Liverpool row brings back memories of Stevenage and Newcastle clash for Thompson
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish and Luis Suarez.
KENNY Dalglish’s involvement in the Luis Suarez handshake row brought back painful memories for one former North-East footballer.
Dalglish was embroiled in controversy at the weekend after Liverpool striker Suarez refused to shake the hand of Patrice Evra, having served an eight-game ban for racially insulting the Manchester United defender.
The Reds boss originally blasted a TV interviewer for broaching the subject in the aftermath of the game, blaming the media for highlighting the issue.
Twenty-four hours later, he was backtracking and apologising, insisting that Suarez had let the club down by refusing to shake Evra’s hand, and also for misleading them over the affair.
It was all a PR gaffe for Liverpool, with Dalglish’s defence of his player in recent months hardly helping to dampen the flames over what was always likely to be an incendiary game.
For many Newcastle United fans, it had echoes of a match 14 years ago when the Magpies travelled to Stevenage for an FA Cup third round tie.
Dalglish and United had been unhappy at the game being played at Stevenage’s Broadhall Way ground, and got involved in a war of words with the minnows, who were a non-league club at the time.
Paul Thompson was a striker at Stevenage at the time, having swapped life at Gateshead for the Conference outfit, and he remembers the furore all too well – including another row over a lack of a handshake.
“Dalglish wasn’t happy from the outset that he had to go down there,” said Thompson. “Him and Cloughy (Stevenage manager Paul Fairclough) were at loggerheads.
“There was a lot of lies and bad feeling.
“When he ended up coming down, he just kept himself to himself.
“He wouldn’t shake the manager’s hand after the game, and a couple of the lads tried to have a bit of craic with them but he just kept his head down and ignored them.
“Don’t get me wrong, we had a chairman, Victor Green, who was a clever man, and he stirred it all up.
“The chairman wanted to switch the game originally, but ended up backtracking and making a lot of money.
“There was a chance to calm it all down but Dalglish was always on the defensive.”
What made it worse for Thompson was that Dalglish had been his idol when he was growing up.
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Despite being a Newcastle fan, it was the Scottish striker who captured a young Thompson’s imagination, to the extent that Dalglish’s face adorned his bedroom wall.
“The bloke was my boyhood hero,” admitted Thompson, now 38. “My bedroom was covered in Dalglish posters.
“My dad used to take me down to Liverpool to watch him, but that incident just put me right off.
“I look back and can’t believe that I used to travel all over the place to watch him, but you live and learn.”
Thompson was recovering from injury when the original tie was played, and wasn’t in the squad as Giuliano Grazioli cancelled out Alan Shearer’s opener to hand Stevenage a money-spinning replay at St James’s Park.
But he recovered in time to make the bench for the return fixture, and came on as a late substitute as the non-league side were unlucky to slip to a 2-1 defeat.
Despite playing against his hometown team at St James’s, the experience was still tinged with disappointment for Thompson, who eventually returned to Gateshead, where he finished his career as the club’s record goalscorer.
“I played against the likes of Arsenal and Crystal Palace when I was at Hartlepool, and the managers always made the point of coming in to the dressing room,” he added.
“George Graham at Arsenal came in and said ‘well done’, and it means a lot to players at a lower level.
“There was two games where Dalglish had the opportunity to come and speak to us but he didn’t in either game.
“He didn’t go up to the boardroom either.
“He’s the most stubborn man – he’s never wrong. It was a bit of a disappointment.”
Twitter: @rossgregory9
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