LIVERPOOL FC will play Preston in a friendly on July 13th to mark Bill Shankly’s 100th birthday.
The match will be played at Deepdale, where Shankly spent 16 years as a player. Shankly finished his playing career with Preston, before becoming Liverpool manager 10 years later.
The legendary manager created one of football’s greatest and most successful dynasties at Anfield, winning 7 major trophies with the side. Shankly managed the Reds for 783 matches, winning 407 of them.
The club’s website announced the news, stating:
“This friendly match will provide both sets of supporters with an opportunity to celebrate the life and career of Shankly, in the same year in which the 100th anniversary of his birth will be marked.”
Shankly unfortunately passed away on September 29th 1981, aged 68, and had his ashes scattered on the Anfield pitch. The Scotsman left behind some memorable quotes, including: “If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing” and “In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.”
His most notable quote was: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
The two sides last met in an FA Cup third-round clash in January 2009; Albert Riera and Fernando Torres struck the goals in a 2-0 away victory for the Reds.
Liverpool will play at Deepdale just days before they start their pre-season tour in Jakarta on July 20th, before playing matches in Melbourne, Bangkok, Valerenga and Dublin.
[ad_pod id=’pubsquared’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
How much will tickets cost
A lot of people forget that Shanks was a legend at Preston first and indeed always classed Preston as his second team. Let’s hope the game does him justice.p.s. God knows what Shanks would have made of the girlie shenanigans every time a tackle is made!