November 26 – Molby’s Pen-trick

IF the perfect hat-trick is one with each foot and one with the head, what would a hat-trick of penalties be called? That is probably a question no one thought to ponder before this day in 1986 when Jan Molby acheived the feat for Liverpool at Anfield.

The portly Danish scouser secured his match ball in slightly fortuitous circumstances when the Reds took on Coventry in the fourth round of the Littlewoods Cup. Molby’s efforts from the spot ensured a 3-1 win for the home side who went on to reach the final that year where they lost 2-1 to Arsenal at Wembley.

Liverpool folk lore has it that a six-year-old Steven Gerrard was in the stands at Anfield for the first time that day watching Jan doing the penalty duties that would one day fall to Gerrard himself.

Molby scored yet another penalty against Coventry just three days later when the two sides met in a league match.

The Danish import had arrived at Anfield in 1984 and was soon a regular in the side playing either as a midfielder or as a third central defender or sweeper. In the 1985/86 season he hit top form and scored 21 goals from midfield. He carved himself into the Liverpool legends hall of fame that season when he pulled the strings in the FA Cup final win over cross town rivals Everton, who Liverpool had also beaten to the league title.

In the final the Reds were a goal down at half time after Gary Lineker had struck for the Toffees but in the second half Jan got stuck in and on 57 minutes he set up the equaliser for Ian Rush, before providing Craig Johnston with the pass to take the lead six minutes later. He also had a hand in the third goal as Liverpool won yet another pot.

His penalty record is superb and in his time as a Liverpool player he scored 42 of the 45 penalties he took (efforts against Sheffield Wednesday, QPR and Chelsea were saved), which is still a Liverpool record and as far as anyone can work out is the second best record in the top flight after Matthew Le Tissier (49 out of 50).

We don’t have any footage of the spot-kick fest against Coventry, but have a look at Liverpool taking on Leeds in 1993 when, you guessed it, Molby scored another penalty. We’ll be back tomorrow but to satisfy your football trivia thirst until then have a look at which mercurial Frenchman was switching clubs on this day in 1992.