Three of the best Liverpool (h)

As we have our first league meeting with Liverpool in 31 years, Steve Moore looks back at some of the best performances the Hatters have produced at Kenilworth Road in past league meetings.

25th October 1986, Luton Town 4 Liverpool 1

 This was the match that gave Kenny Dalglish publicly exclaimed nightmares about the plastic pitch, something that he never got out of his head and resulted in Liverpool only winning one of their next seven trips to Kenilworth Road.  

While even I will admit to the trampoline-like nature of 80’s artificial pitches, which were barely any better than a piece of felt on top of concrete, that alone should not have been enough for England’s preeminent side of the era to have that bad a record. 

There is no way the pitch could have been blamed for right-back Rob Johnson being able to lump a ball straight down the middle and resulting in former-Liverpool trainee/future Luton Manager Mike Newell being through one-on-one with Bruce Grobbelaar to give the Town the lead in the 14th minute. The fact that both Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen were caught so far apart that Jan Molby was the closest man to Newell tells its own story. 

Luton probably edged the first half after that, including one chance where a completely unmarked Brian Stein missed the target completely from seven yards out, before a four-minute double salvo had us 3-0 up by half-time.  

Newell and Luton’s second was a fantastic goal, even admitted by Dalglish, that was all about Mal Donaghy. The Ulsterman cut out a through ball intended for Ian Rush before beating a pressing midfielder with one touch like prime Steve McNulty. He then laid it off to Stein before doing something Macca would never have done by sprinting down the left to receive a return pass and outpacing Rush all the way down the left flank before playing a lovely ball across for Newell to slot home. 

There was more than a hint of ‘peak’ Grobbelaar about the third as he scampered out almost to the Bobbers Boxes before scuffing his clearance straight to David Preece. However, Mini’s first-time pass was weighted beautifully to pick out Ricky Hill, just in front of Jan Molby. 

Liverpudlian-born Newell’s hattrick goal after the break was almost comical. Hill beating Grobbelaar in the air to a lofted cross, only for his header to hit the top of the Oak Road bar and drop back into play, where Newell was quickest to react. 

It could well have been even more humbling than four for the reigning champions, as the Hatters proved just how good a side they were, going on to be third in March and finish a still Luton-record seventh in the top-flight. Rather than get bigger though, the margin got smaller when Molby’s quick feet resulted in a foul by Steve Foster, a dent in the artificial pitch and a consolation penalty for the cultured Dane. 

 You can read all the match reports here on Hatters Heritage

23rd February 1991, Luton Town 3 Liverpool 1 

Kenny Dalglish’s moaning about the plastic pitch may have been no longer, having just shocked the footballing landscape by leaving the job two days before, but it saw no improvement in Liverpool’s form at the Kenny as the Hatters registered their first home league win of 1991. One of only two until a Mike Harford ‘own-goal’ inspired win over Derby to keep the Town in the top-flight on the final day. 

It didn’t look like a great day for the Hatters though as they were one down at the interval through Jan Molby scoring another penalty at the Kenilworth Road end. This one however was a handball that was very much at the 2023 end of the spectrum as Steve Nicol fired a cross that Julian James did block with his hand ‘outside the natural silhouette of his body’. Marvin Johnson’s confused conversation with the ref showed a much more 1991 understanding of the rules. 

Luton had been the better side in that first half though, even having a goal disallowed from Lars Elstrup, but their luck turned dramatically after half-time and they were ahead within ten minutes. A lovely passing move set Iain Dowie away to the byline and his cross was met by Kingsley Black at the far stick to level. 

Dowie, who had been so key to a desperate, back from the dead, relegation escape the previous season, added a second when his goal-bound shot thankfully ricocheted back to him of the chief creator Lars Elstrup and he was able to put the second opportunity away in a mark of how the luck had turned. 

Elstrup’s running was causing the Liverpool backline untold problems and that helped seal the deal with ten to go, breaking away down the right and drilling one across the area where Dowie caught Glenn Hysen napping, getting across him to stab home a third goal and complete a well-deserved win. 

You can read all the match reports here on Hatters Heritage 

24th August 1991, Luton Town 0 Liverpool 0 

Liverpool’s last league visit to Kenilworth Road proved that their poor form outlived the plastic pitch. In what was the first home game back on a grass surface, Luton managed to grab a result that we would bite your hand off to repeat on Sunday. 

Within a couple of minutes, Mark Walters was probably wishing the artificial was back as he tripped over his own feet in the Luton area and Ronnie Whelan then got injured after just 23 minutes. That actually livened up both the visitors and the game. So did David Burrows, who hit a shot against the bar from basically the same spot that Alex Wall would score that absolute screamer against Halifax just over 22 years later. 

In a game when our confidence was evidently dented by a 5-0 drubbing at Coventry three days previously, Liverpool were poor. Proven most by Dean Saunders, struggling to live up to being the visitors big summer replacement for Peter Beardsley, missing the most open of goals from four yards out by chipping it into the Scousers in the Oak Road End.  

Steve McMahon then helped the Hatters out after some Danny Hylton style shithousery from Phil Gray got McMahon to raise his hands and get his marching orders as a result. Amazingly, it would rule McMahon out of England’s next game as Graham Taylor had implemented a rule that players suspended in club football were illegible for the national team (imagine Southgate doing that)! 

Despite that, the visitors were still the better side and Alec Chamberlain make two exceptional saves from substitutes, Mike Marsh and Ronnie Rosenthal, in order to preserve a point. Albeit that the later had a helping hand from a goal line clearence from John Dreyer to boot. 

That ensured that David Pleat’s first home game of his second spell ended with a point and, little were we to know, mean that Liverpool would now be 46 years without a league win at Kenilworth Road. 

 You can read the match reports here on Hatters Heritage