory. No such problem with the Everton game. That was bad. Very bad. This was of course long before possession statistics and records of shots were kept but it felt like only a matter of time before Everton scored, which they finally did late in the second half through Gary Lineker.

Worse was to follow before the end. Bruce Grobbelaar inexplicably letting a long range attempt from Kevin Ratcliffe into the net. Evertonian’s on the Kop (and back then there were many) were jubilant. Liverpool were out of the title race. In the chip shop near to the ground after those ‘in the know’ were also confident that Bruce had played his final game for Liverpool. As it transpired both the former and latter statements proved to be very wide of the mark.

The comeback started eight days later with a 2 1 win at Tottenham in a further televised Sunday game in front of another amazingly small crowd of 16,436. Ian Rush scoring a 90th minute winner after Liverpool battled back from a goal down.

Despite this Liverpool managed to shoot themselves in the foot three days later when two own goals at Anfield against Queers Park Rangers saw the Reds knocked out of the League Cup at the semi final stage. Fortunately the FA Cup still presented a route to Wembley (honourable mention here to York away as possibly the coldest I’ve been in my life) and this was to result in the madness that was Watford away in a quarter final replay on a Monday night in mid March.

The crowd from the league match at the start of the year had somehow swelled by twelve thousand, the vast majority of whom seemed to be supporting Liverpool in the packed away end. That man John Barnes had opened the scoring for Watford and hope was slipping away before an ice cool penalty from Jan Molby took the game to extra time. From there there was only going to be one winner. Ian Rush duly obliging as the then Watford chairman Elton John was serenaded by the travelling supporters in those less politically correct times.

Whatever happened now there was something to look forward to in the shape of an FA Cup semi final with Southampton. However momentum was also starting to build in the league. After the Everton debacle seven out of the next eight league games were won with the other drawn. This left Liverpool level on points with four games remaining for them but crucially five for Everton.

The first of the four was away at already relegated West Bromwich Albion. What should have been an easy three points proved to be tricky though and the yet again bulging away end (as evidenced by the Ian Rush winning goal) were relieved to see the team get over the line by two goals to one.

A week later Birmingham City were swept aside by five goals to nil at Anfield in a game that was notable for a hat-trick from centre half Gary Gillespie. Transistor radios were also noticeably in evidence on the Kop with all ears on how Everton were progressing at Nottingham Forest. Most in attendance were content with a goalless draw at the City Ground which gave Liverpool a two point advantage over Everton, although crucially Everton had three games remaining to Liverpool’s two. This meant the forthcoming midweek games between Leicester and Liverpool and Oxford and Everton were going to be massive, with absolutely no room for error.

Although I was in the middle of a steamy away end at Filbert Street it’s not the events on the pitch I remember from that night. Liverpool swept into a two goal lead within the first half an hour and kept Leicester at arm’s length from there. Everyone was pretty much focussed on what was happening at Oxford and with minutes remaining a mighty roar went up as Oxford went in front. The destiny of the league title was in our hands and a win at Chelsea on Sunday would secure it.

I travelled to Chelsea on one of the supporters coaches that set off from by Anfield. Although I can’t exactly recall now I’m pretty sure we departed at a sensible time, but inevitably as we get closer to Stamford Bridge the traffic got heavier and heavier. It was only about five minutes from kick off when we actually made it into the ground. Incredibly back then you could just pay on the turnstile to watch a game where Liverpool had a chance of winning the league.

The match itself is of course part of Liverpool legend with Kenny Dalglish scoring an iconic winning goal in his first season as player manager. The goal was recently voted as the seventh best in Liverpool’s history. In another development that seems impossible now Chelsea played ‘We Are The Champions’ on their tannoy as the team came over to the away end to celebrate. Then the pressure was on to get back to Liverpool before the pubs shut at 11pm or the clubs at 2am.

While all the excitement of Liverpool’s title charge had been mounting they’d also managed to overcome Southampton after extra time in the semi-final of the FA Cup. There opponents in the final were going to be Everton, the first ever all Merseyside FA Cup Final. The semi-final had been played in early April and as a non-season ticket holder and student with no money this had given me ample time to come to terms with the fact that I was going to be missing the biggest game of the season.

Then barely a week before the big day I got very lucky indeed. It must be remembered that this was long long before the existence of internet or mobile phones or Liverpool FC keeping an extensive list of your purchase history. What they did do though was issue vouchers at the turnstile for what were considered lesser matches that they described as potentially being ‘useful’ for forthcoming bigger matches. At either the Coventry or Birmingham game I’d been given such a voucher on entry, which I was disappointed to discover ended in a zero. In my mind that seemed the least likely number that would be useful in an allocation of tickets.

The only way you could find out if the voucher had been useful back then other than physically looking at a notice pinned to the ticket office at the ground was via the Liverpool Echo. Unbelievably for me someone had left a recent copy of the Echo on a bus I was travelling on and inside was an article stating that supporters with a voucher ending in ‘0’ were eligible for one FA Cup Final standing ticket at the princely sum of six pounds.

Like the Chelsea match the week before the events at Wembley are part of club legend. The third goal that sealed the match from Ian Rush coming in at number eight on the list of Liverpool’s best ever goals. Even the football special from Lime Street made a comeback. With twenty full trains leaving Merseyside for the capital. I made sure I savoured every minute of my Wembley experience being pretty much last out of the ground and on the final special back to Liverpool.

In the summer I was able to walk up to Anfield and buy a Kop season ticket for forty five pounds which I have held ever since. There have been many fantastic times since of course but in my mind the events of 85/86 are yet to be beaten.