FA CUP THIRD ROUND, JANUARY 1994
LIVERPOOL 0 BRISTOL CITY 1
■ I REMEMBER this defeat for more than losing to lower-league opposition. It was also Graeme Souness’s final match as Liverpool manager, and the first time my knee broke down. We had drawn 1-1 at Ashton Gate and brought it back to our place. Bristol City weren’t quite ‘minnows’ — they were in the division below and had some good players. But we shouldn’t have been losing to them. Souness was under pressure. He had been great to me. He’d given me my Liverpool debut at 18 and I didn’t want him to go. Just before the break, I side-foot a pass and feel something go in my knee. I remember thinking: ‘That’s not right.’ We get back into the dressing room at half-time, and as I go to get up, my knee is locked. I can’t move it, can’t stand up, and clearly can’t play. Souness (left) is one of the hardest men in football. He is feeling the heat and I have to tell him I can’t go out for the second half. I call the doctor over. I say I’ve never had a sensation like this before. All I wanted to do was get back out there, but I can’t. God knows what the gaffer was thinking. We go on to lose 1-0, and it’s a gutting result. The boys are booed at full time. There are chants of ‘Souness out’ and Teletext later publishes a poll in which 80-odd per cent say he should go. It turns out I’d torn my meniscus and the next day, I have surgery. I wake up from the operation to discover Souness is set for the exit. You never want to be on the end of a giant-killing. In some of these matches, I’d find myself thinking: ‘You’re such a good player. How are you only playing in that division?’ That’s the nature of these games. You should never underestimate the underdogs. Some players simply know how to rise to the occasion.