NEIL writes the match reports. Neil or Gareth or Gibbo. But Gibbo’s living the life fantastic in Utah and Neil and Gareth are on a stag do, so they asked for volunteers and here we are.
Not long after I said I’d do it a mate of mine offered me his tickets. Great seats, just a few rows back and slightly to the right of the halfway line in the Centenary. Close enough to see the bend of the pitch. Felt like I could jump on and play if needed. Then I remembered when I won a competition to play at Anfield and my lungs fell out my arse before I reached the halfway line. Decided to stay in my seat.
Pre-match news of Chelsea, City and Southampton all getting knocked out made me glad Brendan had picked a reasonably strong team and hope the lads would be geed up to thump the opposition.
For me the match itself was a series of vignettes: GlenJo waving to whoever was in his executive box. A fella in front of me taking so many photos of Brendan with a zoom lens he could have been a stalker. Jordan Henderson screaming at the assistant ref when he didn’t give us a free kick. Me wondering if I was going to spend the rest of my football-supporting life wondering how referees can be so shite. Mignolet coming out and chesting the ball like a boss, before dithering and nearly giving it away a mile from his goal. Being mildly convinced their ‘keeper was Prince Harry. The fella behind me shouting “left” to Sakho every time Markovic was free, before resorting to shouting it in French when he didn’t make the pass. Bolton fans singing the oft repeated and oh so hilarious refrain of “Where’s your famous atmosphere?”, as if the Macron Stadium is a constant hot bed of electricity.
It was evident from the start that Bolton had rocked up looking for a draw. They had no intention of playing football and Neil Lennon had instructed them to drag our attacking players to the ground if necessary. They were also happy enough to waste as much time as Kevin Friend would let them, which turned out to be a lot. Their defender spent five minutes trying to figure out how to take a throw. Friend blew the whistle and had a chat with him that may as well have been “you can waste time, mate, but don’t make it so obvious”.
More vignettes showed we played like you might have expected us to. Allen, Johnson and Lallana all recently back from injury and all looking rusty at times. Coutinho still absolutely magic, but struggling to get anything to come off. Sterling still not firing on all cylinders. Mignolet looking assured at times, but mental at others. My girlfriend said he reminds her of the kid who is always picked last at school and who you panic over every time the ball goes near him. Sakho. Imperious, wonderful Sakho. How some people still don’t rate him is beyond me. He won everything today. He got his head around that much stuff he might have been able to figure out world hunger if someone had asked him. He’s bloody marvellous. The more gangly and out of control he looks the more I bloody love him.
Liverpool controlled the game in two thirds of the pitch, but just didn’t have that special something in the final third to break down a resolute defence. Frustrating, irritating, but not all that surprising. When Sturridge comes back etc.
As frustrating as it was, we still should have won. They should have been down to 10 early in the second half and Spearing made the most penalty worthy tackle on Hendo you’re likely to see towards the end, but Friend bottled both. Neil hates talking about referees, and I understand why. But they do my f****** nut in. I’m an actor. If I’m paid to do a role and I turn up, don’t know my lines or just make shit up as I’m going along there’ll be consequences. If referees do the same thing, as Friend did today, what happens? Piss all. I often sympathise with them and I know it’s a difficult job, but it IS their job.
Liverpool could lose the replay at Bolton and end up out of the Cup because Kevin Friend bottled it. Twice.
Liverpool should have won, but the important thing is that they didn’t lose. With so many of the big guns biting the dust, a Wembley final is far from out of our grasp. Steven Gerrard could yet lift the FA Cup on his birthday. And what a last vignette that would turn out to be.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe/Propaganda
Nice to hear Bolton fans singing the world famous ”Gerrard fell over, did you know?” song, a man they were probably supporting in the summer. Also, 7 shots, 0 on target, says a lot doesn’t it.
Bolton is a Manchester suburb nowadays.
So what? Capt Marvel cocked up, it is classed as costing the season by many clubs’ fans, even though the poor results before the amazing run were the obvious factor. It’s a simple song and winds up the locals. I.e. it’s a successful song. If you think the opposition don’t get the same when there’s an opportune moment, you are utterly deluded.
I doubt they gave a shit about Gerrard in the white shirt, fucking up again was just an added bonus. Most club fans couldn’t give a wank about the national side, even if you do.
Colon, apostrophe, open bracket
I hope that bit about the guy eventually shouting ‘left’, to Sakho, in French is true. That’s brilliant!
Gutted about the replay. That means we’ve got midweek games now every week till March and possibly longer depending on Europa. I left today disappointed but not too bothered. I think we’ll win there. The upside is when we’re all at work a week on Wednesday we’ll have a match to look forward to that evening.
You didn’t consider for one moment that he was merely suggesting that Sakho was ‘lacking in social graces’?
Mange Tout Rodney, Mange Tout
Très bon, Kevin, très bon.
Sakho bleu!
Mersey beaucoup.
I’d agree with pretty much all of the above. Sakho was imperious this evening. We were very good almost everywhere apart from the final third where we overcomplicated stuff inside the box – sometimes you have to get a shot off from the edge of the box, particularly when they’ve got 8 bodies inside it.
a super series of vignettes…. Great report….
My chief concern is the manager telling BT Sport that we were ‘outstanding’…. When is the muppet going to realise that it’s a results business… We were nowhere near outstanding from my seat in the LC… We were toothless and he attempts to justify it with a post match interview that made my skin crawl…. We will never win anything under this clown, he has never won anything and never will.. Sorry Steven but you won’t get the bday present you deserve…. But if he really thought that much of you, he wouldn’t have let you go…. He is a fake!!!!
I support LFC with all my heart, but we are in the wrong hands
Gerrard 2015 going will improve the club. If you can’t handle that, go and support Gerrard FC Inc. in the US in the summer.
Were you the one shouting at Sakho in French?
Fuckin hell Sakho, do I need to spell it out in your own language for ya?
Jesus Christ mate, just get it out to the left. You’re only a fuckin defender for Liverpool. If you were any good you’d be sitting in the Lower Centenary.
Haha. Score .. Robin Grimes!! Does anyone else think we might discover the ability to cross a ball properly or make a pass through the back line when we are pressing in and around the 18 yard line? Our wing backs are in good positions plenty of times but never see a ball. All our last third play is up the middle!!
Sterling wants £100+ a week apparently. Not bad, but I’d want an improvement in finishing as a quid pro quo. He does score some decent goals, but his finishing is not in the £100+ category, far from it.
I meant £100,000 a week of course – so many noughts.
Thought Sterling looked a bit greedy on the ball all game. Didnt pass when he should of in the final 3rd and didn’t get a decent shot away quick enough.
I get he’s not in a rush to get this contract wrapped up, but if he’s expecting £100k a week, then he better start learning how to finish consistently.
Baffled by this sentence, “Mignolet looking assured at times, but mental at others.” I know he’s had his problems this season, but can’t think of a single thing he did wrong or that left me questioning him against Bolton. Indeed, he had to leave his line very quickly a few times mainly to retrieve underhit passes from Sakho (who was again brilliant) and Johnson and did well at it. If anything, he’s seen a mini return to form of late and other than that one flap against Villa very little can be claimed as “mental” over the last 4-5 matches.
1 defeat in 16 but only a 50% win ratio for that period- and that includes 9 games against Ludogorets, Wimbledon, Bournemouth, Leicester(x2), Burnley, Bolton and Sunderland(x2).
Perhaps 180 minutes of really impressive football amongst it all, while challengers for top 4 – Arsenal, Spurs and Saints – have all managed to turn in one or more hugely impressive result since January alone.
There is, certainly, a valid argument that rumors of our recovery have been greatly exaggerated while we still sit in 8th.
Yeah, we’re shit mate!
Forget that we turned defeats into draws then draws into wins and found a system that suits us. Forget that we’ve started playing good football. Forget that we’ve started keeping clean sheets every game. We can’t even beat Bolton. Its all exaggerated. Best thing would be if we all slit our wrists.
Great to.see someone talking sense.. the manager is a shocker. End of!!!!!
0-0 at home to Bolton. Rodgers noted ‘we were outstanding’
– at home to a 2nd tier side
-a relegation haunted 2nd tier side
– 2 pensioners in attack
– Steven Gerrard in the stands
it’s fucking embarrassing… We will never win anything with this fucking clown in charge. Chelsea will beat us 3-0 tmrw. I sat in the ground with my head in my hands.. the guy is a fake… when are we going to all see it..