Worcester City hero Harry Knowles has said he is still amazed how many people remember him for his exploits, 50 years after the club's greatest day.

Knowles played, but did not score, in the 2-1 FA Cup win over Liverpool on 15 January 1959.

Now living in Cornwall, Knowles told BBC Hereford and Worcester: "The amount of people I have had getting in touch with me about this game is amazing.

"We used to get massive crowds in those days, not just for the FA Cup games."

Worcester City were then a Southern League team but had already caused a huge upset in the cup that year after crushing Fourth Division Millwall 5-2 at St George's Lane in the second round.

Liverpool were then in the old Second Division. And Knowles says the crowds in those days were amazing.

Seven or eight thousand would turn up for league games with Hereford Worcester City hero Harry Knowles

"Seven or eight thousand would turn up for league games with Hereford.

"I have a paper cutting in front of me and we had 6,500 for a match against Brierley Hill Alliance."

Knowles is still a legend at the Lane. There is even a plaque at the Canal End where he ran into the wall head-first and carried on playing.

Knowles left the Lane to join Cardiff City but such was his popularity he returned, thanks to the fans.

"The supporters club got together and paid for me to come back," says Knowles who also played for local rivals Kidderminster Harriers.

Roy Paul was the Worcester captain three years after winning the Cup

Fans and old players have spent the week reminiscing. And one of those who saw the Liverpool tie was Eric Austin, although he did not originally have a ticket for the tie.

"I queued up on the day of the game, as it was put back to a Thursday, and a lot of Liverpool fans had returned the tickets."

Another fan Tim O'Grady, later to be the club's photographer, recalled thumbing a lift to the game from Kidderminster.

"I was working on the railway at the time," he said. "And we managed to get a lift with a lorry driver who came from Liverpool.

"He parked in the city centre and then came to the game with us."

Liverpool were not impressed with the pitch - still frozen and covered with a mixture of sand and salt. It certainly was not Anfield and the Reds were not happy.

City sensationally opened the scoring through Tommy Skuse, and Worcester looked to have put the match beyond doubt in the 81st minute when they went 2-0 up through a bizarre own goal.

A ball from Knowles bounced between Liverpool centre-half Dick White and goalkeeper George Younger but, in trying to clear, White only succeeded in delicately lobbing the ball over his keeper and into the net.

The crowd erupted but, just a minute later, Liverpool were awarded a controversial penalty after a melee in the City box following another Kirkwood save.

Geoff Twentyman slotted home the spot-kick. But it was too little too late and thousands of Worcester fans invaded the pitch to carry the City players shoulder high to the dressing rooms.

Bill Shankly took over as Liverpool manager later that year

Austin, who still goes to games at Worcester, says as a lad he always knew when Worcester had scored, even through he had not gone to the game.

"I lived at Rainbow Hill and there were always three or four thousand crowds for home games, and if the City scored we could hear the roar at home."

Worcester eventually succumbed 2-0 to Sheffield United, also of the Second Division, in the fourth round at St George's Lane nine days later.

This time, 17,000 was recorded as the attendance, a figure well shy of the real crowd according to many who were there and reckoned it could have been over 20,000.

One interesting footnote of great importance in the annals of English football remains from Worcester's FA Cup exploits 50 years ago.

At the end of that 1959 season, Liverpool manager Phil Taylor resigned through ill health, the Reds appointed an abrasive and idiosyncratic Scot named Bill Shankly . . . and the rest, as they say, is history!

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