Alec Lindsay

Career

Born in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, Lindsay played 139 matches for Bury, helping the club gain promotion in 1967–68. He joined Liverpool in March 1969 for £67,000. He made his debut against Irish side Dundalk in the European Fairs Cup, on 16 September 1969. Liverpool won by an emphatic 10-0 scoreline, a record win until Liverpool thumped Norwegian side Strømsgodset I.F. 11–0 in the Cup Winners' Cup, on 17 September 1974.

After an initial settling in period in which Lindsay played seven times, he was the selected as first choice left back during the 1970–71 season, which included the 1971 FA Cup Final at Wembley. League champions and double hunting Arsenal lay in wait. After the allotted 90 minutes the scores were level 0–0; during extra time the Reds took the lead, the Gunners scored a scrappy equaliser and went on to win the game 2–1 thus completing the league and FA Cup double. Arsenal were victorious that day - Lindsay would be back for another go in 1974 - but first Liverpool had the small matter of obtaining a double of their own, winning both the League championship and UEFA Cup in 1973. He played in the 1974 FA Cup Final against Newcastle United and despite him having a goal ruled out for offside, Lindsay got his winners medal as Liverpool beat the Magpies 3–0.

This was to be the peak of Lindsay's Liverpool career, Shankly, the man who brought Lindsay to Merseyside decided to retire. Unfortunately, for Lindsay, new manager Bob Paisley elected to play new signing Phil Neal in the left back slot the following season and even after Neal then moved to his favoured right back role, Lindsay was still rarely selected with Paisley preferring Welshman Joey Jones. This also ended his England hopes before they had really got started, having thus far won four caps.

Liverpool won two more League titles during the next three years but Lindsay didn't qualify for a medal having not played enough games. He also missed out on the 1976 UEFA Cup success and the 1977 FA Cup final when Liverpool, in search of a "treble", lost narrowly to rivals Manchester United. However, he was named as one of the five substitutes for the European Cup final in Rome three days later, when Liverpool beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1. He left Anfield in the summer of 1977 and joined Stoke City.

He made a good start to his Stoke career converting three penalties in his first five matches for the club under George Eastham. However, with the expectation at the Victoria Ground to gain an instant return to the First Division Eastham was sacked in early January 1978 with the club languishing in mid-table. New manager Alan Durban decided to play the younger Geoff Scott at left back and Lindsay was allowed to make a move to America.

In 1978, Lindsay moved to the Oakland Stompers of the North American Soccer League (NASL). Following the 1978 season, the Stompers moved to Edmonton, Canada and Lindsay moved to the Toronto Blizzard, also of the NASL. He would finish his career with the Blizzard.

International career

Alec was given his first cap, and subsequently all of his caps, by caretaker manager Joe Mercer on the 22 May '74, England were playing host, at Wembley, to a friendly with Argentina, he was in good company as fellow Reds Kevin Keegan and the England captain Emlyn Hughes were in the starting line-up, the game was played in front of 68,000 people and ended in a 2–2 draw.

Post-retirement

His legacy at the club was illustrated by his placing at 85 in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop, in which thousands of Liverpool fans voted for their top 10 players on the official club website. "Speedy" Lindsay, as he jokingly refers to himself, is now retired and lives happily with his partner in Scotland. He remains an avid Liverpool supporter and was a contributor to the Hillsborough Family Support Group's (HFSG) "Project 96" in August 2009. After his retirement he became a publican.

Career statistics

Honours