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Bob Paisley finally walked into Anfield on May 8th 1939 to begin life as a professional footballer. After a hard
summer's pre-season he had managed just two reserve games at the start of the 1939-40 season when world war broke
out and changed everything for everyone.
There had still been time for Paisley to be particularly impressed with Liverpool's club captain in those early pre-war days at Anfield. Matt Busby had offered plenty of advice and encouragement to the young Mackem. 'He was a man you could look up to and respect. He'd played the game and people like him weren't solely tied down with tactics, which was a valuable lesson for me' Before being posted abroad in the war in 1941 Paisley made thirty three appearances scoring ten goals and resumed his Liverpool career in 1945-46 as the Football League set up a temporary North and South Division prior to the resumption of normalities in season 46-47. |
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On August 31st 1946, in a team that boasted Jackie Balmer, and the great Billy Liddell, Liverpool finally kicked off the new post war era. Paisley missed the opening two matches but made his full league debut in the third game of the season against Chelsea at Anfield on September 7th. In a dramatic afternoon in front of 54,000 spectators, Paisley helped Liverpool to an incredible 7-4 victory, with Liddell, Willie Fagan and Bill Jones scoring two apiece and Balmer claiming the other. If that wasn't dramatic enough a start for the man from Durham, more was to follow. |
Training at Anfield |
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Four days after the Chelsea goal feast the Reds crashed 5-0 to Matt Busby's Manchester United and manager Kay promply went out and signed 28 year old Albert Stubbins from Newcastle United for a club record £ 12,000. The signing of Stubbins proved a master stroke after he scored on his debut against Bolton and immediately won the fans over. The goals continued and Liverpool marched, eventually, to the title. The winter of 1946-47 was so severe that a huge backlog of fixtures ensured that the season ran on long into summer. Liverpool's last match, a 2-0 victory over Wolves at Molyneux, took place on May 31st and they then had to wait an interminable two weeks for Stoke City, the only team who could overhaul them, to play their last remaining fixture against Sheffield United at United's Bramall Lane. Stoke lost 2-1 and the first title of the new era came to Liverpool. |
Jackie Balmer 24 League goals in 1946-47 |
Albert Stubbins An inspired signing |
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Paisley played 33 of Liverpool's 42 league matches that season and quickly established himself at left-half as a mainstay of the side. He had gained the admiration of others in the squad too through his hard work and tenacity and his ability to correctly analyse the games' turning points in the dressing room afterwards. Tellingly, Paisley himself was becoming aware of the tactical nouse of manager George Kay, who had refused to rigidly tie the players down to any particular formation. If the success of 46-47 had been a heady one for Liverpool, the following years were something of an anti climax for the club. A poor start to the 1947-48 season, coupled with a disastrous new year run, saw the team languishing in mid table come the season end. At one point, in early March, the unbelievable threat of relegation hung around Anfield. Paisley, by now firmly established, played 37 times and scored 1 goal. Strangely enough the goal came in the final league match of the season, again against Wolves. Season 48-49 followed a similar pattern with Liverpool finishing 12th. For much of the campaign they had to do without the injured Stubbins and relied heavily on Balmer and the wing wizardry of Liddell. However, by the time December 1949 had come round, Liverpool were seemingly marching on to new glories as they ripped through the first 19 league games of the 49-50 season unbeaten. It set a new record in English football ( broken by Leeds Utd in 1973-74 ). Unfortunately, after losing their first game of the season to Huddersfield on December 10th the wheels began to come off the league campaign and attention turned instead to the F.A. Cup. Liverpool had never won the cup in their history yet expectation began to mount that maybe 1950 was to be their year as the club marched confidently through to the semi finals after dismissing Blackpool 2-1 in a quarter final tie at Anfield. Neighbours Everton provided the opposition at Manchester City's Maine Road in front of 73,000 spectators, and in an epic contest, Liverpool ran out 2-0 winners with Paisley netting the opening goal after 29 minutes. Billy Liddell added another in the second half as Liverpool celebrated their first cup final qualification since 1914. Astonishingly, Paisley was left out of the side that faced Arsenal at Wembley on April 29th 1950. He had been absent through injury in the games leading up to the final but was declared fit in the days before the game. The decision to leave Paisley out was made by the board, who selected the side in those days, and left Bob so disappointed that he seriously considered leaving the club the following summer. Arsenal, led superbly by veteran Joe Mercer, ran out 2-0 winners to shatter Liverpool's cup dreams for another year. |
Bob leads them out March 1952 |
Football, as someone once said, is a funny old game. After the awful disappointment of missing out at Wembley just months earlier, Paisley was to play 41 of the 42 league games in season 1950-51 and became club captain, but Liverpool were now set inexorably on a downward spiral. George Kay stood down as manager in February 1951 through ill health and was replaced by Don Welsh, but the decline was gathering pace. In the following three seasons Liverpool finished 9th, 11th, and 17th. Relegation to Division 2 was avoided only on the last day of the 1952-53 season when the Reds were roared to a 2-0 win over Chelsea in front of 47,000 at Anfield. Inevitably, at the end of the 1953-54 season, Liverpool crashed to the Second Division after finishing bottom of the first with just 28 points. Amazingly they somehow managed to score 68 league goals, more than 10th placed Cardiff managed but leaked an incredible 97 at the other end, the worst tally in all four divisions. To make matter worse, Everton gained promotion from Division 2 as runners-up to effectively replace their deadly rivals. It was not a great time to be a Liverpudlian. Bob Paisley, now 35 years old, had come to the end of his playing days and gave serious thought to going back to his brick laying trade. |
| In one of those decisions that seem inocuous or mundane at the time, the Anfield board offered the newly retired Paisley a job on the back room staff. He had impressed everyone over the years with his analytical mind and had taken the time to study a correspondence course in physiotherapy. He was taken on as the new reserve team coach. It was the start of a new era. |
Games |
Goals |
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League |
253 |
10 |
FA Cup |
25 |
3 |