THE STANDING KOP (s)

 Football On This Day – 30th April 1994

This was the last match to be played in front of Anfield's world famous Kop stand. Built in 1905-06, it was named in memory of the many Scousers from the Liverpool Battalion, who lost their lives during the Battle of Spioenkop (a steep-sided hill, on which in Afrikaans, "spioen" means "look out" and "kop", "hill") during the Second Boer War at Ladysmith, South Africa in January 1900. Over 300 British soldiers were killed. Many of the Lancashire Fusiliers who died in the battle, were from Liverpool, prompting the Liverpool Echo sports editor Ernest Edwards to dub Anfield’s new open-air embankment ‘The Kop’ in 1906.

The first recorded reference to a sports' terrace, as "Kop", related to Woolwich Arsenal's, at the Manor Ground in 1904.

A local newsman likened the silhouette of fans standing on a newly raised bank of earth to soldiers standing atop the hill at the Battle of Spion Kop. Two years later in 1906, the Liverpool Echo, sports editor Ernest Edward noted of a new open-air embankment at Anfield: "This huge wall of earth has been termed 'Spion Kop', and no doubt this apt name will always be used in future in referring to this spot."

The vast terrace was duly replaced by an all-seater Kop in line with the Taylor Report, which followed the tragic events at Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, Sheffield in 1989.

At this final home match of the season, Roy Evans' Liverpool, welcomed back onto the Anfield pitch former players including Billy Liddell, Kenny Dalglish, Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan and Steve Heighway to mark a sad occasion….the last match in front of a standing Kop, 44,349 strong. First used in 1906 in its heyday, the Kop accommodated around 30,000 standing supporters but capacity had been reduced to around half that for the final match against Norwich City. This was an end to standing terraces in the top divisions with all-seater stadiums being the future. Norwich, managed by John Deehan, won 1-0 from a Jeremy Goss goal after 35 minutes.

The new Kop still stands and currently houses the club's museum, the Reducate centre and the official club shop.

Following the opening of the Tottenham Stadium, Anfield's Kop ceased to be the largest single-tier stand in the country. The South Stand of the new stadium has 17,500 seats and has an incline of 34 degrees, making it one of the steepest stands in the country.

Aston Villa's old Holte End, was historically the largest of all Kop ends, closely followed by the old South Bank at Molineux, both once regularly holding crowds in excess of 30,000. p.s. there are many Kops in British and some European football stadia, e.g.PSG.