**I can’t wait for this final at Wembley and personally it takes me back to a very special place in 1974.**
It’s always lovely to go back to Wembley but 1974 is probably one of the great memories – and I had so many at Liverpool, both as a player and assistant manager.
I was 20 and I was playing in an FA Cup final for my local team. I had gone in 1971 when we lost 2-1 to Arsenal in the FA Cup final and that absolutely devastated me, so going back in 1974 and this time in the team was the most wonderful experience.
Next to the league title, the FA Cup was a massive thing and everybody wanted to play in the final, so to do it was very special for me.
* **Carabao Cup final:** [**Go to LFCTV GO**](https://video.liverpoolfc.com/?lfm_medium=site-link&lfm_source=liverpoolfc.com&lfm_content=news-story&lfm_campaign=lgo-carabao-cup-final-2425&lfm_proposition=lfctvgo) **for exclusive pre-match build-up, live audio commentary of the game and the full match replay**
In the build-up to the game, Newcastle had a centre-forward called Malcolm Macdonald, who had a lot to say. It was funny actually because it was the first time I can remember Bill Shankly pinning the newspaper cuttings of what Macdonald was saying on the dressing-room wall.
Later in life when I was with Gerard Houllier, I would do exactly the same thing and laminate the newspaper cuttings so we could all see what was written about us.
I remember doing it with Clinton Morrison’s comments after we lost the first leg of the League Cup semi-final at Crystal Palace. We beat them 5-0 at Anfield!
Macdonald was known as ‘Supermac’ and he was mouthing off in the newspapers about what he was going to do to Emlyn Hughes and this 20-year-old Scouser.
We were basically two midfield players playing at centre-back and Shanks was changing the way Liverpool play. We weren’t the tallest and Macdonald was mouthing off in every media outfit about how he and his partner John Tudor were going to tear us apart and beat us in the air to submission.
I was fired up, so was Emlyn, and we kept a clean sheet! People still ask me to this day if Malcolm is still in my top pocket. I’m just checking now – and there he is!
Little did we know what was to come but in that Newcastle team were two players who would become Liverpool legends. Alan Kennedy played left-back and Terry McDermott, a Kirkby lad, played in central midfield.