David Johnson

Athletic England striker who with Liverpool won four League titles and three European Cups

DAVID JOHNSON, who has died aged 71, played as a forward in the great Liverpool side of the late 1970s and early 1980s, helping them win – among many other trophies – four league titles and the European Cup three times.

An important if sometimes underappreciated member of the team, at what was perhaps its peak, Johnson was an athletic, hard-working striker who moved with intelligence and finished chances well. The commentator John Motson memorably saluted Johnson’s crisply hit goal against Aston Villa in May 1980 with the words: “And that’s the championship!”

A Scouser by birth, and a Liverpool fan by upbringing, Johnson also had two spells at Everton. Indeed, he was the first player to score for both Merseyside clubs in a derby. Nevertheless, although then on Everton’s books, he was in the crowd of Liverpool fans outside the Town Hall who in 1971 heard Bill Shankly beseech them to make Anfield a bastion of invincibility, a moment often regarded as marking the start of their domestic dominance.

Accordingly, when Johnson heard in 1976 that Liverpool wanted to buy him, he freely admitted to his manager at the time, Bobby Robson of Ipswich, that he was getting the next train North (with his match boots) with “no intention whatsoever of returning”.

Although acquired for a club record fee of £200,000, Johnson did not secure his place in red at once. Bob Paisley had intended that in time he should replace John Toshack as Kevin Keegan’s partner. Yet even when the former faded and the latter left, Johnson found himself competing with David Fairclough to join newcomer Kenny Dalglish upfront.

Liverpool won the league in 1977, but lost out on the treble after defeat in the FA Cup Final by Manchester United. Paisley omitted Ian Callaghan for Johnson in that game, but a week later it was Johnson who had to watch from the bench as the club won its first European Cup.

The following season, he scored a vital away goal in the semi-final of the competition. Soon after, he claimed the winner against Everton, but a serious knee injury meant that he again missed the Reds’ enthronement as champions of Europe. At the players’ insistence, he was given a medal, for Johnson’s cheerfulness made him popular in the dressing room. His habit of carrying an infinite supply of cough drops and the like in his kit bag brought him the nickname “Doc”.

It was not until the next year that he truly came into his own on the pitch. As he and Dalglish fashioned numerous opportunities for each other, Johnson went on to score 58 times in three seasons. Liverpool claimed back-toback championships in 1979 and 1980, while in Europe Johnson was the first to hoist Alan Kennedy aloft in Paris in 1981 as the full-back’s run-and-goal saw off Real Madrid.

A further English title came in 1982, as well as the League Cup, but by then Paisley was beginning to rebuild the team and Ian Rush would usurp Johnson’s place. He had scored 78 goals in 213 appearances.

He won eight caps for England between 1975 and 1980, scoring six goals, notably a brace against world champions Argentina at Wembley in 1980.

David Edward Johnson was born in Liverpool on November 23 1951. His family lived in Halewood and by the age of nine David was a regular in the Kop at Anfield, having followed his brothers’ lead in supporting Liverpool. One of them christened his son Ian St John, after the darling of Anfield in the 1960s.

They were dismayed when, having attracted attention as Liverpool Schoolboys won the national trophy, David signed for Everton. He later said their scout had sold the club’s youth policy to him better than had Liverpool. He made his debut in blue in 1971 at Burnley. Johnson scored in that match and would also score on his first outings in the FA Cup and in Europe.

No doubt to his family’s chagrin, he scored again for Everton in the derby against Liverpool. Everton were then the reigning champions but they stuttered badly that season. Defeats in the same week in Europe and in the FA Cup spelled the start of the break-up of manager Harry Catterick’s accomplished side. Shankly offered to buy Johnson but was rebuffed by Everton. Although Johnson had scored 11 goals in short order, he was traded in 1972 to Ipswich in exchange for the more experienced Rod Belfitt.

Although downhearted by this turn of events, he soon realised it was to his advantage to be playing in a side that would accommodate his strengths.

Forging a fine partnership with Trevor Whymark, he helped Bobby Robson’s team to lodge itself over the next four years in the upper reaches of the First Division, with Johnson scoring 35 goals in 136 league matches.

In 1973, Ipswich won the Texaco Cup, a contest for British and Irish clubs which had not qualified for Europe. The Tractor Boys did qualify, however, for the next season, and in the quarter-final of the Uefa Cup faced Lazio. They won the first leg, but a waist-high tackle left Johnson needing stitches to his scrotum; he missed three matches. Coming on as a substitute in the second leg, he had the satisfaction of scoring the goal which definitively settled the tie in Ipswich’s favour.

His second spell at Goodison Park lasted for two seasons after Johnson crossed Stanley Park in 1982 to lend his know-how to Howard Kendall’s young side. After 40 league appearances, scoring four goals, he had spells at Barnsley, Manchester City and with the Tulsa Roughnecks.

Johnson wrapped up his career with a year at Preston North End, and as player-manager of Barrow, 1985-86. His last engagement was with Naxxar Lions of Malta.

He worked in finance and for local media covering Liverpool matches, but latterly had been suffering from throat cancer. He is survived by four children.

David Johnson, born October 23 1951, died November 23 2022