WE WERE SO IN AWE BACK IN 74

ALAN KENNEDY is confident tomorrow's Carabao Cup final will be a much more competitive game than when the two teams met in the 1974 FA Cup final.

- DAVID ANDERSON

Liverpool comprehensively beat Newcastle 3-0 in what proved to be Bill Shankly’s last game in charge.

Kennedy, who was just 19 when he played for Toon at Wembley that day, remembers the result was almost inevitable and said: "I felt Newcastle were a little, some might say a lot, naive. Liverpool were doing well in the league and there was a big gulf on the day.

"They were more professional and we were sort of amateurish because it was our first final since 1955."

Kennedy recalls Toon striker Malcom Macdonald trying to rally Newcastle because it was still goalless at half-time.