By Deadly Submarine
January 14 2007

44 stars of TV, music and football all together in one place at the same time? Where would you find such an event on a normally restful Easter Sunday? The answer was Liverpool FC’s Anfield Stadium where 39,000 fans from all over the UK and around the world gathered for the Tsunami Soccer Aid game.

Anfield was a busy scene from fairly early on Easter Sunday morning as fans queued for tickets or simply arrived early hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the many celebrities either taking part or spectating as they arrived at the ground.

 

The event had been organised by Tranmere Captain and former Liverpool star Jason McAteer and his agent Dave Lockwood with the obvious assistance of Liverpool FC and Rick Parry who immediately agreed to stage the match on hearing of the idea.  Former Brookside actor Steven Fletcher. Whose family were in Asia when the Tsunami struck and former Liverpool star David Johnson were also involved in the organisation.

 

 

Also present at the game but unable to play were ex-Liverpool stars David Fairclough who was covering the game for Sky TV and Steve McManaman who was injured.

 

Roy Evans who had been set to manage the Liverpool side was away on International duty with Wales and Kevin Keegan who had been set to play was also missing.

 

After the pre-match entertainment from Silky Skills ball jugglers and a song from Atomic Kitten’s Liz McClarnon, the teams ran out and lined up for the singing of ‘You’ll Never Walk Walk Alone’ followed by a minute’s silence in memory of the Tsunami victims as well as a short address from the Bishop of Liverpool.

 

The game began bang on time with a Liverpool back line of Neal, Hansen, Molby and Kennedy in front of goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar.  Barnes, Whelan, McAteer and Phil Thompson were in midfield with Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler upfront.

 

The celebrity side had a surprise Tranmere connection in the first half in the shape of goalkeeper Eric Nixon whose back line cover was Paddy McGuinness, Ralf Little, Michael Vaughan and Niall Quinn.  In midfield were Westlife’s Nicky Byrne, Harvey from So Solid Crew and DJ Spoony while John Regis and Bryan McFadden played in the striking roles to begin with. 

 

After Paddy McGuinness had rugby tackled Ian Rush to the ground in the opening minutes, much to the amusement of the massive crowd, the Liverpool side ran riot with three goals in the opening fifteen minutes.  The first saw a wonderful one-two between Fowler and McAteer that was brilliantly finished by the Tranmere captain.

 

Perhaps it was fitting that with McAteer being one of the events main organisers and only playing for the first fifteen minutes due to Tranmere commitments, he also added the second goal a few moments later, walking the ball into the net after a defensive mix-up left Nixon stranded.

 

The third goal was announced as being Robbie Fowler’s but it clearly would not have gone in had it not deflected off Paddy McGuinness and into the net – That goal would ‘Dink-Dank-Doo’ for the Liverpool side who then seemed to sit back on their lead for a while.  McFly’s Danny Jones made an appearance and promptly fell over then nutmegged his marker before going off again after barely five minutes of action.

 

Harvey from So Solid Crew got the celebrities back into the game mid way through the first half with a terrific solo run and shot past Bruce Grobbelaar.  3-1 was how the half finished and although there had been many substitutions in the first half, there were a still a number of players still yet to appear particularly from the Liverpool team.

 

The second half saw Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock make an appearance and he soon provided possibly the funniest moment of the afternoon when he fouled Tim Lovejoy from Sky’s Soccer AM much to the delight of the crowd.  When referee Dermot Gallacher blew for the foul Ruddock began what was almost a lap of honour to celebrate the foul and had the whole stadium laughing!

 

Ian Rush soon made if 4-1 with a lovely finish past Liverpool youth keeper Paul Harrison before Steven Fletcher, a Liverpool fan and one of the events organisers, fulfilled a dream of scoring at Anfield with a clever finish past Westerveld after being put through by Bryan McFadden to make it 4-2.

 

Could the celebrities get back into the game?  They introduced Shane Ritchie for some entertainment value but soon the biggest ovation of the afternoon came as Kenny Dalglish stepped of the bench to make his appearance.  Anfield’s roof seemed to lift off as Dalglish entered the fray and indeed on every occasion that he had the ball afterwards.  Kenny was soon joined on the pitch by his son Paul as the Legends added two further goals to kill the game.

 

David Johnson, who had open heart surgery last year following a heart attack scored a lovely stooping header from a Jan Molby pass before Liverpool and Tranmere legend John Aldridge made it 6-2 with a neat finish from a Dalglish pass.

 

6-2 it finished and the most important thing was that a huge amount of money will have been raised for a truly good cause with money raised from Programme sales also going to the fund.  We’ll bring you news of how much money was raised as soon as we have it.

 

From a personal point of view it was a truly great day out with both good football and quality entertainment (something that Tranmere can’t always provide in equal measure!).  Credit must to McAteer and the organisers as well as Liverpool FC for agreeing to host the game.

 

Hopefully some pictures of the game will be available on the site soon!