English Football History

For all the surprises in English football in the mid-eighties, the real power still remained on Merseyside. 1985/86 saw both Liverpool and Everton locked in a battle for an historic Double right up until the final games of the season. With Everton the newly crowned champions and now with the best English striker of his generation and Liverpool still reeling from Heysel and the introduction of a club legend into an old-fashioned role, it was a season of momentum swings and sporting drama. In the background was a city under political siege and the final showpiece may have just saved football in the country for good. Gary Naylor is in the blue corner, Tony Evans in the red and Martyn tries to get a word in now and again as a famous season story is revisited. If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast where you can subscribe for only $3.99 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"A slum sport played in slum stadiums and increasingly watched by slum people". So went the infamous Sunday Times editorial in the weekend following the Bradford Fire, when it was felt by some that English football had finally reached its nadir. There were further tragic depths to plummet before the month of May 1985 was out. In this episode the journalist and author Chris Lepkowski - whose book on the subject and the season that followed is out later this month - joins Martyn to discuss three dark episodes in English football history before discussing the aftermath and how it got to this stage in next week's show. 'The Slum Sport' can be found at https://www.curtis-sport.com/all-programmes/THE-SLUM-SPORT-Story-of-95-96-p783194469 If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast where you can subscribe for only $3.99 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices