Send For Michael Owen

In more than 50 years of competition Liverpool have only won The FA Youth Cup once - and they needed Michael Owen's help.

On the way to the Final in 1996 they overcame Bradford City, Luton Town, Sheffield United, Manchester United and Crystal Palace and were never drawn away.

A 7-5 aggregate win against Palace in the semis set up a two-legged clash with West Ham United, the club who had beaten the Reds in the Final more than 30 years earlier.

The first leg of the '96 Final drew a crowd of 15,386 to Upton Park and a goal in each half, by Jon Newby and David Larmour, gave Liverpool a 2-0 win.

Then the teams lined up like this for the second leg at Anfield, watched by more than 20,000:

Liverpool: Naylor, Prior, Brazier, Carragher, Roberts, Quinn S., Quinn M., Thompson, Cassidy, Owen, Newby.
West Ham: Finn, Moore, Coyne, McFarlane, Partridge, Keith, Ferdinand, Lampard, Boylan, Hodges, Omoyinmi.

Owen, still 16, was brought in to help clinch The Cup for Liverpool and he did exactly that, scoring their first goal in a 2-1 victory on the night. Stuart Quinn netted the other and Frank Lampard was on target for the Hammers.

What happened to young Frank? Well, within ten years he and Michael Owen had picked up 113 full England caps between them!