by Neil Atkinson | Mar 20, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
WATCHING it back. Watching it back. Overwhelmed and overwhelming. Ninety tough, tough minutes. Even knowing the end, the twists and turns take your breath away. What a game of football. What a joy to be alive. Manchester City and Liverpool duked it out at the Etihad...
by Neil Atkinson | Mar 12, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
MARCH 12. Write it down. March 12, 2017. The last time Liverpool played poorly and won. They played so, so poorly. It is hard to put over how poorly they played. Poorly has a scale. Winning doesn’t. Football matches end and you get three points, one point or no...
by Neil Atkinson | Mar 4, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
WATCHING the clock. Counting it down. Calling the minutes out — 83, 85, 87. Then Adam Lallana picks it up, holds it, holds it, holds it. Opens his body. Finds Divock Origi. And Gini Wijnaldum steams forward. Veins in his neck bulging. Lungs bursting. Body crying...
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 28, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
THE issue isn’t losing. The issue is acquiescing to being dreadful. To not seeing any way to stop it. To being so tame. The issue isn’t even going 3-0 down. Well, it is a bit, but the issue is getting one back and never, ever, ever, ever, ever looking like...
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 11, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
A FOOTBALL match, a tale of two teams, profoundly decided by one half. This isn’t to say the second half isn’t important. This isn’t to undo those efforts. Those necessary efforts. This isn’t to act like all that running round was irrelevant....
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 4, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
WHAT wouldn’t you burn down now? Imagine being on Liverpool’s coach coming back down the M62. A set of players looking at each other. A coaching staff looking at players. Loads of eyes on the back of the manager’s head. Imagine it. I genuinely hope...
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 1, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
There are no excuses and no hiding places. Everybody sees every game. Everybody knows where the bodies are buried. If this season doesn’t result in the league title then the body wasn’t buried tonight. It was buried against Swansea or Bournemouth. The dirt...
by David Segar | Jan 28, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
FUNK; noun A strong musty smell of sweat or tobacco. A style of popular dance music of US black origin, ironically often requested to be played by white boys. What Liverpool Football Club have been well and truly stuck in since the start of 2017. Yes, the week that...
by Neil Atkinson | Jan 26, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
THE cusp. The abyss. The tightrope. All modern Liverpool seasons end up there at some stage. It’s what they do when they reach it that counts. Almost every football season when you watch Liverpool is death or glory. Sometimes that’s the case because good...
by Neil Atkinson | Jan 21, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
I’M 36 today. Liverpool last won the league when I was nine. It’s hard to escape the crippling feeling that, at best, it next happens when I am 37. At best. Without sounding overly dramatic it is difficult to put into words how that second half felt. When...
