The Liverpool legend has passed away.

RIP 'Flying Pig'

JohnMac wrote:The Liverpool legend has passed away.

RIP 'Flying Pig'

https://youtu.be/0U_PUbQGA4U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Really was a legend at Liverpool - goalkeeper in the team that won promotion and started winning titles.

How times have changed, taken from the Liverpool official site this morning.


So, with 390 appearances and three major trophies to his name at Anfield, one of the most popular and respected goalkeepers in LFC history took his acrobatics across to Tranmere Rovers in 1971.

There he clocked up another 80 league appearances before signing off his football career with non-league Chorley and then taking up the role of a factory quality controller in Warrington until his retirement.

Also affectionately know as "lead arse" by some! Amazing how such a big bloke could throw himself about.

I remember him well. A big man to say the least but a really good goalkeeper. Seems like yesterday that he was on Turf moor.

That is a cracking piece of film. The interviewer walks straight into it!

Strange how some players and whole teams from a bygone era remain in the memory. Tommy Lawrence, Gerry Byrne, Ronnie Moran, Graham Milne, Ron Yeats, Graham Stevenson, Ian Callaghan, Roger Hunt, Ian St John, Jimmy Melia and Peter Thompson. Can still recall vividly those two classic encounters from 1963 in the FA Cup where Kevin Lewis played before Thompson's arrival and scored at the Turf in a 1-1 draw. Then the heartbreak of a last gasp penalty for them in the replay and what turned out to be Mc's last appearance for us. RIP Tommy Lawrence.

quoonbeatz wrote:https://youtu.be/0U_PUbQGA4U

Great video.
One of those wonderfully random events life chucks up.

RIP Tommy.

Didn't he stop Adam Blacklaw from gaining many Scottish international caps ?

7decades wrote:Didn't he stop Adam Blacklaw from gaining many Scottish international caps ?

Don’t think he won any more caps than Adam. Scotland used a lot of goalkeepersin that era and I’d think Bill Brown (Spurs) played the most often.

7decades wrote:Didn't he stop Adam Blacklaw from gaining many Scottish international caps ?

No. He only won 3 caps himself.

Just checked and Bill Brown played 28 times for Scotland between 1958 and 1965.

7decades wrote:Didn't he stop Adam Blacklaw from gaining many Scottish international caps ?

Think Bill Brown from Spurs was the Scottish number one then.

Silkyskills1 wrote:Just checked and Bill Brown played 28 times for Scotland between 1958 and 1965.

And that was just about Adam's era at Burnley.

As an aside, I was talking to heiaburnley recently and he actually saw Adam playing for Scotland in Norway.

Guessing that Brown won his place back in the national side after Frank Haffey in 1961!

Really sad news. Great keeper playing in Shanks first great team of the low to mid 60's. RIP Tommy and thanks for the memories.

The Flying Pig kept us at bay many times .RIP Tommy

Wasn't mentioned yesterday but Ipswich's Ted Phillips passed away at 84. He and Ray Crawford were the two players who scored a lot of their goals when they won the league at our expense.

Just read - he scored 181 goals in 295 games for Ipswich. He and Crawford scored 61 between them in 1961/62.

Remember the early season night game v Ipswich that we won 4-3. Went with my older brother and stood with Frenchclaret for that one(61-62). Phillips and Crawford were a handful that night and I think they beat us 6-1 down at their place.

Didn't Ipswich win the league 'at our expense' by bribing opposing players?

Wasn't it three Sheff Wednesday players that got done for betting on games in the 60s?

Vino blanco wrote:Didn't Ipswich win the league 'at our expense' by bribing opposing players?

We lost the league from an almost unassailable position!

Woodleyclaret wrote:Wasn't it three Sheff Wednesday players that got done for betting on games in the 60s?

Three Sheff Wed. players were Peter Swan, Tony Kay and David (Bronco) Layne. Bristol Rovers goalkeeper,Esmond Million also guilty of taking bribes.

[quote="Woodleyclaret"]Wasn't it three Sheff Wednesday players that got done for betting on games in the 60s?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brit ... ng_scandal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Siddo wrote:We lost the league from an almost unassailable position!

Tell me about it! An incredible collapse towards the end of the season. Kept going to games with my dad who was always optimistic expecting the 'tide to turn' and so I felt confident from him that it would. Just virtually 'ran out of steam' and were an exhausted unit at the end of it.

The collapse was dramatic in 1961/62 season. The first 32 games brought 20 wins, 6 draws and 6 defeats but those last 10 games saw us only win one more with five draws and four defeats.

ClaretTony wrote:The collapse was dramatic in 1961/62 season. The first 32 games brought 20 wins, 6 draws and 6 defeats but those last 10 games saw us only win one more with five draws and four defeats.

One of those defeats came at home to our dear neighbours with a goal from Barrie Ratcliffe. I mention this because it is one of probably only a handful of games where I have seen us 'batter' the opposition mercilessly throughout the 90 minutes and end up with nothing to show for it. It was that intense. Strangely enough, another game where I saw something very similar was just a couple of months or so earlier,again at home in the FA Cup on a re-arranged Tuesday night against Leyton Orient. We drew that game, won the replay and of course went on to Wembley. The 2nd half siege on their goal after they had taken the lead was at times brutal in its ferocity and I still believe that 'Bomber's equaliser came about for us down to them being totally exhausted. Somehow they hung on a for the remaining few minutes.