There are occasions in football when a player finds one opponent in particular very much to his liking.
Liverpool’s all-time leading scorer Ian Rush reached double figures against eleven different teams during the course of the 346 goals he banged in for the Reds but his 25 strikes against Everton - the team he had supported as boy - which took him well clear of Toffees legend Dixie Dean’s total of Merseyside derby goals especially endeared him to Kopites, while more recently Luis Suarez seemed to have a personal vendetta against poor Norwich City, notching 12 times including three hat-tricks in only six appearances against the Norfolk side.
The aforementioned pair however were strikers meaning goals were their stock-in-trade which makes the achievement of midfielder Danny Murphy, who this weekend back in 2004 completed the unique feat of a hat-trick of winning goals against Manchester United at Old Trafford, even more impressive. The Chester-born boyhood Liverpudlian was, unbeknownst to him, coming to the end of his seven-year spell at Anfield which had seen him divide opinion at times among Reds’ fans and even get booed by some of them but, while he was forced to come to terms at the age of only 27 that the rest of his playing career would be away from the club he loved, his place in the LFC pantheon remains secure due to the nature and consequences of his exploits against Liverpool’s bitter rivals from down the East Lancs Road.
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Murphy had joined Crewe Alexandra’s famed youth academy at the age of only 12 and having made his first-team debut at 16 as a substitute against Bradford City in December 1993, had built up significant experience and well over a hundred Football League appearances by the time the Reds - who had brought in future England full back Rob Jones from Gresty Road in 1991 - struck up a formal alliance to enhance the development of young players four years later in the spring of 1997. The 20-year-old was informed by manager Dario Gradi that Liverpool wanted to take him to Anfield but, with the Second Division side chasing promotion and Roy Evans happy to wait until the summer, Murphy was told to relax and enjoy his football.
That he did and, after helping Crewe go up through the play-offs, a big decision awaited with Newcastle and Tottenham also now said to be keen on securing his signature but his passion for Liverpool - who he had trained with a youngster before opting for Crewe - meant there was only ever likely to be one destination, his relationships with some of the young Reds players he’d played with on international duty being another key factor as he told Simon Hughes in his book, Ring of Fire.
“I knew Michael Owen and Carra from playing for England. Around the time I was making my decision, we all went to the Under-20 World Cup in Malaysia together. I scored twice against the United Arab Emirates and was on for my hat-trick when the referee gave us a penalty. Michael being Michael was desperate to take it - even though he was the youngest in the team - and we started arguing about it. In the end, Carra had to intervene and made Michael realise he was being unreasonable considering we were already 2-0 up. Michael was fuming. He was even gobbier than me!”
An initial £1.5m fee was duly agreed and Murphy’s dream transfer was completed in July 1997 during a summer of change at Anfield. Despite two entertaining seasons of at times sparkling football from an exciting but flawed Reds’ side under Evans featuring young stars like Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Stan Collymore, Jamie Redknapp and Patrik Berger alongside older heads like John Barnes, Ian Rush, Michael Thomas and Mark Wright, neither had resulted in silverware. The second of them in particular saw Liverpool, for much of the campaign putting together their most credible challenge for the league title since they last won it back in 1990, fade badly and finish fourth in a two-horse race, causing manager Roy Evans to adopt a new approach.
With club captain John Barnes now closing in on his 34th birthday and having completed a decade at the club, the Liverpool boss moved to bring in 29-year-old former Manchester United midfielder Paul Ince hoping the self-styled ‘Guv’nor’ would add the kind of bite many felt was lacking in the middle of the park, with Murphy’s arrival at the other end of the age spectrum designed to bolster the younger part of the squad which featured Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher who had both made their first team debuts the previous campaign.
Murphy made his debut as a substitute on the opening day of the season away to Wimbledon at Selhurst Park and on this occasion had to stand aside to let Owen take a late penalty which the young striker, who had scored his first ever Liverpool goal on the same ground the previous May on the night the Reds’ concession of the league title to Manchester United was confirmed, duly converted to earn a 1-1 draw. A home defeat to newly-promoted Leicester City four days later however gave early warning as to the difficult season Evans’ men would go on to endure, with an eventual third place finish masking the significant drop off from the previous two seasons when the Reds had appeared at time genuine contenders for the top prizes. It was not the easiest time to arrive at Anfield as Murphy himself admitted.
“Suddenly I was around players that I’d worshipped for so long. It was surreal. John Barnes was on the way out. Newcastle were signing him. But he did the pre-season with us. I’d had a season ticket at Anfield. I wanted to be John Barnes. Now - briefly - he was my team-mate. Weird. It tool me a few months to relax and begin to enjoy it. I was a chirpy little character. But I struggled to express myself. I was a young lad who didn’t know any better: parties, drinking and girls. Carra would admit that he was the same, I’m sure. He turned that off, calmed down and became really professional quickly. It took me longer. I wish I had been as quick as him. When I eventually followed suit, I reaped the rewards.”
Murphy only managed 17 appearances in his debut season and, despite an impressive performance in only his second Liverpool start in the 1-1 Good Friday draw away to Manchester United which damaged Alex Ferguson’s side’s flagging title hopes and saw him gain a brief run in the side, when he had only made four more appearances by the mid-point of the following campaign (just one of them from the start, against Fulham in the League Cup) questions began to be asked about his future at Anfield. With Roy Evans now having left the club after 35 years of loyal service following the brief joint-manager experiment with Gérard Houllier, Murphy - having learnt that George Burley wanted to take him to second tier Ipswich Town on loan - went to see the Frenchman to discuss his options.
“I went to Gerard and told him that I wanted to go”, Murphy said. “He told me about an opportunity to go back to Crewe. ‘Yeah but they’re bottom of the league, getting smashed every week’, I said. ‘They’re s*** - how is that going to do me any good? I’ve already been there, done that’. He probably thought that value of a hard day’s work and a relegation battle would show whether I was truly up for a fight at Liverpool and he told me the following pre-season that had I not agreed to go to Crewe, he’d have got rid of me. ‘I’ve seen your ability - you’re a clever player, you see the bigger picture’, he said. ‘I wanted to see that you still had the passion’.”
Returning to Anfield in the summer of 1999 and embarking on a strict fitness regimen, Murphy would have to initially be patient again and waited a month into the new season for his first involvement but when the chance came, he wasted no time in grabbing it. Handed a start for a League Cup second round first leg tie against Hull City at Boothferry Park, the 22-year-old scored twice in a 5-1 Liverpool win adding another goal in the Anfield return for good measure and barely a few weeks later was handed his first league start for the Reds in over 18 months as Gianluca Vialli’s Chelsea - fresh from a 5-0 annihilation of champions Manchester United - pitched up at Anfield. Houllier’s men had endured a difficult start to the campaign suffering early season home defeats to newly-promoted Watford as well as bitter rivals Everton and Manchester United in league, and had just been knocked out of the League Cup at Southampton only three days earlier but, with Murphy bolstering a five-man midfield behind lone striker Michael Owen, dug in for an defiant 1-0 victory secured by David Thompson’s opportunistic strike three minutes into the second half. It proved a major turning point not only in the Reds’ season but also for Murphy’s Anfield career with the Liverpool Daily Post afterwards hailing the young midfielder’s contribution and promise.
“The bold decision to hand Danny Murphy the opportunity for which he craves paid-off handsomely as he ran himself into the ground, flitting between bolstering the midfield and exploiting the space just behind Michael Owen. The talented Murphy showed he is fully deserving of another chance next week and it is one he must take. He still finds himself in a catch-22 situation because when everyone is fit and available, there simply isn't the congested fixture calendar with only the League and FA Cup remaining to merit constant tinkering.”
Murphy was handed another chance the following week as the Reds returned to Southampton for a Premier League fixture and, while he was back on the bench for the three following games, a crucial intervention as substitute at home to Derby County when he broke the deadlock with a deflected strike from the edge of the penalty area to grab his first league goal for Liverpool earned him a prolonged run in the side and the sense he finally now belonged at Anfield. The win over the Rams moved Houllier’s men up to fifth as their season began to settle into one of real potential, a superb win over David O’Leary’s emerging Leeds United side in early February which featured a long-range Murphy strike to seal an exhilarating 3-1 win being followed by a win at Arsenal and creditable draw at Manchester United that gave real hope the pre-season objective of Champions League qualification would be attainable.
A woeful run of no wins and no goals from the final five matches of the campaign saw them fall just short after finishing fourth and have to settle for UEFA Cup football but there was a genuine sense that the Frenchman’s blueprint for taking Liverpool into the twenty-first century had merit and could bear fruit if the development continued of talented young players within the squad like Murphy - who having scored six goals in 27 appearances could be proud of his breakthrough season - and if the recruitment was of a similar standard to the summer before. It proved to be and, as had been the case earlier in the year, successive games against the leading sides in the country in December highlighted the genuine progress the Reds were making. A 4-0 rout of Arsenal at Anfield two days before Christmas ensured a happy Yuletide for those of a red persuasion, many of whom were still on cloud nine after the first of Murphy’s Old Trafford winners less than a week earlier.
Ten long years had elapsed since Liverpool’s last win away to Manchester United in March 1990 en route to the club’s last league title triumph and memories were still fresh of the hideous January 1999 FA Cup fourth round defeat on the same ground when Houllier’s men had led for almost the entire match following Michael Owen’s early goal only to be sickeningly knocked out of the competition by two late United goals in front of a baying Stretford End. “We will beat Manchester United one day, I promise you”, the Frenchman pledged after that game and this proved to be that day, his side displaying the defensive discipline and resolve which had already seen them reach the UEFA Cup last 16 by withstanding the home side’s early pressure while growing into the game gradually and taking their big chance when it arrived two minutes before half time through Murphy.
“The first one was a free kick past Fabien Barthez”, he recalled in Ring Of Fire. “They were the champions and we needed to prove ourselves under Gérard Houllier, prove that we could compete with them. I’d given possession away a few minutes earlier and I was really angry with myself. I needed to make amends. I took quite a straight run-up, to try to deceive the keeper. Barthez stood still and it curled in the bottom corner. I could see the faces of the United supporters in the Stretford End. Closing my eyes, I can see a fella with a black hood with his mouth open going, ‘Oh no!’ After that? There was white noise. A blur of colour. Look at my arms right now - you can see the hairs standing on end. A lot of people have tried to put into the words the feeling of scoring a winning goal. None of them do it justice. You lose yourself. There’s a huge adrenaline rush of emotion that takes you to a place you didn’t know existed. Afterwards comes the contentment. When you’re sitting on the bus in the car park, seeing all the United fans walking home with glum faces, hearing all the Liverpool supporters in the distance still locked in the ground. Only then does it sink in - what it means to you personally. I used to drink in the Oaklands pub on New Road in Chester. Normally my brother and a couple of mates would be there after the game. We’d have a pint, a chat and unwind. This time when I walked in, there was uproar. The place was packed and it went off. It was mental. It was brilliant. Loads of singing. Only then did I realise the impact a goal and a win had on everyone else. It defines weekends. It can define seasons.”
2000/01 was a Liverpool season with a number of defining moments but there is no question Murphy’s set-piece expertise at Old Trafford was a hugely important one and infused massive belief throughout the club which helped led to the glories which followed. The Reds midfielder would not enjoy similar fortune in the return fixture at the end of March - won 2-0 to complete the first league double over the Red Devils since 1979 - receiving his marching orders in the closing stages after picking up two yellow cards but by then a first trophy of the season was already in the bag with two more still in Houllier’s men’s sights. Murphy had been injured for the League Cup final victory on penalties over Birmingham City in Cardiff but that May was in the starting XI against Arsenal in the Welsh capital and then four days later against Spanish minnows CD Alaves in Dortmund as Liverpool added the FA and UEFA Cups to complete an unprecedented treble of trophies, the midfielder adding a crucial goal at Charlton on the final day of the season to secure the club’s first ever qualification for the Champions League.
The Reds’ astonishing efforts saw them win UEFA’s Team of the Year award for 2001 and the expectation was it should lead to a genuine tilt at ending the club’s wait for a 19th league title which was into its second decade but such aspirations faded into perspective early the following campaign when manager Gérard Houllier was suddenly taken ill with a life-threatening heart problem during a match against Leeds United at Anfield in which Murphy’s second-half header salvaged a 1-1 draw for the home side. An 11-hour operation at Broadgreen Hospital’s Cardiothoracic centre saved the Frenchman’s life but he would require months of recuperation and rehabilitation before being able to return to work forcing assistant manager Phil Thompson to take over as caretaker boss. He performed admirably in keeping the Reds in contention in both the Premier League and Champions League by the time Houllier returned the following March, with Murphy in particular grateful for the Kirkby-born former European Cup winning skipper’s advice in the midst of arguably the most contrasting three days of the midfielder’s career.
Thompson’s spell in charge could not initially have started better for himself or Murphy when the midfielder - who would receive his first full England cap the following month against Sweden - scored to set the Reds up for a vital Champions League away win at Dynamo Kyiv which was followed up a fortnight later with a home victory over Borussia Dortmund which qualified Liverpool for the second group stage in operation at the time. One the home front, a convincing 3-1 home win over Manchester United as the Kop paid tribute to their stricken leader sent out the message the Frenchman's team were in rude health and the Reds enjoyed a month on top of the Premier League before a 4-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in mid December ushered in a more difficult period of form, a run of only one league win in nine dropping Liverpool down to fifth. The last of those winless matches was an draw at home to Southampton which saw Murphy - struggling for form and without a goal in 18 matches - booed by sections of the Anfield crowd when he was substituted for Gary McAllister twenty minutes from the end.
It was a devastating experience for the boyhood Red but caretaker boss Phil Thompson kept faith in his under-fire midfielder for the next match which just happened to a trip to Manchester United and was rewarded when Murphy repeated his feat of 13 months earlier by grabbing the winner. Alex Ferguson’s men had bounced back from their own autumn dip in form by winning eight successive Premier League matches to thrust themselves back into the title race with Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy having scored in each of them. Thompson’s struggling Reds were given little hope of upsetting the form book but gradually established a firm foothold in the game before striking with a goal of supreme quality six minutes from the end when Steven Gerrard’s perceptive angled pass found Murphy’s penalty area run and the new scourge of the Stretford End produced a delicately-flighted first-time lob over goalkeeper Fabian Barthez to send the 3,000 travelling Liverpudlians wild with delight at an unexpected but thoroughly deserved victory.
“It was only a few Liverpool supporters who cheered in the game before against Southampton when I was substituted”, Murphy recalled. “But hearing that negativity - god, it was probably the lowest point of my career. Phil Thompson was filling in for Gérard Houllier, who was recovering from his heart problems. Thommo called me into his office and tried to reassure me. ‘I know you must feel a bit s***. I trust you. I’ll play you all day long. Don’t worry - I know the Liverpool supporters better than anyone’. But I did worry about it. Never believe a player who says they don’t hear the heckling. It was like a dagger through the heart. I felt like crying. When you care about the club you play for, you crave acceptance. So the following Tuesday night at Old Trafford, Steven Gerrard gets the ball. What a pass. What. A. Pass. It gets overlooked just how good that pass was - maybe it was the pass of the decade.”
As was the case the previous season, victory at Old Trafford breathed new life and belief into the Reds’ campaign and Houllier returned to the dug-out in mid-March with his side “ten games from greatness” as the Frenchman infamously put it, with a Champions League quarter-final against Bayer Leverkusen in the offing and the Reds within striking distance of perennial title contenders Arsenal and Manchester United. A club record Premier League points tally of 80 was not enough to overall the Double-winning Gunners though however, and a late collapse in the second leg against Leverkusen - induced in the eyes of many by the curious substitution of defensive lynchpin Dietmar Hamann for attacking midfielder Vladimir Smicer with Liverpool ahead on aggregate - preventing the Reds reaching the last four in Europe and highlighting how Houllier’s golden touch, so prevalent before his illness, was now beginning to desert him.
That was demonstrated in the summer’s transfer dealings with Houllier rejecting the chance to sign striker Nicolas Anelka permanently on loan after an encouraging loan spell - opting instead for Senegal forward El Hadji Diouf who, along with compatriot Salif Diao and French midfielder Bruno Cheyrou, were incapable of helping Liverpool take that final step and in reality took them backwards. Despite a decent start to the 2002/03 campaign which saw the Reds top the Premier League in early November, a late defeat at Middlesbrough sparked a grim run of eleven league matches without a win which the season - and in truth, Houllier’s reign - never recovered from. There was a ray of light in another League Cup success, achieved with a backs-to-the-wall victory against Manchester United in Cardiff that gave Murphy his second winners medal in the competition, but Liverpool failed to even qualify for the Champions League after losing at Chelsea on the final day of the campaign and a poor start to the following campaign soon made it clear a top four finish would be the summit of realistic ambition again.
As the season drew to a close with the manager’s position and future under increasing scrutiny following disappointing cup defeats to Bolton, Crystal Palace and Marseille, Murphy - still one of Houllier’s most trusted lieutenants - delivered yet again at Old Trafford, scoring a penalty winner in late April which provided a vital three points in the Liverpool’s bid to at least salvage something creditable from another deeply disappointing season.
“Stevie did wonders getting the penalty with his pace and athleticism”, Murphy admitted to LFC’s official website years later. “The biggest shock was that Michael [Owen] gave me the pen because he was actually on them that day. The manager said he was on them and that’s fine because it’s Michael and you do as you’re told. But he just gave me the nod, he said, ‘You have it.’ I thought, ‘Lovely’ because any chance of scoring a goal I was absolutely buzzing. So I didn’t really have time to think of the pressure of it or it was the third one or we were going to win if I scored. It was the middle of the second half, so even if you score it might not stay 1-0. The truth is with that pen; it looked really calm, I hit it well but I actually leant back a little bit more than I normally would so it went up, and as it was rising I was thinking, ‘Oh no… I’ve put a bit much on it.’ It went right near the top corner and the ‘keeper had no chance. It looked calmer than it was, I just leant back a bit more than I normally do.
“It was different than the other two afterwards when we won. Because I’d experienced winning there a couple of times and scoring there a couple of times, we were actually giggling about it and laughing. We were buzzing we’d won. But from my perspective, some of the lads – Michael, Carra and Stevie – were saying to me, ‘What’s going on here, how have you done it again?’ And I was just like, ‘I don’t know, I really don’t know what’s going on, this is weird!’ Then the phone starts going again. It was massive winning at United, it always is – you know the score when you play United. But in terms of comparing it to the other two, it didn’t rate as highly for two reasons. One, the fact it was a pen, which I expect to score. And secondly, the other two had more significance. The first one was the first time we’d won there in 10 years and the first time I’d scored there. The second one was a kind of bounce back game for me after I got some stick at Anfield in the Southampton game before the United away game, the second winner. So it meant more to me. The third one, it does mean something to me – let me get it right – but in comparison to the other two, it was just a bit of icing on the cake really.”
Liverpool duly managed to finish fourth and qualify for the 2004/05 Champions League and there was sadness but no real surprise when Houllier’s six-year spell at the club was brought to an end days after the season concluded. There was a shock in store for Murphy though when new manager Rafa Benitez, who had been brought in from Valencia as the Frenchman’s replacement after leading Los Che to two La Liga titles and UEFA Cup, told the 27-year-old he was unlikely to feature in his plans and was not wanted at the club. Murphy moved on almost unnoticed during a summer dominated by speculation over Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard’s futures to Charlton Athletic for £2.5m and revealed to TalkSport years later he initially hated the Spaniard for forcing him out of the club he loved and for who he finished with a respectable ratio of 44 goals in 249 appearances.
“I hated him at the time. I’ve lost that now, I understand what he was doing and he was being honest. He said to me, ‘Look, I want to bring in some of my own players, you’re not going to be part of the first XI. It’s unlikely you’re going to get back in the team. If you want to stay, then there’s not much point. I know you like playing; I’m bringing in a couple of midfielders, I’ve already got plenty of midfielders.’ Then he told me who had come in for me – which was Tottenham, Charlton and Everton. I tried to plead with him a little bit, and then he repeated the fact that my time was done, really. Looking back, I do appreciate honesty from managers. I hated him for it. But the next couple of days were a couple of the hardest days of my life. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to leave. I had great contracts on the table and choices of managers who really wanted me and made me feel good. I still say to this day, I should have stayed a bit longer.”
Murphy went on to play in the top flight for almost another decade, joining Tottenham after two years at the Valley and spending five years with Fulham before finishing his playing days with Blackburn Rovers. Now a media pundit, his affection for the club he grew up supported remains evident as does the slight sense of regret that had circumstances been different he could stayed at Anfield longer and perhaps provided even more special moments against United.
“When Benitez was appointed at Liverpool, it was between him and Mourinho. I know that for a fact. Mourinho wanted the Liverpool job massively. But Liverpool basically went with Benitez, because he’d just won the Spanish league title and UEFA Cup with Valencia and they thought that was more solid an appointment than someone who had only done it in Portugal. I know Mourinho was massively disappointed. I’m gutted too because Benitez came in and didn’t want me, I’m just gutted it wasn’t Mourinho because he might have wanted me to stay!”
