Rodney Marsh, who turns 80 on Friday, once recalled who one Manchester City and Liverpool clash turned so violent it all spilled out into the car park after the game.
Liverpool and Manchester City have battled for silverware repeatedly over the last few seasons.
However, as the rivals went toe-to-toe for Premier League glory, rarely did the clash descend into utter chaos – unlike one specific game in the 1970s. City legend Rodney Marsh, who turned 80 on Friday (October 11), was there that day, and he once recalled how the violence even spilled into the car park.
The forward made 118 appearances in the blue half of Manchester – and one particular encounter at home against the Reds in the early-70s saw him rub legendary Liverpool defender Tommy Smith up the wrong way.
Smith, a notorious hard man of the time, was nicknamed ‘The Anfield Iron’. It was therefore no surprise that he waited around the ground to give Marsh a pummelling after the game.
The 79-year-old wrote on X: “After one particularly violent match at Maine Rd, Liverpool’s Tommy Smith was waiting for me in the car park! Today players unfollow on IG! Funny ‘old game…..”
Marsh was then asked by a fan whether he “nailed” Smith, to which the former England star replied: “No! Franny (City team-mate Francis Lee) stepped in…..thankfully.”
The City star was fortunate to avoid confrontation with a man once claimed by Bill Shankly not to have been born, but “quarried”. Smith also infamously once said a referee “should be shot” for a wrong decision – a far cry from the uproar caused by Nottingham Forest’s recent comments about the PGMOL.
Stunningly, Marsh and Smith would go on to become team-mates in 1976 – not for an English side, but the Tampa Bay Rowdies in Florida.
