Worcester v Liverpool    

Worcester v Liverpool Ranks As One Of The Greatest FA Cup Shocks In Nonleague History. 

FA Cup upsets always stir the imagination of football fans and we’ve covered several on this website but one of the games which is seldom mentioned when discussing great FA Cup shocks is Worcester City’s victory over Liverpool in 1959.   

Although Liverpool were then a Second Division club they on the cusp on the top flight and considered a powerful outfit. 

1959 was also the year that Bill Shankley began his Anfield dynasty but for this game at St Georges Lane Bill Taylor was still in charge of the Liverpool team which was determined to rekindle its former glories. 

Worcester City were then a solid, if unspectacular, Southern League team but had already caused a huge upset in the cup that year after crushing Fourth Division Millwall 5-2 at St Georges Lane in the Second Round. 

When the Third Round tie paired City at home to the mighty Reds from Liverpool few expected their cup run to last any further. 

An initial postponement due to a frozen pitch meant that the cup-tie would be played in midweek but St Georges Lane was still packed with over 15,000 fans squeezing through the turnstiles which was, unsurprisingly, a record attendance for the ground.   

The Worcester v Liverpool match had all the ingredients for a shock; a poor pitch, a goalkeeper (Kirkwood) destined for the game of his life and a hero (Welsh international and Manchester City star Rob Paul) enjoying a last swansong.   

Liverpool knew they would be in for a battle but the previous season’s Quarter-Finalists hardly helped themselves with a defensive display which would have a certain TV pundit shaking his head in disbelief though the referee so nearly gave them a lifeline. 

Liverpool won’t have been impressed with the pitch.  Still frozen and covered with a mixture of sand and salt it certainly wasn’t Anfield and the Reds weren’t happy.  And they downright unhappy after just nine minutes when City sensationally opened the scoring through Tommy Skuse.   

The goal came when a cross from City centre-forward Harry Knowles was deflected beyond the Reds Scottish international keeper Tommy Younger by Molyneux.  As Younger and a posse of Worcester forwards chased the ball Skuse  won the race and tapped the ball over the line to send the crowd wild with delight. 

The rest of the first-half was a battle of attrition as both sides tried to overcome the conditions but neither were able to create any significant goalscoring chances. A half-time tongue lashing from manager Taylor clearly pumped up Liverpool as the Football League men tore into the home side after the break.   

England international Alan A’Court was an inspiration but Kirkwood and his defence repulsed every Reds attack with a Twentyman shot which cannoned off the bar the nearest Liverpool came to equalising.   

Worcester looked to have put the match beyond doubt in the 81^st minute when they went 2-0 up through a bizarre own goal.  A ball from Knowles bounced between Liverpool centre-half Dick White and Younger but in trying to clear White only succeeded in delicately lobbing the ball over his keeper and into the net.   

The crowd erupted but just a minute later Liverpool were awarded a controversial penalty after a melee in the City box following another Kirkwood save.  Twentyman slotted home the spot-kick but it was too little too late and thousands of Worcester fans invaded the pitch to carry Kirkwood and Paul shoulder high to the dressing rooms.