Terry McDermott Was Flicking Through The TV Channels Last Week When He Paused On Highlights Of The 1981 European Cup Final

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Terry McDermott was flicking through the TV channels last week when he paused on highlights of the 1981 European Cup final.
'Highlights?' he says of Liverpool's 1-0 win over [/sport/teampages/real-madrid.html Real Madrid] in Paris.

'I'd always thought it was a c**p game. And you know what? I was right. It was more like the lowlights, they did well to fill 15 minutes - the only good thing was Alan Kennedy's goal.'
McDermott is reflecting from the sunny surrounds of his Northumberland home.

'You see this grass here,' he says, pointing to turf which is a little scorched in places. 
Terry McDermott paused on highlights of the 1981 European Cup final last week
He said of the game: 'I'd always thought it was a c**p game.

And you know what? I was right'
'This was a different class to that pitch in Paris. They'd been playing bloody rugby on it the week before.'
The 'highlights' show one McDermott effort which flies way over the crossbar and we wonder whether the ball is still in orbit around the French capital. 
'Must have taken a bobble,' he grins.
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McDermott, at 66, is in good nick. The black perm is now white and flat but the moustache, bandy legs and slender physique are unmistakable traits of that box-to-box midfielder who, in 1980, became the first man to win the PFA and FWA player of the year prizes. 
It was a double subsequently achieved by a stellar cast including Kenny Dalglish, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Thierry Henry and Mohamed Salah.
Our cup of tea in his back garden is keeping him from the golf course and we are delayed slightly when the gates to his driveway malfunction. 
McDermott's black perm is now white but the moustache remains an unmistakable trait
'I need to get them sorted,' he says.

'I'm too old to be climbing over them now!'
During conversation about that night at the Parc des Princes, McDermott often wanders back to Liverpool's 1977 and 1978 European Cup triumphs over Borussia Monchengladbach and footballncrickethub.blogspot.com Club Brugge.

The memories of those games seem to come easier.
'I suppose '81 is the forgotten final in some ways,' he says. 'The win in '77 was the first, '78 was Wembley. By the time of '81, that team was starting to break up a little bit.

People forget, we finished fifth in the league. 
'At Liverpool, it was the league which mattered. We knew going into the final there would be a cull, even if we won.'
McDermott rejoined Newcastle United a year later, the club where he is held in just as high a regard as he is at Anfield.
In recent months, McDermott has come to reflect on his career and, at the same time, look to the future. 
McDermott believes the '81 success has become the forgotten final in Liverpool's history
McDermott started in Paris as Liverpool beat Real Madrid through an Alan Kennedy goal
He has two sons and a daughter and, earlier this year, welcomed the birth of his first grand-daughter, of whom he talks with great excitement and demands hourly picture messages when he and wife Carole are not with her.
His children, he explains, are the reason why there is now an empty trophy cabinet inside the house just yards from where we sit.

Later on Tuesday, his three European Cup winners' medals will be among a lifetime of honours auctioned at Sotheby's in London.
How does that feel?
'I'm okay with it because I have the memories, no-one can take them away,' says the former England international.
'The main reason is to look after my kids, to help them get on the property ladder, I'm doing it for them. 
'It's nice to have the medals, of course, but they're always at risk of theft or, if not, you keep them in a vault at the bank, and what's the point in that?
'I am proud of what I've won. But I will be more proud if my children are all happy.

If you can help them along the way, then I'll be happy. This felt like the right time.' 
  Phil Thompson lifts the European Cup as Liverpool claim their third triumph in the competition
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox sport" data-version="2" id="mol-b0d24420-5d35-11e8-b4ba-c70c50c7e091" website McDermott on Liverpool's 1981 glory over Real Madrid