As our city prepares to take centre stage in the sporting stakes yet again tomorrow, the following extract from the 'At The End Of The Storm', the book I co-authored with Gary Shaw in 2009, recalls the first time Liverpool's participation in the FA Cup semi-final clashed with the Grand National...

Saturday 29 March 1947

It was a weekend for sports enthusiasts to savour. The Grand National, the boat race and two FA Cup semi-finals all on the same day. But while the eyes of the nation were on Liverpool and the first ever Saturday running of the world’s greatest steeplechase at Aintree, the eyes of Liverpool were on events 30 miles up the road in Blackburn where eleven men in red were aiming to do what no other team from Anfield had achieved – to book their place in a Wembley Cup Final.

Excitement among Liverpudlians ahead of their club’s first appearance in the last four of the FA Cup for 33 years could hardly have been any greater had it been the final itself. Think Istanbul 2005 and that’s no exaggeration. For these success-starved fans winning the Cup was the holy-grail and now they could almost reach out and touch it.

In Kopite eyes George Kay’s men, if they could at last make their long-held dream come true, stood on the verge of immortality and with Liverpool’s class of 46/47 already being hailed in the local press as, “one of the finest sides ever to wear the Red of Anfield,” there was an air of quiet confidence among the supporters.

So too, however, was a sense of nervous tension. Summed up on the morning of the match by Daily Express reporter Henry Rose who, while of the firm belief that, “on their day Liverpool can win the FA Cup, Grand National and the boat race,” was also of the opinion that, “on an off day the Gasworks team could beat them.”

This Jekyll and Hyde type of form meant you never really knew which Liverpool team was going to turn up and therefore there always remained a nagging doubt in the back of the mind. Would it be the swashbuckling Liverpool that surged to the top of Division One on the crest of a 12-game unbeaten run earlier in the season or would it be the mild and meek Liverpool that suffered four successive League defeats at the turn of the year?

At this most crucial juncture in the club’s history, fingers, arms, legs, feet, toes and whatever else could be crossed were crossed in the hope that it wouldn’t be the latter. In the days building up to the game supporters prayed for divine intervention and every superstition under the sun was adhered to.

Such was the hype surrounding this match the team escaped to the sanctuary of a 17^th century coaching inn, high in the hills of Clitheroe to prepare and the travelling party consisted of the squad that had been on duty against Derby plus Jones and reserves Minshull, Palk and Ramsden.

Previews to the game dominated the sports pages of every newspaper and most were tipping Liverpool to meet Newcastle in the final but Second Division opponents Burnley were not to be underestimated.

Like quarter-final opponents Birmingham they too were chasing promotion to the top-flight and had occupied a position near the top for most of the season. Managed by Everton’s 1933 FA Cup winner Cliff Britton, this was his first season in the job, the Clarets had also shown their mettle in the previous round by eliminating Middlesbrough, a team Liverpool had failed to beat on two occasions earlier in the season.

They’d also lost just one of their previous 32 League and cup matches and kept clean-sheets in 16 of their last 22. With only seven goals conceded in their last 28 games there was no doubt that Burnley were going to prove a much sterner test than Birmingham but setting the scene in the previous Saturday’s Football Echo, Ranger tipped the Reds to emerge victorious and clinch that, “mouth-watering prospect,” of a first visit to Wembley.

He wrote: “I think they can but it will be a hard task, for Burnley are a well-balanced side, just as much on the crest of a wave as Liverpool and – on paper, at least – there is little to choose between them. I am pinning my faith in a Liverpool victory on the superior skill of the Reds in attack.

“Burnley’s defence is brilliant, but, from what I saw of them in the replay against Middlesbrough, I don’t think their forwards have the same finishing power as Liverpool’s. With a front line of five players who have all had centre-forward experience, who all know where the goal lies, and can hit the ball with terrific power, I bank on Liverpool’s attack to win the day.”

It was to be the first time Liverpool and Burnley had met in the cup since the final of 1914 when Bert Freeman’s goal settled the issue in favour of the men from Turf Moor and it was difficult to argue with those in the press who billed this semi-final as the biggest game in the club’s history since that meeting at Crystal Palace.

The only Liverpool player to have experienced the unique atmosphere of a FA Cup semi-final before was Willie Fagan who had been a member of the Preston side that defeated West Brom at Highbury in 1937. His experience was considered vital, as was that of fellow veteran Jack Balmer whose build-up to the match was disrupted during the week when he was forced to rush home from training after receiving a message from his wife that 18-month old son Colin had scalded himself on a kettle. Manage Kay hurriedly drove Balmer to his West Derby home but luckily it was nothing too serious and semi-final preparations were not affected.

Given the club’s record of misfortune in the competition during the intervening years Reds fans were certainly taking nothing for granted and it was a tense travelling Kop that converged on Blackburn. Liverpudlians lucky enough to get their hands on tickets travelled in their thousands with some leaving Exchange Station as early 1.50am.  By midday the town was reportedly a mass of red and white, with visiting fans from Merseyside easily outnumbering those who’d made the much shorter journey from Burnley.

Like a modern day Euro away, it was a Scouse invasion of colour and sound.  “A tornado of football frenzy,” being one apt description of the pre-match scenes in Blackburn where ‘Burnleyites’ “felt strangers in a strange land.”

“Everywhere was a blaze of colour with red and white represented in almost every form of garb. Liverpool had come to town in force, and their supporters made themselves heard with their sirens, klaxons, horns, motorcar hooters, rattles etc.”

An hour before kick-off Ewood Park was “seething with excitement and noise from the vociferous crowd,” and even a torrential down-pour just before the teams emerged failed to dampen their enthusiasm.

But while the fans had no problem getting in the same couldn’t be said of the Liverpool team who, because of a misunderstanding over tickets, were denied admission by an over-zealous gateman. Only after a long and protracted discussion did he relent and allow them through but the reserves carrying the skips were forced to endure a further wait before common sense prevailed.

With Jones fit enough to return in place of Easdale and no fresh injuries to report Liverpool, once through and changed, were able to field their ‘first choice cup eleven.’ This was the same team that had beaten Derby and Birmingham in rounds five and six respectively and the one which was obviously deemed by the selection committee to be their strongest.

Burnley were also at full strength for this eagerly awaited, “Lancashire Hot-Pot,” as billed by the Daily Mirror, but with so much at stake the fear of defeat hung heavily in the air and both sides proceeded to cancel each other out

As so often happens in semi-finals the fear of losing hung heavily in the air and with two sides so strong in defence it was never going to be much in the way of a spectacle. Having won the toss for choice of colours Liverpool sported their traditional red while Burnley wore white and when the action got underway it was they who made the early running.

The men from Turf Moor, appeared to be a lot more relaxed and, “showed First Division craft,” in their play, while Liverpool, it seemed, were awestruck by the sense of occasion and took time to really get going.

With goalmouth incidents very few and far between Sidlow, who’d been demobbed the previous day, and his opposite number Jimmy Strong had little do during the tentative opening stages. Both sides gave a fine demonstration in the noble art of tackling and Clarets captain Alan Brown’s close marking job on Stubbins ensured the Reds number nine endured one of his quieter games.

With the crowd so densely packed together in certain sections of the ground it wasn’t long before fans started encroaching onto the pitch, most notably when right-winger Jackie Chew tried taking a corner. “Extra police were rushed there and, ambulancemen with stretchers were kept busy,” and to avoid a repeat scenario some fans were allowed to move to more spacious parts of the terracing.

As expected, it was renowned amateur winger Peter Kippax who posed the greatest threat for Burnley and in bid to stop him the Liverpool defenders were guilty of conceding several free-kicks. It was his impressive left-footed shot, “after turning Harley on a sixpence,” that came closest to breaking the first-half deadlock. Fortunately for the Reds it flew just inches over.

“When half-time came it was Burnley who were ahead on points,” but it wasn’t all one-way traffic and fellow left-winger Liddell was equally dangerous when in possession. Fagan had an angled drive saved at the foot of the post but according to The Times it was Liddell, “who all through the game looked the one man capable of winning the game on his own.”

He later switched wings in an attempt to unlock what was proving to be a stubborn Burnley rearguard and 20 minutes into the second half a rare clear-cut scoring opportunity fell his way. It came from a Fagan corner. The ball landed at his feet just 10-yards from goal then as, “he moved forward, perfectly balanced and controlled, the goal that looked a certainty was shouted home, but his shot sped past the far post.”

Speaking to journalists immediately after the game Liddell moved a comb across his hand to describe just how close he’d come to firing the Reds to Wembley. He said: “The ball moved just that much. I’d actually picked my spot for a right-foot shot. Then as the ball moved away, I had to pull it quickly on to my left foot. I knew my chance had gone as I hit it.”

It was an agonising moment and one Liverpool were left to rue. After 90 goalless minutes the game drifted into extra-time and it was Liverpool who once again came closest to ending the stalemate. Liddell beat Woodruff for pace and delivered a teasing centre across the Burnley goalmouth.

“Stubbins was left, slightly off balance, with an open goal and Liddell’s lobbed pass bouncing awkwardly in front of him. The next moment all that remained of the scene was Mather lying injured in the goalmouth, where his superb and desperate tackle of Stubbins saved the day for Burnley.”

Exhaustion set in during the second period of extra-time and although both defences were guilty of mistakes late on there remained no score. Despite carving out the two best chances Liverpool were never really on top until late in the game but it came too late and the tie “was left in a state of suspended animation,” with honours deservedly even.

It had been a “fierce two hours,” but Pat Collins of the Daily Mirror was not impressed: “In a grim 120 minutes, in which two iron defences compressed the game into a negative midfield battle, Liddell’s was the only real chance.”

But while incident and action was thin on the ground in Blackburn, elsewhere the Great British public revelled in what had been an epic sporting Saturday as, 100/1 shot Caughoo romped home in the Grand National, Cambridge crossed the line first in the Boat Race and Charlton Athletic demolished Newcastle 4-0 at Elland Road to clinch a second successive appearance in the FA Cup Final.

Unfortunately, all the thrills and spills must have got lost somewhere on the way to Ewood Park. For the 53,000 present it had all been a bit of an anti-climax and with the Easter holidays approaching it would be another fortnight, at least, before Charlton would discover who they’d be walking out alongside at Wembley.

http://www.attheendofthestorm.co.uk/