LIVERPOOL F.C. OLD STARS THREAD

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Malcolm McVean

Forward

Date of Birth: 07.03.1871
Birthplace: Dunbartonshire
Debut : 2nd September 1893 v Middlesbrough I (A) Football League Division Two: won 2-0
1st team games: 102
1st team goals: 28
Other clubs: Third Lanark, Burnley and Bedminster

Among a large batch of Scots recruited by one of Liverpool's founding fathers, John McKenna, McVean had the distinction of scoring Liverpool's first ever League goal. He struck after an hour of the club's debut match in the old Second Division, a 2-0 win at Middlesbrough Ironopolis on September 2, 1893.

It was the first of 10 League and FA Cup goals McVean scored in that landmark campaign which Liverpool ended in first place and then won a Test match against Newton Heath to secure promotion. After immediate relegation he won a second Division Two title medal when Liverpool climbed back to the top flight in 1896.

Born in Dunbartonshire in 1871, McVean was signed from Third Lanark after beginning an apprenticeship in Scotland as a shipyard boilermaker. His best role was as a fast, raiding right winger but he played in all five forward positions except inside left.

In February 1896 McVean scored a hat trick in Liverpool's record League victory, a 10-1 demolition of Rotherham Town. After 102 Liverpool appearances, scoring 28 goals, McVean joined Burnley in 1897 and later played for Bedminster. After hanging up his boots he went back to work in the shipyards and died in 1907 at the age of only 36.

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Alex Raisbeck

Centre Half (1898-1909)

Date of Birth: 26-12-1878
Birthplace: Polmont, Stirlingshire
Debut : 3rd September 1898 v Sheffield Wednesday (H) Football League Division One: won 4-0
1st team games: 340
1st team goals: 21
Other clubs: Hibernian, Stoke City, Partick Thistle, Hamilton Academicals (player, director and manager), Bristol City (secretary/manager), Halifax Town (secretary/manager), Chester City (secretary/manager), Bath City (manager)
National Team: Scotland 8 caps/0 goals

A handsome Scot he was one of Liverpool's earliest stars, his career straddling the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. As captain he cut a dashing and imposing figure at centre half for club and country.

Although at a precisely recorded 5ft 9¾ins he was not the tallest of men he weighed almost 13 stone and was a commanding defender, rated Britain's finest of his generation in his position. A contemporary sportswriter said of him: "A man of Raisbeck's proportions, style and carriage would rivet attention anywhere. He is a fine and beautifully balanced figure".

With his fair hair and moustache Raisbeck's distinguished countenance made him one of football's first pin-up boys and he was the first Liverpool skipper to lift the Championship trophy in 1901. He led them to a further title triumph in 1906.

Raisbeck was signed from Stoke City by Liverpool manager Tom Watson in 1898 for £350, then a considerable sum of money. In an era when some players were unpaid Raisbeck earned the maximum weekly wage of £4. However, the club supplemented that sum by also giving him the job of bill inspector, overseeing the public hoardings and notice boards advertising Liverpool matches!

He died on March 12, 1949.

Honours with Liverpool: First Division Championship 1900/01 & 1905/06, Second Division Championship 1904/05


Alex Raisbeck

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Joe McQue

Defender

Date of Birth: Feb 1870
Birthplace: Preston
Debut : 2nd September 1893 v Middlesbrough I (A) Football League Division Two: won 2-0
1st team games: 122
1st team goals: 12
Other clubs: Celtic

One of the 13 Scottish players signed by Liverpool's first manager John McKenna, centre half McQue was recruited from Celtic in 1892 and scored twice in the club's first ever competitive match an 8-0 drubbing of Higher Walton in the Lancashire League watched by an attendance of just 200 on September 3 1892.

He was a dominant defender with a taste for attack and also had the distinction of finding the net on Liverpool's Football League debut, a 2-0 away win over Middlesbrough Ironopolis in the Second Division on September 2 1893.

McQue was a rock of the side that ended the club's inaugural League season as champions of their division. He missed only two games and also scored their final goal of that campaign, against Burslem Port Vale. Liverpool were unbeaten in their 28 games before winning a test match for promotion against Newton Heath, later to become Manchester United.

They drew their first two matches in the top flight to set a 31-game unbeaten League record, which lasted until Leeds broke it in 1969. However, Liverpool suffered relegation at the end of that campaign, only to storm back as Second Division champions again a year later with McQue in brilliant form, scoring five times in his 26 outings. That same season of 1895-96 he was granted a testimonial match and ended his Anfield career two years later after 122 senior appearances which brought him a dozen goals.

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Sam Hardy

Goalkeeper (1905-1912)

Date of Birth: 26.08.1883 Died: 24.10.1966
Birthplace: Newbold, Chesterfield
Debut : 21st October 1905 v Nottingham Forest (H) Football League Division One: Won 4-1
1st team games: 239
1st team goals: 0
National Team: England 21 caps

The great England star was one of four celebrated international goalkeepers signed for Liverpool by the club's legendary secretary-manager Tom Watson, the others being Hardy's predecessor Teddy Doig and Kenny Campbell, both Scots, and Ireland's Elisha Scott. Little wonder that Liverpool's telegraphic address was "Goalkeeper, Anfield."

Hardy, who won 21 England caps in a 13-year span, was the first of a long line of top class keepers produced by Chesterfield, his hometown club from which he joined Liverpool for £500 in 1905, despite having conceded six goals to his promotion-bound new club in a league game earlier that year!

With Liverpool back in the top flight Hardy displaced Doig in the October of his first season at Anfield and his amazing anticipation and judgement was a key factor in the club sweeping to the League title. Unspectacular and nicknamed "Safe and Steady Sam" he had become a hero by the time he joined Aston Villa in 1912, having made 239 senior Liverpool appearances.

With Villa he collected two FA Cup winners medals and after joining Nottingham Forest he won a Second Division championship medal in 1922. Hardy's career spanned a remarkable 22-years before he retired through injury in 1925. A hotelier in Chesterfield, he died in 1966 aged 83 having lived to see Liverpool win the FA Cup for the first time a year earlier.

Honours with Liverpool: First Division Championship 1905/06


Sam Hardy

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Alan A'Court

Left Winger (1953-64)

Date of Birth: 30/09/34
Birthplace: Rainhill
Debut : 7th February 1953 v Middloesbrough (A) Football League Division One: Won 3-2
1st team games: 382
1st team goals: 63
Other clubs: Prescot Celtic, Prescot Cables, Tranmere Rovers, Norwich City
National Team: England (1958-59) 5 caps/1 goal

The Rainhill-born left winger's career at Liverpool embraced the club's wilderness years in the old Second Division although it is great testimony to his talents that during that period he won five England caps, scoring on his debut in a 3-2 defeat by Northern Ireland at Wembley in 1957.

A'Court a keen Rugby League follower, joined Liverpool from Prescot Cables in 1952 when Don Welsh was in charge at Anfield and then played right through the era of his managerial successor Phil Taylor before Bill Shankly's arrival in December 1959.

Prior to that the speedy raider appeared for England in the 1958 World Cup Finals in Sweden, where he rose to the daunting challenge of replacing injured Tom Finney in an unbeaten three-match sequence against Brazil, Austria and the Soviet Union.

At Liverpool he was an ever-present in the Shankly team that stormed back to the top flight as Second Division champions in 1962. He moved on to Tranmere for £4,500 in 1964, later becoming Norwich City player coach before taking on various coaching jobs, including posts in Zambia and New Zealand.

Honours with Liverpool: Second Division Championship 1961/62


Alan A'Court

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Bobby Campbell

Wing Half (1959-1961)

Date of Birth: 23-4-1937
Birthplace: Liverpool
Debut : 5th September 1959 v Sheffield Wednesday (A) Football League Division Two: Lost 1-2
1st team games: 14
1st team goals: 1
Other clubs: Wigan Athletic,Portsmouth, Aldershot. As coach, Portsmouth, Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal, Fulham, Chelsea manager.

Bobby Campbell is best known as a manager but he started his career with Liverpool and made his debut in 1959.

Born in the Scotland Road area of the city, he signed for the club as an amateur before turning professional in May 1954.

Campbell made his first team debut for the Reds in September 1959 and went on to make a further 12 appearances during that campaign, scoring his one and only goal for the club in the process, at home to Bristol Rovers.

He was to make only one more appearance in a red shirt the following season before moving on to Portsmouth. His playing career was cut short by injury soon after his 30th birthday but Bobby managed the likes of Fulham, Portsmouth and Chelsea with a fair degree of success in the late 1980's.

Honours with Liverpool: None


Bobby Campbell

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Tommy Leishman

Left Half (1959-1963)

Date of Birth: 3-9-1937
Birthplace: Stenhousemuir
Debut : 28th December 1959 v Charlton Athletic (H) Football League Division Two: won 2-0
1st team games: 119
1st team goals: 7
Other clubs: St Mirren, Hibernian, Linfield

Scottish wing half Tommy Leishman shared the distinction of arriving at Anfield in the same month as Bill Shankly in November 1959.

Signed from St Mirren for £9,000, with whom he had won a Scottish Cup winners medal, Tommy was a cultured player who added pace and drive to Liverpool's midfield and he played a big role in the Division Two Championship season of 1961-62, missing just two games.

He then started in Liverpool's first Division One campaign for eight years but was replaced by compatriot Willie Stevenson, and moved on to Hibernian for £10,000 in 1963.

Honours with Liverpool: Second Division Championship 1961/62


Tommy Leishman

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Bert Slater

Goalkeeper (1959-1962)

Date of Birth: 5-5-1936
Birthplace: Musselburgh, Midlothian
Debut : 22nd August 1959 v Cardiff City (A) Football League Division Two: lost 2-3
1st team games: 111
1st team goals: 0
Other clubs: Falkirk, Dundee, Watford

Goalkeeper Bert Slater joined Liverpool in May 1959 from Falkirk, in an exchange deal with Tommy Younger.

He was 23 years old at the time and went straight into the first-team at the start of the 1959-60 season. However, he made a bad start at Liverpool, conceding eight goals in his first three matches and was quickly replaced by South African Doug Rudham, who played in the next 14 Second Division games.

A change of manager saw a change in Bert's fortunes and Bill Shankly kept faith with him from the day he arrived until the end of that season. Standing at just five foot eight inches Slater was rather small for a goalkeeper but he kept goal for the first 29 games of the Division Two Championship season in 1961-62 before being replaced by Jim Furnell.

He never did regain his place back at Anfield and eventually moved back to Scotland to play for Dundee, whom he helped reach the European Cup semi-final in 1963, before moving on to Watford where he got involved in coaching.

On his retirement from the game he became involved in a firm that developed and constructed golf courses.Bert died in Brechin on 21 July 2006.

Honours with Liverpool: Second Division Championship 1961/62.


Bert Slater

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Johnny Wheeler

Half-Back (1956-63)

Date of Birth: 26-7-1928
Birthplace: Crosby.
Debut : 15th September 1956 v Stoke City (H). Division One - lost 0-2
1st team games: 177
1st team goals: 23
Other clubs: Tranmere Rovers, Bolton Wanderers.
National Team: England (1954) 1 cap/0 goals

Johnny Wheeler was a former captain of Liverpool who gave nothing less than 100 per cent and was a real livewire of a player.

He started his career at Tranmere Rovers before moving to Bolton Wanderers in February 1951. He played in the famous 'Matthews FA Cup Final' when Bolton lost a 3-1 lead. He signed for Liverpool in September 1956 and was made captain.

Many of his early appearances for Liverpool came as an inside-forward, including the remarkable day against Port Vale in November 1956 when, after Billy Liddell had equalised Vale's first-half goal, he scored one of the fastest hat-tricks ever recorded, his goals coming in the 81st, 82nd & 85th minutes.

Johnny was a regular in the side for the next three years but during the 1960-61 season he had to share the No. 4 shirt with the young Gordon Milne. By the start of the following season he was out of the first-team picture altogether and was only selected for one more League game, covering for left-half Tommy Leishman when Plymouth Argyle visited Anfield on 9th December 1961. That was the last of the 164 Football League games Johnny played in for Liverpool.

Honours with Liverpool: None


Johnny Wheeler

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Alan Arnell

Centre/Inside Forward - (1953-1961)

Date of Birth: 25-11-1933
Birthplace: Chichester
Debut : 5th December 1953 v Blackpool (H) Football League Division One: Won 5-2
1st team games: 75
1st team goals: 35
Other clubs: Worthing, Tranmere Rovers, Halifax Town, Runcorn

Alan Arnell managed a respectable scoring rate of one goal every two games during his eight-year stint at Anfield. Unfortunately, his time with the Reds coincided with one of the most barren periods in the clubs history.

A highly promising schoolboy, Arnell was signed as an amateur from non-league Worthing in 1953 and plunged straight into first team action for Don Welsh's Reds. He made his debut at home to Blackpool and celebrated the occasion by scoring in an impressive 5-2 win against the FA Cup holders.

Standing at 6ft 1in Arnell was commanding in the air but he managed only two more games and no further goals as the Reds plunged into Division Two that same season.

It was not until the 1955/56 campaign that he enjoyed a prolonged run in the first team but he was never really able to establish himself as a regular.

In December 1956 he enjoyed perhaps his finest moment in a red shirt when he helped himself to a hat-trick in a 3-0 success against Huddersfield Town at Anfield.

His Anfield days were numbered once Bill Shankly became manager and in February 1961 he moved across the Mersey to Tranmere Rovers before finishing his career with Halifax and Runcorn.

Honours with Liverpool: none


Alan Arnell

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Dave Hickson

Centre Forward (1959-61)

Date of Birth: 30-10-1929
Birthplace: Ellesmere Port
Debut : 7th November 1959 v Aston Villa (H) Football League Division Two: Won 2-1
1st team games: 67
1st team goals: 38
Other clubs: Ellesmere Port, Everton (twice), Aston Villa, Huddersfield Town, Cambridge City, Bury, Tranmere Rovers, Ballymena United (player/manager), Ellesmere Port Town (player/manager), Northwich Victoria, Winsford United.

The transfer of 'dashing' Dave Hickson from Everton to Liverpool in November 1959 caused an unprecedented furore on Merseyside.

Hickson was the undisputed darling of the Gwladys Street and the man Kopites loved to hate. Liverpudlians were so outraged at the prospect of him donning red shirt that they threatened to rip up their season tickets and Evertonians stated likewise.

The local press was flooded with letters of protest but with Liverpool in desperate need of firepower to boost their faltering promotion push the deal eventually went through.

The following afternoon a bumper crowd of close on 50,000 were in attendance as the 'Cannonball Kid' (as he was known at Everton), made a dream start to his Liverpool career.

Despite the controversy that surrounded his move and fears that the Liverpudlians would not take to their new signing, Hickson was given a heroes reception when he ran out at Anfield for the first time in a red shirt.

His arrival put almost 15,000 on the gate for the visit of league leaders Aston Villa, ironically one of his former clubs, and one fan even ran across the pitch to plant a kiss on his cheek!

He responded by scoring two goals in a memorable 2-1 win and the Kop had found themselves a new hero. Although quiet and unassuming off the field, on the pitch Hickson possessed a fiery temperament and this often got him into trouble with referees.

On one such occasion, at home to Sheffield United in January 1960, he was sent off.

Honours with Liverpool: None


Dave Hickson

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Jimmy Melia

Inside Forward (1953 - 1964)

Date of Birth: 01/11/37
Birthplace: Liverpool
Debut : 17th December 1955 v Nottingham Forest (H) Football League Division Two: won 5-2
1st team games: 287
1st team goals: 78
Other clubs: Wolverhampton Wanderers, Southampton, Aldershot (player/coach), Crewe Alexandra (first as a player then player/manager), Southport (manager), Brighton & Hove Albion (manager), Belenenses (coach), Stockport County (manager)
National Team: England (1963) 2 caps/1 goal

Raised in the Scotland Road area of Liverpool as one of 11 children, inside forward Melia joined the Anfield ground staff straight from school as a 15-year old in 1953. He turned professional the following year and made his senior debut in the old Second Division in December 1955, scoring in a 5-2 win over Nottingham Forest.

His best season's goal haul was 21 from 40 outings in 1958-59 and he was well established when Bill Shankly arrived the following December to revolutionise Anfield fortunes. Melia won a Second Division championship medal in 1962, scoring 12 goals as a 42-game ever present.

Two years later he helped Liverpool land the League title for the first time since 1947, his talents recognised by two England caps following Schoolboy, Youth and Football League appearances. But the emergence of Alf Arrowsmith cost Melia his Liverpool place and after scoring 78 goals in 287 senior games he joined Wolves for £50,000 in March 1964, later joining Southampton and becoming player manager of Aldershot and Crewe and boss of Southport, prior to working in the Middle East and America.

His managerial highpoint came in 1983 when, gaining national recognition wearing eye-catching white shoes, he led Brighton to the FA Cup Final, inflicting a stunning fifth round home defeat on Bob Paisley's mighty champions Liverpool en route. But after going desperately close to beating Manchester United at Wembley the game ended 2-2 and Melia's relegated side lost the replay 4-0. Melia later managed Portuguese club Beleneses and Stockport before coaching in Texas.

Honours with Liverpool: First Division Championship 1963/64, Second Division Championship 1961/62


Jimmy Melia

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Geoff Twentyman

Left Half (1953-1959) & Chief Scout (1967-1986)

Date of Birth: 19-01-1930
Birthplace: Carlisle
Debut : 19th December 1953 v Manchester United (A) Football League Division One: lost 1-5
1st team games: 184
1st team goals: 19
Other clubs: Carlisle United (twice), Ballymena United (player/manager), Morecambe (player/manager), Penrith (manager)

Left-half Twentyman's playing career at Liverpool coincided with the club's lean years. He joined them from Carlisle for the then substantial fee of £10,000 in December 1953, just four months before Liverpool were relegated to the old Second Division after finishing rock bottom of the top flight with only nine wins from 42 games.
Standing 5ft 11ins he built his reputation as a forceful, spirited centre-half with his hometown club Carlisle, having been switched to No 5 by Bill Shankly when he took over as manager at Brunton Park. Shankly had moved on to Grimsby by the time Twentyman left for Anfield.

He made 184 senior appearances and scored 19 goals for Liverpool, where the presence of England capped centre-half Laurie Hughes and later Dick White, meant Twentyman switching to No 6.

He joined Ballymena United as player manager in 1959, nine months before Shankly arrived at Liverpool. But after Twentyman had spells at Carlisle, Morecambe and Penrith he was brought back to Liverpool by Shankly in 1967 as chief scout, proving instrumental in a string of crucial signings, including Ian Rush, Phil Neal and Alan Hansen. He was later chief scout for Glasgow Rangers.

Geoff died in Sout