Having paid a national
record £8.5million for Nottingham Forest striker Stan Collymore in
the close season, Liverpool were many people's favourites for the
league title in 1995–96 – especially as defending champions
Blackburn Rovers had failed to significantly add to their squad and
runners-up Manchester United had sold three key players but begun the
season without a single major signing. 1994–95 had arguably been
Liverpool's best season of the post-Dalglish era, as they had
finished fourth and won the Football League Cup. They already
possessed some of the country's finest young talent in the shape of
prolific striker Robbie Fowler and talented midfielders Steve
McManaman and Jamie Redknapp. Fowler would end the season as the
second highest goalscorer in the country, behind Alan Shearer, while
McManaman was the leading goal assists maker in the country, with 25
assists in the Premier League alone. But Liverpool failed in his
title quest. The fault of a disaster november for the reds who
failed to win any of their five games that month, losing 2–1 to
Newcastle United, Everton and Middlesbrough in the league, in which
they also drew 0–0 at West Ham United, and lost 1–0 to Newcastle
United in the League Cup fourth round. They ended the month in
seventh place, 14 points behind leaders Newcastle United. The title
dream was now looking dead and buried with less than half of the
season gone.
Liverpool's best chance
of silverware appeared to be in the FA Cup, where they began with a
7–0 third round win over Rochdale in which Ian Rush set a new
record for career goals scored in the competition. They had a
similarly easy opposition in the fourth round, winning 4–0 at home
to Shrewsbury Town, and booked their place in the quarter-finals for
the first time since 1992 by beating Charlton Athletic 2–1 in the
fifth round at the end of February. They were still going well in the
league, keeping up the pressure on the leading pack of Newcastle
United and Manchester United, though by 24 February they were still
nine points behind Kevin Keegan's leaders and Alex Ferguson's second
place title chasers. The quarter-final brought a 3–0 win in the
replay against Leeds United after a goalless draw in the first match,
and the month ended with a 3–0 semi-final win over Aston Villa
which booked them an FA Cup final clash with Manchester United. The
FA Cup final was played at Wembley Stadium on 11 May 1996. It was a
relatively dull game despite all the hype that surrounded a clash
under the twin towers for the nation's top two football sides, and
with just five minutes remaining it was still deadlock and extra time
was looking likely. However, in the 85th minute, David James punched
clear a David Beckham corner, only for Eric Cantona to boot the ball
into the net from the edge of the penalty area. Liverpool failed to
even make a serious attempt to equalise and the trophy was won by
their opponents for a record ninth time.
A sad season for the Reds
very loyal fans with no title at the end but in 1995/96 season they
saw some awesome football moments. In september a 5–2 win over
newly promoted Bolton Wanderers (with Robbie Fowler scoring four
times). On December, Robbie Fowler took his tally of goals against
Manchester United for the season to four as he scored both goals in a
2–0 win at Anfield just over two months after netting twice in the
2–2 draw at Old Trafford. For the second season running, Robbie
Fowler scored a league hat-trick at home to Arsenal, though this time
in the space of nearly 40 minutes rather than the record breaking
time of less than five minutes as had happened the previous season,
as the Reds won 3–1. But the most exciting moment of the season at
Anfiels was a 4–3 home win over Newcastle United – a match widely
regarded as one of the most exciting league games of the 1990s :
P.S : I choose the
game versus Newcastle for this season, but I like too the game
against Villa in April, when Steve McMANAMAN and Robbie FOWLER
destroyed Aston Villa's defense in the seven opening minutes !
Amazing duo with amazing goals ! Unstoppable
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