It is over 70 years since the highest attendance for a game at Anfield was set, and it could be that Liverpool never break it. So what is the record?
On February 2, 1952, a crowd of 61,905 supporters made their way into Anfield for an FA Cup fourth-round tie between Liverpool and Wolves.
It remains, to this day, the stadium’s record attendance, surpassing the previous highest which was also for an FA Cup clash, with 61,036 watching a 3-1 win over Tranmere in 1934.
The club’s record attendance for a league game is 58,757, set in 1949, with the enforcement of all-seater stadia in the top two tiers of English football reducing Anfield’s capacity in the years since.
Anfield currently holds 54,074 fans, but will be expanded to just over 61,000 with the redevelopment of the Anfield Road stand, set for completion in 2023.
Despite this, the stadium will still be shy of that 61,905 record.
Following the redevelopment of the Main Stand and the Anfield Road End, there is, as it stands, no scope for further expansion of Anfield.
The Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand, formerly known as the Centenary Stand, and the Kop cannot be expanded for logistical reasons.
Safe standing is being gradually introduced across English football, with rail seating already installed in parts of Anfield, but that will not increase the capacity of stadia in the interest of safety.
Therefore, it could be that Anfield’s attendance record will never be broken and at the very least could be upheld for decades to come.
The meeting between Liverpool and Wolves that afternoon in 1952 saw future manager Bob Paisley open the scoring in the fifth minute from a Billy Liddell knock-down.
Cyril Done doubled the Reds’ lead four minutes later, firing home after being slipped through by Jack Balmer, with Jimmy Mullen’s second-half strike a mere consolation for Wolves.
Liverpool would go out to Burnley in the next round of the FA Cup.
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