NEWELL’S PAYBACK HITS REDS
Luton 4 Liverpool Molby 81 (pen)
1 Newell 14, 37, 52 Hill 42 First Division, Oct 25, 1986 Att: 13, 140 BY LIVERPOOL broke Mike Newell’s heart when they told him to forget about playing for them.
As a boy, he stood on the Kop cheering on his heroes, and he had a spell with the club before being shown the door. “I was advised to stay on at school,” Newell (above right, with Alan Hansen) recalled, “but I failed my ‘A’ Levels anyway and ended up in football.”
He found himself at Luton after joining from Wigan for £85,000 in January, 1986 – and faced his boyhood team at Kenilworth Road three months later.
Luton were struggling when the sides met the following season. The Hatters had scored only once in their past six games – but then put FOUR past Kenny Dalglish’s reigning champions in just 52 minutes.
Newell struck the opener for John Moore’s team in the 14th minute.
Given a starting spot, in the absence of the injured Mick Harford, he outpaced Jan Molby, leaving him with just Bruce Grobbelaar to beat. He held his nerve, smacking a fierce left-foot shot under the Reds keeper.
The lead was doubled after 37 minutes. Mal Donaghy’s cross reached Newell at the far post and though Grobbelaar got his body in the way, he could not prevent Newell squeezing his shot into the net.
Grobbelaar was to blame for Luton’s third that came three minutes before the break. He raced from his line to clear and only found Luton’s David Preece. With the goal empty, Preece put the ball straight back into the penalty area and Ricky Hill got to it a split second before Molby, to scoop his shot into the net.
There were more problems for Dalglish’s team after Grobbelaar was second to the ball again seven minutes after the restart.
Hill was quicker to Donaghy’s cross and sent his looping header onto the bar. Newell won the race for the rebound, squeezing between two Liverpool defenders to complete his hat-trick with a header.
Mark Stein might have had a fifth for Luton after another hashed clearance by Grobbelaar before Liverpool grabbed a late consolation. Molby was tripped by Steve Foster and the Dane picked himself up to put his spot-kick just out of Les Sealey’s reach.