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Jimmy Case
Personal information
Full name	James Robert Case
Date of birth	May 18, 1954 (age 52)
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.76 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth clubs
	South Liverpool
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1973-1981 1981-1985 1985-1991 1991-1992 1992-1993 1993 1993 1993 1993 1993-1996	Liverpool Brighton Southampton Bournemouth Halifax Town Wrexham Wanneroo British Darlington Sittingbourne Brighton	186 (23) 127 (10) 215 (10) 40 (1) 21 (2) 4 (0) ?? (??) 1 (0) 32 (0)
National team
1974	England Under-21	1 (0)
Teams managed
1995-1996	Brighton
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

James Robert Case (born Liverpool, 18 May 1954) was a football player who shot to fame with the all-conquering Liverpool side of the 1970s and became known as a player with one of the hardest shots in the game.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Playing career 2.1 Liverpool 2.2 Brighton 2.3 Southampton 2.4 Bournemouth, Halifax Town, Wrexham & Brighton again 3 After retirement as a player 4 Honours 5 References 6 External links

Case was brought up in Allerton, not far from where Paul McCartney (of Beatles fame lived). The council estate where Jimmy was brought up was quite benign. He was a keen member of the local scouts. As a young teenager he was quite small.

His credentials, however, were established locally when during a football game between the Garston Church Choir and the Allerton Scouts he gave the goalkseper of the choir a hefty kick when the score was 23-22, with coats as goalposts. Jimmy established his reputation as a winner, if not a bad loser.

Even though Jimmy's team lost, his legend was born. There were subsequent games on Springwood Park where Jimmy played with such aces as John Gidman (Everton) and Billy Ashcroft (Middlesbrough).

Although small in stature,, Jimmy graduated through the schools teams and then joined a tough dockers' side, Blue Union. The physical nature of these early games would have an impact on the rest of his football career.

Upon leaving school, Case served an apprenticeship as an electrician and continued with this even after signing for Liverpool and playing in their reserves.

Those who knew Jimmy as a teenager were amazed at his physical transformation. He always had determination, but by the time he left south Liverpool he had a physical stature and height that belied his earlier years.

Fame left Jimmy cold.He scored one of the best goals ever in an FA Cup final. He always fought the demons of his Garston/Allerton past. Being a scouser, his ability to remain an athlete versus the desire of everyone wanting to buy him a "pint", was difficult for this agreeable and polite young man to manage.

Eventually he made his way to the south coast where he played without the burden of his Liverpool roots.

There he showed his real class on a weekly basis, without the burden of having to please the Kop.

Case arrived at Anfield from local non-league club South Liverpool in May 1973 and was given his debut on 26 April 1975 in a league fixture at Anfield against Queens Park Rangers; goals from John Toshack, 2, and Kevin Keegan made it a winning start for Case as the Reds won 3-1. By 1976 he was a first choice midfielder who was a prolific goalscorer for someone in his position; his first goal for the club came in the 68th minute of the 3-2 league win over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on 23 August 1975. At the end of his first full season, he helped Liverpool to victory in the League championship and the UEFA Cup, scoring in the first leg of the final of the latter against FC Bruges.

Case maintained his place the following year as Liverpool chased a unique treble of League, FA and European Cups. They won the League again, but lost in the FA Cup Final to Manchester United 2-1. Case was the scorer of Liverpool's goal shortly after their opponents had taken the lead; it was a typical Case goal in that it was a vicious, unstoppable shot from outside the penalty area following a neat turn on the ball. He was in the team again a few days later when Liverpool won their first European Cup after beating Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 in Rome.

Case won the League and the European Cup twice more with Liverpool and also added a League Cup winners' medal in 1981, but in that season he found himself out of favour. Manager Bob Paisley transferred him to Brighton & Hove Albion in the summer of 1981.

Jimmy is still highly thought of amongst the Anfield faithful, he was voted in at No.45 in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop taken by the Official Liverpool Football Club web-site in which over 110,000 fans worldwide voted for their 10 favourite players.

Case joined Brighton in August 1981 as a £450,000 makeweight when Mark Lawrenson went the other way and he played a large part in the success achieved at the Goldstone Ground in the early 1980s.

With Brighton, Case reached the FA Cup final again in 1983 and again faced Manchester United. The game ended 2-2 with Brighton passing up a great opportunity to win the cup when Gordon Smith hit a shot directly at United keeper Gary Bailey when it seemed easier to score, Brighton's chance had gone, they were comprehensively beaten 4-0 in the replay. They had already been relegated that season.

In March 1985 Case moved to Southampton for £30,000 as Lawrie McMenemy's last signing for The Saints, to replace Steve Williams who had been transferred to Arsenal in December 1984. He soon won over any doubters amongst The Dell fans with some robust tackling and was appointed club captain by new manager Chris Nicholl in the following season.

In his first full season, Saints reached the semi-final of the FA Cup (after beating Case's former club Brighton 2-0 in the quarter-final) losing to Liverpool in an epic game at White Hart Lane on 5 April 1986, which Liverpool won 2-0 after extra time with both goals coming from Ian Rush. Victory would have made Case the first player to appear in three FA Cup finals with different clubs.

Over his 6 years at The Dell Jimmy lost none of his bite in the tackle and he made up for any loss of pace by a broadening vision and excellent passing skills.

He was Saints player of the year for 1989-90 and in December 1990 was selected to represent the Football League against the Irish League. In this season Saints finished 7th in the First Division and Saints were playing at close to their best. One particularly memorable match was on 21 October 1989, when Saints defeated Liverpool 4-1, with goals from Paul Rideout, Rodney Wallace (2) and Matthew Le Tissier in which Case controlled the midfield as The Saints humiliated Case's former club.

Jimmy played in midfield alongside Glenn Cockerill and Barry Horne and helped to bring on the careers of youngsters such as Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, Rodney Wallace and Jason Dodd. Unfortunately, when Ian Branfoot took over as manager in June 1991 he considered that the club could dispense with Case's services and he was transferred to Bournemouth within a few days of Branfoot's appointment, a decision that did not endear Branfoot to Saints fans, especially when Case was replaced by Terry Hurlock.

He moved on to join Harry Redknapp at Bournemouth and managed to play 40 league games in the 1991-92 season.

After a season at Bournemouth, he moved to Halifax Town managed by John McGrath assisted by Frank Worthington. He played there for 6 months, moving on to Wrexham, where he helped them gain promotion from the 3rd Division at the end of the 1992-93 season.

He then turned out for non-league side Sittingbourne until returning to Brighton in December 1993, firstly as a player/coach before taking over from Liam Brady as manager in November 1995.

He temporarily managed Brighton, overseeing their relegation to Division Three in 1996, before being fired in December 1996.

Case later managed non-league Bashley.

He has been a regular on the veteran players' circuit since giving up playing and currently works for Southampton's in-house radio station "The Saint".

Liverpool

• Division 1 (Level 1): 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980
• UEFA Cup: 1976
• Charity Shield: 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980
• European Cup: 1977, 1978, 1981
• European Super Cup: 1977
• Football League Cup: 1981

Runner-up

• FA Cup: 1977
• European Super Cup: 1978

Brighton

Runners-up

• FA Cup 1983

• Jeremy Wilson (2006). Southampton’s Cult Heroes. Know The Score Books. ISBN 1-905449-01-1. 

• LFChistory.net profile
• Official Liverpool FC profile
• 100 Players Who Shook The Kop - Jimmy Case
• Football heroes Jimmy Case, Liverpool part 1 at Sporting-heroes.net
• Football heroes Jimmy Case, Liverpool part 2 at Sporting-heroes.net
• Football heroes Jimmy Case, Brighton at Sporting-heroes.net
• Football heroes Jimmy Case, Southampton at Sporting-heroes.net
• Jimmy Case career stats at Soccerbase
• Jimmy Case management career stats at Soccerbase