Greavsie's Easter treat against Liverpool - 1963

Easter weekend, 1963. Three games, two against Liverpool, a win, draw and loss, 18 goals - and the day Jimmy Greaves broke Bill Shankly's heart...

We were chasing the First Division title as we hit a busy Easter weekend in April, 1963. Battling it out with Everton and Leicester for leadership, victory at Anfield on Easter Friday, 12 April, would have taken us to the summit.

It looked good as goals from Terry Dyson and Cliff Jones gave us a 2-0 lead at half-time. However, the tide turned spectacularly after the break as Liverpool hit five unanswered goals to win 5-2.

We were held 1-1 at the Lane by Fulham on the Saturday, 13 April - a point that took us top of the table - before a quick return against Liverpool on Easter Monday, 15 April.

Greavsie scored four goals that day to launch us past the 100-goal mark in the league, much to the delight of the 53,727 packed into N17. Roger Hunt had levelled Greavsie's early strike but two from Cliff and another from Jimmy saw us 4-1 up by 55 minutes. Frank Saul also got in on the act before Greavsie's third and fourth goals saw us home 7-2. Reports at the time suggested Liverpool hadn't played that badly, but Dave Mackay was 'imperious' and Greavsie, well, he was Greavsie...

"We'd always struggled at Anfield but at half-time that Good Friday I thought 'we might have cracked it here', but in the end we got stuffed!" recalled Cliff.

"These were always special games. Bill Shankly was very much like Bill Nicholson, involved in everything and the supporters were so important to him.

"Anyway, in the Easter Monday game, Greavsie was sensational. After the game, Bill Shankly was seen wandering around the car park in a complete daze and when he was approached by one of the reporters saying 'Bill, 7-2, any injuries?' he said 'no injuries laddy, just a broken heart'. Jimmy Greaves broke his heart!"

We went on to finish third in 1962/63 - Everton taking the title - with a run of three wins in our last 10 league games. However, we created history in May, 1963, when we won the European Cup Winners' Cup in spectacular style, a 5-1 win against Atletico Madrid in the final in Rotterdam. Liverpool, meanwhile, won the title the next season and under Shankly, the FA Cup in 1965, the title and UEFA Cup in 1973 and the FA Cup again in 1974 - the foundations of their dominance in the 1980s.