No. 41 – Howard Gayles inspirational Performance
Bayern had outplayed Liverpool in the 1st leg at Anfield and Liverpool managed to get away with a 0-0. However it will be the second leg of the semi final of the 1980/81 European Cup that will always be remembered mainly for the contribution of Howard Gayle’s inspirational performance.
Liverpool were without Alan Kennedy and Thompson for this second leg and then lost Kenny Dalglish after 5 minutes, it was Gayle who replaced Dalglish.
In the Forgotten Heroes section on TIA, Keith Perkins summed up Gayle’s contribution perfectly…
‘œHoward Gayle took the field and ran them ragged. As a completely unknown quantity to them, the Bayern Munich side could not contain this player who ran at them with the ball at such high speed, which was totally alien to what they expected as the usual Liverpool style.
All they could do was resort to kicking and fouling him repeatedly – to such an extent that Howie was starting to lose his cool and was beginning to retaliate. The rough treatment was too much, and he was booked for lashing out at a Bayern defender. After that booking, roughly an hour after entering the match, Paisley pulled him off the field and replaced him with Jimmy Case who played for the remaining twenty minutes’
With seven minutes remaining it was Ray Kennedy who scored the vital goal for the Reds. Bayern lost concentration from a goal kick and it was Johnson who broke away and crossed for Ray Kennedy to score.
Karl Heinz Rummenigge then scored an equaliser for Bayern in the final minute which simply added to the spine tingling drama!! But Liverpool hung on for a memorable 1-1 draw which was enough to get them through to their third European Cup Final.
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