Phil Thompson thinks back to the day Graeme Souness had John McGovern by the throat at the City Ground and laughs.
‘What a photograph that is,’ he says. ‘McGovern probably hadn’t done much wrong but he played for Nottingham Forest so that made it different!
‘We couldn’t wait to get there that day. It was an FA Cup tie but basically we wanted a battle. Thankfully we won that one, which was rare…’
Graeme Souness had John McGovern by the throat in the FA Cup fourth-round tie in 1980
Souness has his own recollections of that afternoon in January 1980. Given some of the matches that took place between the sides during that era, it was not one of the most significant. Liverpool won 2-0.
But Souness tells Sportsmail: ‘The Cup draw was on the radio and when we drew Forest I could hardly contain my language. The mother-in-law was in the car.
‘It was, “Not those so-and-sos again”. They had a curse on us. We used to play them, spend all afternoon with the ball and then lose. It was irritating, frustrating and bloody annoying.’
Souness and Thompson were titans of Liverpool teams of that era. Both won three European Cups. But mention of Forest still touches nerves.
Graeme Souness and Phil Thompson (pictured) were titans of Liverpool teams of that era
On Sunday the teams will meet in an FA Cup quarter-final at the City Ground. History will mean nothing to either set of players but supporters of a certain age will understand exactly the connotations of this fixture.
As Brian Clough brought Forest out of the second tier to the top of the old First Division and into Europe in the late 1970s, he effectively planted the club’s flag in the centre of Liverpool territory.
In the first nine meetings following Forest’s promotion to the top flight in 1977, Liverpool won just one of them, a remarkable statistic fuelling a rivalry that ran deep and unpleasant.
Brian Clough (left) brought Forest out of the second tier to the top of the old First Division
Arguably it began at the League Cup final in 1978. Liverpool, European Cup holders and league champions, were held to a scoreless draw at Wembley. In the replay at Old Trafford, Forest won thanks to a penalty awarded when Thompson brought down Forest forward John O’Hare with a challenge that was at least half a yard outside the area.
‘John still gets stick whenever he goes to Merseyside,’ says former Forest striker Garry Birtles. ‘They hate him for it. Even though all he did was fall over! I was in the stands and dead level. Thommo was not best pleased and, yeah, he may have had a point.’
Thompson has never quite forgotten what happened that night. He was fined £300 for comments he made to TV.
‘Forest had our number at a time when nobody else had,’ he tells me this week.
‘The First Division was ours by right and they were upstarts. And then they conquered Europe as well, another of our domains.
‘But yeah it all started in that replay. We battered them over two games and lost and I couldn’t get that out of my head.
‘Oh for VAR, eh? They called it the first professional foul and fair enough but it wasn’t in the D, never mind the penalty box.
‘I saw John O’Hare at a dinner I was doing. He was in the audience and I slaughtered him for it. He just sat there and laughed. Fair play.’
Forest cast a further shadow over Liverpool’s football landscape that year by taking their
