🙌 Liverpool Cult Heroes: Gary McAllister | OneFootball

There wasn’t exactly pandemonium amongst Liverpool supporters when the club announced the signing of a 35-year-old midfielder on a free transfer in July 2000.

McAllister had spent the last four years at Coventry City, leaving Highfield Road after the club finished 15th in the Premier League.

The Scot was in the midst of his twilight years.

However, he was just about to embark on the season which led to Gérard Houllier referring to him as his “most inspirational signing.”

Liverpool’s quest to end the wait for a league title was only ten years in the making at this stage, but the club went into the 2000/01 season quietly confident.

The emergence of academy prospect Steven Gerrard as well as the firepower up top in Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Emile Heskey was a lot to be excited about.

Houllier never did bring home the ‘holy grail’ but this campaign was one of the most successful in the club’s history.

Liverpool lifted the League Cup, FA Cup and Uefa Cup while  booking a place in the Champions League for the following campaign.

McAllister played a crucial part in all of these achievements.

The former Leeds man would often rotate with Didi Hamann and Gerrard in the middle of Liverpool’s midfield, pulling the strings from a deeper position yet somehow still having the energy to get about the middle of the park.

Houllier’s side were taken to penalties by First Division side Birmingham City in the League Cup final in Cardiff, with McAllister scoring the first penalty in the shootout which sealed the club’s first trophy since 1995.

His role in the Uefa Cup success is what sealed McAllister’s place in Liverpool folklore.

A tight semi-final with Barcelona was settled by his 44th minute penalty which booked Liverpool’s place in the final in Dortmund.

McAllister then put in a man-of-the-match performance in the final, scoring another penalty and having a hand in another three goals as Liverpool beat Alaves 5-4 in a bonkers game.

“Your Barca pen, your baldy head,” the Liverpool fans sing, but it’s the next line to that song which sprinkles stardust on McAllister’s legend.

“Your Everton goal!”

It’s 2-2 in the 2001 Merseyside Derby.

Liverpool look likely to draw a game in which they desperately needed the three points in order to keep their spot in the Champions League places in the league.

The game enters the fourth minute of stoppage time of a pulsating encounter and Grégory Vignal is fouled around 40 yards from the Everton goal.

McAllister stands over the free-kick, which is surely going to be crossed into the box.

And then, well …

McAllister produced one of the most astonishing, and unexpected, individual seasons from a Liverpool player.

A real cult hero.