From zero to hero

Former Liverpool striker, John Aldridge told Goals On Sunday about his freak FA Cup final occurrence.

John Aldridge told Goals On Sunday about going from FA Cup final zero to hero in successive years. The ex-Liverpool striker infamously became the first player to have a penalty saved in an FA Cup final; in 1988 when Wimbledon's Dave Beasant dived to his left to parry Aldridge's spot kick to safety. The Dons then held out to win by Lawrie Sanchez' goal in one of the old trophy's most memorable finals. Remarkably, the penalty was Aldridge's last touch before being substituted and with the Reds making it through to the final the following year Aldo, as he is affectionately known, found the net with his next touch of the ball at Wembley. "I fancied my chances with the penalty," said Aldridge, "look how far Beasant dived off his line - he was nearly at my feet! "It was a great save, he'd done his homework well and I've learned to live with it. "That penalty miss was my last touch of the Cup final in '88 you know, and I scored with my first touch the following year at the same spot of the Wembley pitch. That was amazing! "It was a great move - Steve Nicol put a great ball in to Steve McMahon who was brilliant at that, and he put it into my path like Liverpool players used to do making it easier for you. "But when you see big Neville Southall in goal you've got to put it high and in the corner else he would save it and thankfully that one went in when it should have went in the year before." Football has changed since Aldo hung up his boots, but if he was playing in the Premier League today how many goals does he believe he would stick away? "I wouldn't be happy with the rotation system if I was left out, but I'd still be looking to score 20 league goals."

Prolific

Aldridge followed Ian Rush (who had left for Juventus) to Anfield, which would have been a tall order to replace such a prolific goal scorer. But Aldridge netted 63 times in two and a half years on Merseyside. "It was a big ask to replace Rushy as he was a phenomenal legend, but I was always confident of scoring goals. "And I had been doing that with Oxford in the top flight and playing with John Barnes you couldn't lose. "Barnes on one wing, Ray Houghton on the other and Peter Beardsley in behind you, no problem." And Aldridge was quick to dispel the popular notion that when Rush returned from Italy the following season, himself and the Wales striker didn't hit it off. The former Republic of Ireland international also claims that Liverpool would have won the 1989 title if himself and Rush had played the full 90 minutes together in that dramatic last match of the season against eventual winners, Arsenal. "A lot of people used to say we didn't gel, but that's nonsense. Whenever I played with Ian up front that season either I scored or he scored. "Funnily enough the only game we didn't score in was the final game of the season when we lost the title to Arsenal with the last kick and Rushy went off at half-time unfortunately. "If he'd stayed on we'd have got something out that game and won the league."