Hard Case

Jimmy Case is best remembered for a spectacular FA Cup final goal and a deserved reputation as one of football's genuine hard men. But that does scant justice to a career that covered more than 700 appearances for 7 league clubs and did not end until he retired, through injury, at the age of 41. Raised on Merseyside, Jimmy began at his beloved Liverpool, becoming a key player in the all-conquering team of the late 1970s alongside stars like Kevin Keegan, John Toshack, Ray Clemence, Phil Thompson, Kenny Dalglish and his two great mates, Tommy Smith and Ray Kennedy. At Anfield, where he was signed by Bill Shankly and guided by Bob Paisley, Jimmy won a boxful of medals: four league titles, three European cups plus a host of other domestic honours which tell the truth about Jimmy Case - that he had much more than a tough tackle and a ferocious shot. As the man himself says, you couldn't get in that Liverpool team if you couldn't play. His ambition was to play his entire career at Liverpool but fate sent him on a different route: to Brighton, where he almost won the FA Cup; to Southampton, where he played more than 200 games; to Bournemouth; Halifax; Wrexham; and a single outing for Darlington. Along the way he came up against players like Andy Gray, Graeme Souness, David Speedie, Graeme Sharp and Norman Whiteside, often with painful results. Packed with incident and anecdotes, usually funny - but occasionally sad - this is the story of Jimmy Case, a true football legend.