Never Fight a Man With No Front Teeth - The Square Ball 9/9/21

HOPPING MAD

Written by Rob Conlon

Leeds United and Liverpool were beginning new eras when they faced each other at Anfield in November 1998, but only one club was convinced by the direction they were taking.

David O’Leary was in charge of his second match as permanent manager after George Graham jumped at the opportunity of returning to north London with Spurs. Including his spell as caretaker boss, O’Leary had only won one of his first five league games, but was already making his mark on the side. Talented youngsters Jonathan Woodgate and Stephen McPhail were being given opportunities in the first team, and a third, Alan Smith, was named on the bench for the first time at Anfield where O’Leary impressed reporters by deploying an exotic 3-4-3 formation.

Liverpool were also under new management, Gerard Houllier taking sole charge of the team for the first time after Roy Evans, his short-lived co-manager, was sacked, ending the institution of Liverpool’s fabled ‘Bootroom’ that dated back to Bill Shankly’s appointment in 1959. The legend of Shankly couldn’t have felt further away. Outside Anfield, a fanzine was being sold with the caption ‘Liverpool’s defence’ printed over a blank page. Houllier was looking to Elland Road to fix that particular problem, targeting Nigel Martyn and Lucas Radebe, whose contracts had eighteen months left to run, but not before Leeds’ 3-1 victory at Anfield condemned the hosts to a third defeat at home in the space of a week.

The game is best remembered for seventeen-year-old Smith coming off the bench and side-footing the ball into the bottom corner with either his first or second touch, depending on which match report you want to believe. As wholesome as the moment was, with Smith’s dad watching on from the stands, it was only the equaliser. Robbie Fowler had given Liverpool the lead from the penalty spot after Nigel Martyn came out to clear the ball and knock Karl-Heinz Riedle unconscious. Riedle was eventually helped from the pitch, asking where he was, but this was the 1990s, so a booking was sufficient for Martyn. One report described the yellow card as ‘harsh’.

Houllier was unhappy about Smith’s goal, insisting Woodgate should have been penalised for fouling David Thompson in Leeds’ penalty area in the build up. The equaliser broke the Reds’ brittle confidence. That’s when O’Leary’s more senior players took over, sensing a chance of punishing their fragile opponents. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored twice on breaks, dancing through the defence and leaving the last man on the floor both times before finding the same bottom corner twice. Houllier was neither brave nor stupid enough to complain about David Hopkin’s role in Hasselbaink’s first. Hopkin took man and ball while dispossessing an annoyed Oyvind Leonhardsen, so Paul Ince arrived on the scene to give Hopkin a sneaky push in the back, followed by another from Leonhardsen, who was soon looking around for help now he was being confronted by an angry Scotsman with no front teeth.

The bad blood of that night stayed with at least a couple of the players. Two years later, Hopkin was fighting with Thompson during a reserve fixture between Leeds and Liverpool. Thompson started swinging after Hopkin, “whacked me off the ball and left me on the floor. I was running at full speed at the time and went flying face first. Before I knew it, I had a mouthful of soil and grass and I just felt really embarrassed.” Thompson likes to claim he was “running rings around” Hopkin. Whether that’s true or not, his self-confidence might explain why Hopkin thought such a tackle was justified.

Back at Anfield, while Houllier was moaning, O’Leary was feeling bullish on the best night of his burgeoning managerial career. “Give me a break,” he said when asked whether Liverpool should have been awarded a second penalty. “If that is what they are claiming, then it’s a sorry state of affairs.” Just like his team, O’Leary was determined to bite back and have the last word. “I thought it would be harder for us.”