1977–78 Liverpool F.C. season

The 1977–78 season was Liverpool Football Club's 86th season in existence and their 16th consecutive season in the First Division. It was a season of contrasts for Liverpool as they retained the European Cup, following a 1–0 victory against Club Brugge in the final at Wembley in London, and won the European Super Cup by beating Hamburg, who included former Liverpool forward Kevin Keegan in their side, 7–1 on aggregate with a 6–0 Second Leg win at Anfield. However, in both the Football League and the Football League Cup they would end as runners-up to newly promoted Nottingham Forest managed by Brian Clough. The replay of the Football League Cup final would prove to be very controversial with a penalty that decided the match, followed by a disallowed goal when it was adjudged that Terry McDermott handled the ball.

Liverpool

1977–78 season
Chairman	John Smith
Manager	Bob Paisley
First Division	2nd
European Cup	Winners
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Runners-up
European Super Cup	Winners
FA Charity Shield	Title shared
Top goalscorer	League: Kenny Dalglish (20) All: Kenny Dalglish (31)
Average home league attendance	48,621
Home colours Away colours

Liverpool manager Bob Paisley bought Kenny Dalglish from Celtic for £440,000, a record transfer fee between British clubs. Dalglish went on to score 20 goals in the league and 31 in all competitions, including the winner in the European Cup Final. Realising that Ian Callaghan was nearing the end of his career at Liverpool, the club also spent £352,000 on Graeme Souness from Middlesbrough.

However, Callaghan's final season started with a call up to the England squad, and would play in the match against Switzerland on 7 September 1977 under new manager Ron Greenwood. It was to be his first cap since playing in the 1966 FIFA World Cup finals against France.

Terry McDermott's emergence would also see him make his debut in the same match with Ray Clemence, Phil Neal, Emlyn Hughes and Ray Kennedy also playing as well. Kevin Keegan also played in the match, making it seven current and former Liverpool players in that game.

Squad

Goalkeepers

• Ray Clemence
• Peter McDonnell
• Steve Ogrizovic

Defenders

• Emlyn Hughes
• Joey Jones
• Brian Kettle
• Alec Lindsay
• Phil Neal
• Tommy Smith
• Phil Thompson
• Alan Hansen
• Colin Irwin

Midfielders

• Ian Callaghan
• Jimmy Case
• Steve Heighway
• Sammy Lee
• Ray Kennedy
• Terry McDermott
• Graeme Souness

Forwards

• David Fairclough
• Kenny Dalglish
• Kevin Kewley
• John Toshack
• David Johnson

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Nottingham Forest (C)	42	25	14	3	69	24	+45	64	Qualification for the European Cup first round
2	Liverpool	42	24	9	9	65	34	+31	57	Qualification for the European Cup first round
3	Everton	42	22	11	9	76	45	+31	55	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round
4	Manchester City	42	20	12	10	74	51	+23	52
5	Arsenal	42	21	10	11	60	37	+23	52

Source: World Football
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions
Notes:

Results

First Division

Main article: 1977–78 Football League § First Division

Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Scorers	Attendance	Report 1	Report 2
20-Aug-77	Middlesbrough	A	1–1	Dalglish 7'	31,000	Report	Report
23-Aug-77	Newcastle United	H	2–0	Dalglish 46' McDermott 87'	48,267	Report	Report
27-Aug-77	West Bromwich Albion	H	3–0	Dalglish 18' Heighway 81' Case 85'	48,525	Report	Report
03-Sep-77	Birmingham City	A	1–0	R. Kennedy 2'	28,239	Report	Report
10-Sep-77	Coventry City	H	2–0	Fairclough 65' Dalglish 67'	45,574	Report	Report
17-Sep-77	Ipswich Town	A	1–1	Dalglish 22'	29,658	Report	Report
24-Sep-77	Derby County	H	1–0	McDermott 80'	48,309	Report	Report
01-Oct-77	Manchester United	A	0–2		55,109	Report	Report
04-Oct-77	Arsenal	A	0–0		47,110	Report	Report
08-Oct-77	Chelsea	H	2–0	Dalglish 2' Fairclough 79'	40,499	Report	Report
15-Oct-77	Leeds United	A	2–1	Case 36', 63'	45,500	Report	Report
22-Oct-77	Everton	H	0–0		51,668	Report	Report
29-Oct-77	Manchester City	A	1–3	Fairclough 29'	49,207	Report	Report
05-Nov-77	Aston Villa	H	1–2	Own Goal 65'	50,436	Report	Report
12-Nov-77	Queens Park Rangers	A	0–2		25,625	Report	Report
19-Nov-77	Bristol City	H	1–1	Dalglish 12'	41,053	Report	Report
26-Nov-77	Leicester City	A	4–0	Fairclough 18' Heighway 69' Dalglish 81' McDermott 84'	26,051	Report	Report
03-Dec-77	West Ham United	H	2–0	Dalglish 37' Fairclough 82'	39,659	Report	Report
10-Dec-77	Norwich City	A	1–2	Thompson 80'	24,983	Report	Report
17-Dec-77	Queens Park Rangers	H	1–0	Neal 30 Pen'	38,249	Report	Report
26-Dec-77	Nottingham Forest	A	1–1	Heighway 30'	47,218	Report	Report
27-Dec-77	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1–0	Neal 22 Pen'	50,294	Report	Report
31-Dec-77	Newcastle United	A	2–0	Thompson 48' Dalglish 89'	36,456	Report	Report
02-Jan-78	Middlesbrough	H	2–0	Johnson 39' Heighway 80'	49,305	Report	Report
14-Jan-78	West Bromwich Albion	A	1–0	Johnson 10'	35,809	Report	Report
21-Jan-78	Birmingham City	H	2–3	Thompson 74' R. Kennedy 87'	48,401	Report	Report
04-Feb-78	Coventry City	A	0–1		28,965	Report	Report
25-Feb-78	Manchester United	H	3–1	Souness 39' R. Kennedy 49' Case 84'	49,590	Report	Report
04-Mar-78	Chelsea	A	1–3	Neal 48 Pen'	35,550	Report	Report
08-Mar-78	Derby County	A	2–4	Fairclough 70' Dalglish 88'	23,413	Report	Report
11-Mar-78	Leeds United	H	1–0	Dalglish 47'	48,233	Report	Report
25-Mar-78	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	3–1	Case 35' Dalglish 75', 82'	27,531	Report	Report
01-Apr-78	Aston Villa	A	3–0	Dalglish 3', 19' R. Kennedy 21'	40,190	Report	Report
05-Apr-78	Everton	A	1–0	Johnson 13'	52,759	Report	Report
08-Apr-78	Leicester City	H	3–2	Smith 42', 76' Lee 56'	42,979	Report	Report
15-Apr-78	Bristol City	A	1–1	Heighway 41'	31,471	Report	Report
18-Apr-78	Ipswich Town	H	2–2	Dalglish 58' Souness 62'	40,044	Report	Report
22-Apr-78	Norwich City	H	3–0	Own Goal 4' Fairclough 35', 46'	44,857	Report	Report
25-Apr-78	Arsenal	H	1–0	Fairclough 24'	38,318	Report	Report
29-Apr-78	West Ham United	A	2–0	McDermott 38' Fairclough 66'	37,448	Report	Report
01-May-78	Manchester City	H	4–0	Dalglish 24', 55', 80' Neal 53 Pen'	44,528	Report	Report
04-May-78	Nottingham Forest	H	0–0		50,021	Report	Report

FA Charity Shield

Main article: 1977 FA Charity Shield

13 August 1977

15:00 BST

Liverpool	0–0	Manchester United
	Report Report

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 82,000

Liverpool

Manchester United

GK 1 Ray Clemence RB 2 Phil Neal LB 3 Joey Jones CB 4 Phil Thompson LM 5 Ray Kennedy CB 6 Emlyn Hughes CF 7 Kenny Dalglish CM 8 Jimmy Case CF 9 David Fairclough CM 10 Terry McDermott RM 11 Ian Callaghan Substitutes: DF 12 Tommy Smith FW 13 David Johnson DF 14 Alan Hansen MF 15 Steve Heighway GK 16 Peter McDonnell Manager: Bob Paisley

GK 1 Alex Stepney DF 2 Jimmy Nicholl DF 3 Arthur Albiston MF 4 Sammy McIlroy DF 5 Brian Greenhoff DF 6 Martin Buchan (c) MF 7 Steve Coppell MF 8 Jimmy Greenhoff FW 9 Stuart Pearson FW 10 Lou Macari MF 11 Gordon Hill Substitutes: MF 12 David McCreery Manager: Dave Sexton

Match rules 90 minutes, no extra time Five named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions

FA Cup

Main article: 1977–78 FA Cup

Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Scorers	Attendance	Report 1	Report 2
07-Jan-78	Chelsea	A	2–4	Johnson 61' Dalglish 80'	45,449	Report	Report

Football League Cup

Main article: 1977–78 Football League Cup

Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Scorers	Attendance	Report 1	Report 2
30-Aug-77	Chelsea	H	2–0	Dalglish 25' Case 47'	33,170	Report	Report
26-Oct-77	Derby County	H	2–0	Fairclough 72', 75'	30,400	Report	Report
29-Nov-77	Coventry City	H	2–2	Fairclough 40' Neal 44 Pen'	33,817	Report	Report
20-Dec-77	Coventry City	A	2–0	Case 5' Dalglish 80'	36,105	Report	Report
17-Jan-78	Wrexham	A	3–1	Dalglish 14', 58', 87'	25,641	Report	Report
07-Feb-78	Arsenal	H	2–1	Dalglish 26' R. Kennedy 81'	44,764	Report	Report
14-Feb-78	Arsenal	A	0–0		49,561	Report	Report

Final

Main article: 1978 Football League Cup Final

Nottingham Forest

Liverpool

Nottingham Forest Red shirts/White shorts/Red socks	0–0 (final score after extra time)	Liverpool White shirts/Black shorts/White socks
Manager: Brian Clough Team: 1 Chris Woods (GK) 2 Viv Anderson 3 Frank Clark 4 John McGovern (c) 5 Larry Lloyd 6 Kenny Burns 7 Martin O'Neill 8 Ian Bowyer 9 Peter Withe 10 Tony Woodcock 11 John Robertson Substitute: 12 John O'Hare Scorers: None	Half-time: 0–0 Competition: Football League Cup (Final) Date: 15.00 GMT Saturday 18 March 1978 Venue: Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 100,000 Referee: Pat Partridge Match rules: 90 minutes. 30 minutes extra-time if necessary. Match replayed if scores still level. One named substitute. Report Report Report	Manager: Bob Paisley Team: 1 Ray Clemence (GK) 2 Phil Neal 3 Tommy Smith 4 Phil Thompson 5 Ray Kennedy  91' 6 Emlyn Hughes (c) 7 Kenny Dalglish 8 Jimmy Case 9 Steve Heighway 10 Terry McDermott 11 Ian Callaghan Substitute: 12 David Fairclough  91' Scorers: None

Final Replay

Main article: 1978 Football League Cup Final § Replay

Nottingham Forest

Liverpool

Nottingham Forest Yellow/Yellow shorts/Yellow socks	1–0 (final score after 90 minutes)	Liverpool Red shirts/Red shorts/Red socks
Manager: Brian Clough Team: 1 Chris Woods (GK) 2 Viv Anderson 3 Frank Clark 4 John O'Hare 5 Larry Lloyd 6 Kenny Burns (c) 7 Martin O'Neill 8 Ian Bowyer 9 Peter Withe 10 Tony Woodcock 11 John Robertson Substitute 12 Scorers: John Robertson (pen.)	Half-time: 0–0 Competition: Football League Cup (Final) Date: 19.45 BST, Wednesday, 22 March 1978 Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 54,375 Referee: Pat Partridge Match rules: 90 minutes. 30 minutes extra-time if necessary. Match replayed if scores still level. One named substitute. Report Report Report	Manager: Bob Paisley Team: 1 Ray Clemence (GK) 2 Phil Neal 3 Ray Kennedy 4 Tommy Smith 5 Phil Thompson 6 Emlyn Hughes (c) 7 Kenny Dalglish 8 Jimmy Case  64' 9 Steve Heighway 10 Terry McDermott 11 Ian Callaghan Substitute 12 David Fairclough  64' Scorers: None

European Super Cup

Main article: 1977 European Super Cup

First leg

22 November 1977

19:30 CET

Hamburg	1–1	Liverpool
Keller 29'	Report Report	Fairclough 65'

Volksparkstadion, Hamburg

Attendance: 16,000

Referee: António Garrido (Portugal)

Hamburger SV

Liverpool

GK 1 Jürgen Stars DF 2 Manfred Kaltz DF 3 Hans-Jürgen Ripp DF 4 Ivan Buljan  67' MF 5 Kurt Eigl MF 6 Klaus Zaczyk MF 7 Caspar Memering MF 8 Felix Magath  64' FW 9 Kevin Keegan FW 10 Ferdinand Keller MF 11 Arno Steffenhagen Substitutes: DF Andreas Karow  67' MF Horst Bertl  64' Manager: Arkoç Özcan Man of the Match: Assistant Referees:

GK 1 Ray Clemence RB 2 Phil Neal LB 3 Joey Jones  33' CB 4 Phil Thompson LM 5 Ray Kennedy CB 6 Emlyn Hughes CF 7 Kenny Dalglish CM 8 Jimmy Case  58' RM 9 Steve Heighway CF 10 David Fairclough CM 11 Ian Callaghan Substitutes: DF 12 Tommy Smith  33' FW 13 David Johnson  58' MF 14 Terry McDermott FW 15 John Toshack GK 16 Peter McDonnell Manager: Bob Paisley

Second leg

6 December 1977

19:30 GMT

Liverpool	6–0	Hamburg
Thompson 21' McDermott 40', 55', 56' Fairclough 86' Dalglish 88'	Report Report

Anfield, Liverpool

Attendance: 34,931

Referee: Ulf Eriksson (Sweden)

Liverpool

Hamburger SV

GK 1 Ray Clemence RB 2 Phil Neal LB 3 Tommy Smith CB 4 Phil Thompson LM 5 Ray Kennedy CB 6 Emlyn Hughes CF 7 Kenny Dalglish CM 8 Terry McDermott RM 9 Steve Heighway  46' CF 10 David Fairclough CM 11 Jimmy Case Substitutes: FW 12 David Johnson  46' FW 13 John Toshack DF 14 Alan Hansen DF 15 Joey Jones GK 16 Peter McDonnell Manager: Bob Paisley Man of the Match: Assistant Referees:

GK 1 Rudi Kargus DF 2 Hans-Jürgen Ripp DF 3 Peter Nogly MF 4 Horst Bertl DF 5 Peter Hidien DF 6 Manfred Kaltz FW 7 Kevin Keegan FW 8 Ferdinand Keller  69' MF 9 Klaus Zaczyk  69' MF 10 Felix Magath FW 11 Georg Volkert Substitutes: MF Kurt Eigl  69' MF Arno Steffenhagen  69' Manager: Arkoç Özcan

European Cup

Main article: 1977–78 European Cup

Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Scorers	Attendance	Report 1	Report 2
19-Oct-77	Dynamo Dresden	H	5–1	Hansen 14' Case 21', 57' Neal 44 Pen' Kennedy 66'	39,835	Report	Report
02-Nov-77	Dynamo Dresden	A	1–2	Heighway 67'	33,000	Report	Report
01-Mar-78	Benfica	A	2–1	Case 37' Hughes 72'	70,000	Report	Report
15-Mar-78	Benfica	H	4–1	Callaghan 6' Dalglish 17' McDermott 78' Neal 88'	48,364	Report	Report
29-Mar-78	Borussia Mönchengladbach	A	1–2	Johnson 88'	67,000	Report	Report
12-Apr-78	Borussia Mönchengladbach	H	3–0	Kennedy 6' Dalglish 35' Case 56'	51,500	Report	Report

Final

Main article: 1978 European Cup Final

10 May 1978

19:15 BST

Liverpool	1–0	Club Brugge
Dalglish 64'	Report Report

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 92,500

Referee: Charles Corver (Netherlands)

Liverpool

Club Brugge

GK 1 Ray Clemence RB 2 Phil Neal LB 3 Alan Hansen CB 4 Phil Thompson LM 5 Ray Kennedy CB 6 Emlyn Hughes (c) CF 7 Kenny Dalglish RM 8 Jimmy Case  29'  63' CF 9 David Fairclough CM 10 Terry McDermott CM 11 Graeme Souness Substitutes: MF 12 Steve Heighway  63' GK 13 Steve Ogrizovic DF 14 Joey Jones DF 15 Colin Irwin MF 16 Ian Callaghan Manager: Bob Paisley

GK 1 Birger Jensen DF 2 Fons Bastijns (c) DF 3 Edi Krieger DF 4 Georges Leekens DF 5 Gino Maes  80' MF 6 Julien Cools MF 7 René Vandereycken  35' MF 8 Dany De Cubber MF 9 Jan Simoen FW 10 Lajos Kű  58' FW 11 Jan Sørensen Substitutes: GK 12 Leen Barth MF 13 Dirk Sanders  58' DF 14 Jos Volders  80' FW 15 Raoul Lambert FW 16 Bernard Verheecke Manager: Ernst Happel

External links

• LFC History.net – 1977–78 season
• Liverweb - 1977-78 Season