|
A quick, skilful striker, Alun Evans joined Liverpool in September 1968
for a club record fee of £100, 000 from Wolverhampton Wanderers, where
he had scored four goals in 22 appearances. Aged only 19, he was
Britain's most expensive teenager at the time and was bought by manager
Bill Shankly to replace Tony Hateley, a lumbering centre forward whose
attributes did not suit the club's pass-and-move philosophy. Evans made a
sensational start to his Anfield career by scoring after only 10
minutes of his debut, a 4-0 home win over Leicester City on September
21st, 1968, and then netting a brace in his next appearance, a 6-0 win
away to his former club, Wolves, a week later. Two goals at Anfield in
October, in a 2-0 win against Manchester United and a 2-1 victory over
Newcastle United, made it five in eight League games for Alun, but he
then lost his scoring touch and did not the find the net again until
January 18th, notching the winner in a 2-1 defeat of Chelsea at Stamford
Bridge. His final goal that season came in a 2-0 win at Sunderland on
March 15th, making a total of seven in 33 League games that term. It was
a useful return for a teenager in his first season at the club as
Liverpool finished runners-up to Leeds United in the League. The Reds
made early exits from all three knockout competitions that term (League
Cup, FA Cup, European Fairs Cup), Alun failing to score in any of his
seven appearances in cup-ties.
The first half of the 1969-70 campaign
saw Evans in and out of the side. He notched his first goals of the
season with a brace in a 10-0 drubbing of Irish side Dundalk in a
European Fairs Cup 1st round 1st leg tie at Anfield on September 16, but
made only five League appearances up until February. He scored both
goals after coming on a substitute in a 2-0 win at Leicester City in an
FA Cup 5th round tie on February 11, and this double saw him regain his
starting place in the side. As a promising youngster, he also benefited
from the start of Shankly's rebuilding process after the team's
embarrassing FA Cup defeat (1-0) by Division Two side Watford later that
month. He went on to appear in all but one of Liverpool's last 15
League games, finding the net three times: twice against Coventry City
in a 3-1 away win on March 3rd and the only goal in a 1-0 victory at
Southampton a week later. Alun scored nine goals in 25 games in all
competitions that season but it was one in which Liverpool failed to win
any silverware, their disappointing 5th place in the League, a distant
15 points behind champions Everton, only adding to their FA Cup woe and
early departures from both the League Cup and the Fairs Cup. The start
of the following campaign saw Alun in fine form as he scored seven goals
in his first 10 League games, including a brace in a 4-0 win against
Huddersfield Town in August and the decider in a 1-0 home win over
Chelsea two months later. However, in November he picked up a bad injury
in a Fairs Cup-tie against Dinamo Bucharest and did not return to the
side until March (at the expense of John McLaughlin), whereupon he
helped Liverpool reach the FA Cup final and the semi-finals of the Fairs
Cup. It was this European competition in which Evans played his most
memorable game for the club, bagging a superb hat-trick as Bayern Munich
were swept aside 3-0 in a quarter-final 1st leg tie at Anfield on March
11th (Liverpool drawing 1-1 in the return leg in West Germany to reach
the semi-finals, where they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Leeds United).
His
only goal in that season's FA Cup was also crucial, enabling Liverpool
to overcome city rivals Everton 2-1 in an FA Cup semi-final at Old
Trafford. Alun started the Wembley final against Arsenal on May 8th but
was substituted halfway through the second-half (by winger Peter
Thompson) as Liverpool went down to a 2-1 defeat in extra-time. He
scored an impressive 10 goals in only 21 League games that season (as
the Reds finished 5th in the table, 14 points behind champions Arsenal)
and a total of 14 from 35 appearances in all competitions. Evans had
just enjoyed his most successful season for the club but it would prove
to be the high point of his Anfield career. New signing Kevin Keegan
started up front instead of him as Liverpool began the 1971-72 League
campaign with a 3-1 home win against Nottingham Forest on August 14th.
Keegan became an instant hit by scoring after 12 minutes of that game
and with his pace, skill and goals, he quickly became a permanent
fixture in the side, leaving Alun out in the cold. Evans made only six
League appearances that term (scoring once, in a 2-0 home win over
Huddersfield Town in October) and a 0-0 draw away to, ironically, his
former club, Wolves, on January 22, 1972, marked his last outing in a
red shirt. After making 111 appearances for the club, scoring 33 goals
(21 goals in 79 League games), he joined Aston Villa for £70,000 in
June 1972. (Martin Greensill)
|