Stoke City: One-way traffic? Not a bit of it...
From City's 3-1 victory, helped by two goals from Teddy Sandland, in November of that year, to a pearler from Terry Conroy in 1976, Colin Russell's flick header in 1984 and Tony Kelly's nutmeg in 1991, there have been plenty of them to savour for Stokies.
And it hasn't always been the one-way traffic you might think, either.
Back in 1897, Stoke thrashed the table-topping Reds 6-1, with winger Joe Schofield and inside-left Jimmy Hill each netting twice.
Four years later, Liverpool returned the compliment, lashing seven goals without reply past a hapless Stoke defence.
There was a story behind that thrashing, though. The night before the game, Stoke had stayed at the Adelphi Hotel on Merseyside and feasted on what was described as 'an expensive meal'. Overnight, the majority of the team went down with food poisoning, blamed on the fish course.
City started with 11 rather pasty-looking men, at one stage only had seven on the pitch, and ended up with just nine fit players. Andy McGuigan netted five and Sam Raybould two to do the damage.
And yet, two years after that, things swung back the other way again with Stoke recording a 5-2 win in which Teddy Holdcroft, a recent £500 buy from the Vale, nabbed two.
That season, Stoke finished a point and a place outside the relegation zone, just ahead of doomed Liverpool!
Boxing Day 1905 saw Stoke's last victory over Liverpool, a 2-1 victory, for 31 years.
'Big' Tommy Holford, so-called because he was the shortest man ever to play international football at centre-half for England at 5ft 5ins, scored the first for the Potters.
A few spankings ensued at Anfield, but City actually did not lose at home to Liverpool between September 1900 and August 1947.
In November 1948, Stoke cantered to a 3-0 win thanks to Freddie Steele, Frank Mountford and Frank Bowyer. Liverpool won the return 4-0 that season, mind you.
Twice in the 1950s, before the arrival of Bill Shankly sparked the Anfield revolution, Stoke scored four goals on Merseyside. In March 1955, pint-sized centre-forward Johnny King netted twice as City triumphed 4-2 in what was their first-ever win at Anfield.
Then, in March 1959, City came out on top in a seven-goal thriller. Dennis Wilshaw scored two, Bill Asprey one and White, of Liverpool, netted an own goal to decide the game 4-3 in Stoke's favour.
Once City battled their way back into the top flight to join Shankly's men, the matches tightened up a bit, their first meeting aside. On Boxing Day 1963, Liverpool hammered Stoke 6-1 at Anfield, with Roger Hunt scoring four goals in little over half an hour.
Stoke got revenge in the return, however, with Keith Bebbington, John Ritchie and Peter Dobing scoring in a 3-1 victory against the newly-crowned champions at the Vic on the final day of the season.
A decade later, a young talent by the name of Alan Hudson made his Stoke debut against Liverpool after signing from Chelsea for £240,000.
He ran the show, setting up Geoff Hurst for the goal which seemed to have won the game for Stoke. Bill Shankly called Huddy's performance 'the best debut I have ever seen', but it would not be rewarded with a win. In the last minute of the game, John Farmer dropped a cross and Tommy Smith, amid flying boots in the Stoke area, nodded home to earn an unlikely draw.
In March 1975, during one of the tightest title races of all time, which saw five sides locked in battle, Stoke entertained Liverpool on Easter Monday and won a fabulous game of football 2-0 thanks to two goals by that impish Irishman Terry Conroy.
His first was a penalty, but his second was a classic breakaway goal as he scampered clear to beat Ray Clemence at the second attempt.
That victory took Stoke into third spot, level on points with Liverpool and just a point behind leaders Everton, although there were another three clubs within two points and, in the end, the side in fifth place with four games to go, Derby County, emerged victorious.
Since then, the goals haven't stopped flowing, although they've mostly been hitting the back of Stoke's net. There was a 5-3 at Anfield in 1976, Terry Conroy belted in a peach of a 30-yarder to hand Stoke the lead, but five different Liverpool players hit the net before Alan Bloor's last-minute effort made the score respectable.
The one day of glory came on Easter Saturday 1984, when the all-conquering Liverpool team which would win the treble of European Cup, league title and League Cup that year were defeated 2-0 at the Vic.
Mark Chamberlain ran riot, with Ian Painter scoring the opening goal after Grobbelaar fumbled Chambo's shot, and Colin Russell flicked home McIlroy's curled free-kick to complete a famous victory – Stoke's last against today's opponents.
But perhaps the greatest memory of that wonderful day was 'Big' Brendan O'Callaghan, so-called because he really was massive, standing on the ball on the edge of Stoke's area, beckoning Graeme Souness to come and get it. Bren was mocking the manner of the Yosser Hughes look-a-like's mickey-taking earlier in the season when Stoke had put 10 men behind the ball in an attempt to win a point at Anfield. Souness was not amused and smashed a pane of glass in the Vic tunnel as he stormed off the field at full-time. Now, now!
Perhaps surprisingly, in the terrible season of 1984/85, Liverpool put only three goals past City's beleaguered defence without reply.
Meetings since then have only been in the cups, and Liverpool have come out on top on each of the four occasions, but two games offered Stokies hope of an upset.
In January 1988, Mick Mills's City hosted Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup and held them to a goalless draw.
Diddy blond bombshell striker Graham Shaw had a glorious chance to put Stokies into dreamland when he was put through on Liverpool keeper Mike Hooper, but dithered as he thought he was offside and found himself smothered.
September 1991 saw the sides paired in the League Cup in a two-legged tie, the first being at Anfield. What a night ensued!
Ian Cranson headed home a 28th-minute corner to equalise Ian Rush's early goal, but then the moustached Welsh goalmeister netted again halfway through the second half to put Liverpool 2-1 ahead. The climax of the game saw Tony Kelly, the former St Albans City man rather than 'Zico' of the same name, hare on to a long ball down the left in the 88th minute, brush aside the weedy challenge of Gary Ablett and poke the ball through Bruce Grobbelaar's legs to spark one of the best 'mentals' of Stoke history at the Anfield Road end.
Inevitably, Liverpool did a job on Stoke in the second leg and saved face with a 3-2 win at the Vic, but Lou Macari had put an early marker down in his reign that his teams were not to be messed with.
Of course, the last time the sides met proved to be the most bountiful game of all. I probably don't need to remind anyone that Liverpool scored all eight that night at the Brit. But it could have been different. With the score at 0-0, Peter Thorne hit the post when he should have scored.
Whatever happens at Anfield this time you can be sure there will be goals, incident and talking points. Expect it to be high up the Match of the Day running order.
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