3 April 1996: Stan Collymore scores in 4-3 classic at Anfield
We had just beaten Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final at Old Trafford, but we knew we had this big league match coming up on Wednesday. We were third and Newcastle were second and we were going to try to keep things tight and try to nick a win. We always fancied ourselves to score at home, but we'd have been happy with a 1-0 with a goal going in off someone's shin. Game-plans went out the window pretty early on, though. We should have known there would be goals. There were so many attacking options, with at least six attacking players in really good form: we had Steve McManaman, John Barnes and Robbie Fowler, and they had Les Ferdinand, Faustino Asprilla and David Ginola. I don't even remember who was playing in defence.
Robbie and I had a good partnership that season. We scored 50-odd goals together. I scored 19 and was involved in eight or 10 of Robbie's. I'd come in from Forest, where I was used to being in the box on my own, but at Liverpool Robbie was the predator. When I was a lad at Palace I used to get out wide and it was natural for me to put in crosses, from the right or the left. That's what happened for the first goal - Jamie Redknapp played it out left, Rob Jones helped it on and I just put the ball into the box and I knew someone would be there.
They came back at us but we always wanted to win games and win well. We'd got used to teams coming to Anfield and defending, but these were two teams that were going to have a go at each other. For my first goal, it was good attacking play all round. Jason McAteer is much like David Beckham in a way, he didn't need to beat the man but would put in crosses from deep. I just gambled and I was in the right place when the cross came in.
Ian Rush came on and went up front and I went out left. We'd done it a couple of times that season. For the winner, Barnes and Rush went forward and then Barnes played the ball across to me. All I can remember thinking was "Hit the target". I wanted to hit it across Pavel Srnicek, which is what you're supposed to do. But I hit it so hard that it beat him at his near post. I didn't know what to feel after. It was fantastic. I ran over to the Kop and was thinking: "What have I done?"
Kevin Keegan slumped on the hoardings after the goal, but he came into our dressing room afterwards to say well done. Both teams knew they had been involved in a classic. You strive to play well and to play in games people remember. It's a testament to those two teams that people still remember that match you probably wouldn't get that kind of game between two of the top three any more.
Then what happened
Liverpool lost their next match to Coventry and finished fourth in the league. Collymore retired from football in 2001 and now works as a commentator and presenter on talkSPORT