| LIVERPOOL 1 CITY 2 FA Cup 5th Round Replay 22nd February 1956 attendance 57,520 Scorers Ref Mervyn Griffiths |
From TRAUTMANN THE BIOGRAPHY by Alan Rowlands
…The Liverpool club were pushing hard for promotion from the 2nd Division and their 
passionate crowd were capable of lifting them to stirring performances, with their idol Billy Liddell at the peak of his form.
Liverpool scored the opening goal, Hayes and Dyson gave City the lead, while Trautmann frustrated Liverpool and the Kop with some exceptional agility. The referee blew the whistle just as Liverpool were mounting a last furious attack. Trautmann, most of the players and certainly the crowd did not hear it. Liddell pushed the ball past Trautmann and turned in triumph. Bert in despair, was about to retrieve the ball from the netting when Roy Paul ushered his players to leave the field. Somewhat mystified, Bert rushed off with his team while the LIverpool players surrounded Mervyn Griffiths, the referee, when they discovered, to their absolute horror, the goal did not count. Bertb was delighted with Pauly’s presence of mind in dragging his players off the pitch quickly. They speedily departed for home leaving the Anfield club to seethe away at the considered injustice.
…Thousands turned away at Anfield’ said the headline in the ECHO and those locked out missed a game that had everyone thinking City’s name must be on the cup.
Both teams wore black armbands in memory of Liverpool chairman Will Harrop, who had died stiddenly a day earlier, and both had chances to open the scoring in the first half, which they didn’t take.
Alan Arnell finally broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute when Evans headed Geoff Twentyman’s free kick into his path and he side·footed it past Trautmann. A cup shock was on the cards, if indeed there were cards for a cup shock to be on.
City, however, had other ideas and it was their Scottish centre-forward. Bobby Johnstone who proved to be the difference. After being awarded a free-kick when Liverpool’s John Molyneux slipped in the snow and forced Roy Clarke “to somersault over his prone body’ Johnstone managed to “escape the clutches” of Roy Saunders, possibly ala Penelope Pitstop and the Hooded Claw, and crossed for Jack Dyson to equalise.
City forward Dyson was dangerous in the box, a phrase he was well used to given he also played county championship cricket for Lancashire.
Then came the controversy. Johnstone teed up Joe Hayes in the 89th minute to put City ahead, but Liverpool went straight dowm the Kop end and created one final chance. The ball fell to Liddell and he slotted it past Trautmann just as referee Mr B Griffiths was blowing the full-time whistle on the halfway line. The goal was chalked off, provoking outrage inside Anfield.
Griffiths was confronted in his dressing room by journalists at full-time and produced his pocket watch, presumably from his pocket. The official, in his final year of refereeing, claimed he had added no injury time on whatsoever, but that his watch showed 45 minutes and 15 seconds because he only stopped it after allowing Liddell, who didn’t hear the whistle, to shoot.
Liverpool’s players were fuming, but it made no difference. Their hopes of a quarter-final tie against Everton had vanished.
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Thanks for clearing up something that has bugged me for years. I was at the replay, in the Boy’s Pen, and distinctly recall Liddell running towards goal underneath me and slotting it home. I’ve had arguments with people since, who claim that, based on a famous photo of the scene, Liverpool were attacking the other goal in the second half (for some reason we called it “the Kemlyn Road end” even though it was on Anfield Road). I’m sure this claim was based on nothing more than a belief that the stand at the far end in the photo was the Kop. This is because, taken through a telephoto lens, the size of that structure was magnified. In your photo it looks much more like its natural size, far smaller than the Kop.
I still bristle at the thought of that disallowed goal, the whistle going 5/7ths of a second before the ball crossed the line, according to one newspaper report. Recalls another famous disallowed goal, in the 78 World Cup when Clive Thomas (coincidentally, another Welsh ref) blew 6 seconds after full time with a corner kick in the air to disallow a Brazil goal against Sweden.
These days, thankfully, refs wait until the balls in no-man’s land before blowing.
Hi John,
Were you aware that the clown Griffiths also flagged for offside in the 1954 World Cup Final when Hungary scored a perfectly legitimate goal against Germany? Or West Germany in those days.
He seemed to be surrounded by controversy didn’t he?
It is also rumoured that Roy Paul offered him a lift back home straight after the game at Anfield?
I have just seen Bill Leivers on Ian Cheeseman’s Vlog, before the recent FA Cup final, he said that the Liverpool fans attacked the coach on the way to the ground, and nearly turned it over. Some things never change, eh?
On the date of this match I was a 15 year old attending Walton Technical School in Carisbrooke Road. At the end of the school day at 4pm we dashed across Stanley Park through the snow in time for the exit gates opening at 3/4 time. We got into the Anfield Road end and I remember as Billy Liddle shot at the far end of the pitch, someone on the halfway line had their hand in the air. It was impossible to tell whether this was the referee or a player in the chaos that followed it was hard to tell. Needless to say it was very disappointed young fans that left for home after the end. Yes I am now 81 and am looking forward to attending Sunday’s game (16/01/22) with my son on his birthday.
Me too. Ran from my junior school. Got there as the Kop gates opened but couldn’t push my way in so waited just listening to the crowd. Groans at City’s
goal and sudden rush out but then a huge roar a Liddles ‘goal’ and a dash back to see what happened. Sudden moans and a miserable exit.