Football News
Liverpool Red Diary - part 16
by Joel Rookwood
Vitesse, Sunderland & Villa
Thursday night saw the return leg of the UEFA Cup tie with Vitesse Arnhem, which proved something of a low-key affair to say the least. Despite Liverpool only having secured a slender one-goal lead from the first leg, no one, not even the army of Dutchmen who had travelled over for the occasion, believed the match to be anything other than a formality.
This Liverpool victory however, owed more to the abysmal Arnhem outfit’s inability to string two passes together than any aspect of the home side’s performance. Vitesse are currently languishing in the nether regions of one of Europe’s worst leagues, with Liverpool going into the match on a run of four defeats from five Premiership games. So those Liverpool fans good enough to make an appearance at Anfield clearly weren’t expecting a vintage performance. Which is just as well, because the footballing display certainly did not rank among the more famous nights of European football at Anfield.
Vitesse were cheeky enough to have a couple of efforts on goal in the opening period, but Bob Peeters couldn’t convert promising balls firstly from Amoah and then Cornelisse. Shortly after this woeful attacking display, Michael Owen stepped up to fire Liverpool a goal ahead, effectively killing off the tie inside twenty-one minutes. Murphy, whose contributions was one of the only ones worthy of note in a dire night of football, laid on the chance for the Liverpool number ten to bag his fifteenth of the season, with Owen scoring at the second attempt after seeing his first effort rebound off the ‘keeper.
The Vitesse fans were in good spirits during the day, and could be heard singing ‘Everton, Everton, Everton’ in pubs in town before the game. However their mood changed somewhat during the match, as they are clearly used to being frustrated by their own team, as they collectively shuck their fists at their own players, bemoaning the lack of effort from the away side in attempting to overcome the two-goal deficit. But neither side showed any ambition to add to the score-line in the second period, with Vitesse’s best chance wasted by Mbamba with twenty minutes remaining.
The Liverpool crowd seemed almost relieved to get the game over with. There was no enthusiastic cheer at the final whistle, no real appreciation of the performance. As I left the ground, various comments were flying around with one particular statement clear in the memory, as a middle-aged Kopite turned to his companion and said, ‘how long have we been coming here? And that’s got to rank as the worst.’ But whilst we didn’t wipe the floor with the dreadful Dutch side in the way that other quality teams may have done, we didn’t concede a goal in the tie and we are through to the fourth round, so I have no real complaints. But the man had a point - it wasn’t pretty.
In a bid to break away from watching Liverpool produce such feeble displays, I travelled to Crewe on Saturday afternoon, to see the Railwaymen take on Barnsley. Both teams had been relegated in the summer from the first division, though the away side showed no signs of an imminent return. Crewe Alexandra, Liverpool’s ‘feeder club’ however, were far more impressive. Foster and Rodney Jack got the goals for Crewe in a convincing two-nil win, the latter having clearly formed an effective partnership with Dean Ashton which could well see the Gresty Road outfit promoted back to the first division at the first time of asking.
It was a refreshing change from the stresses of watching Liverpool of late. The entry fee was four quid, it was ridiculously easy and free to park, and I just didn’t care who won, so I could just enjoy the game and laugh at the Crewe fans. I couldn’t rest for long however, as the following day I was back on Liverpool duty with a trip north.
It was in the North East that our bad run started, with a painful one-nil
defeat at the hands of Middlesborough. And as we passed that bleak town
on our way to another one- Sunderland, we weren’t particularly hopeful
of a result, being as we are on the back of a poor run of results.
Our coach driver was good enough to give us a whole half hour in Sunderland
before the game. Not even time for a solitary pint. It’s a good
job I’d drank for the entire journey, because I don’t think
I could have sat through this one sober.
Liverpool looked incapable of causing a poor, albeit well organised Sunderland side any problems, with two efforts, one from Baros and the other a long range Ste Gerrard shot serving as the only attempts on goal in a poor first half. The Wearsiders were similarly unpromising in front of goal, which was unsurprising given that the home side had gone more than five hundred minutes without finding the net. Yet somehow Sunderland took the lead, with former Evertonian Gavin McCann beating Gerrard to a through ball from Flo, and finishing well past the hapless Chris Kirkland. Yet again Liverpool found themselves going in at half time with the prospect of an uphill second half struggle.
Sunderland had frustrated Liverpool at Anfield in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, and went home with the goalless draw that they came for. But when Milan Baros levelled the scoring on sixty- eight minutes, the travelling Kop felt we were sure to take something from the game, and possibly go onto win it. Baros and Murphy came close to finding a second Liverpool goal, yet were denied by Macho, the Sunderland ‘keeper, who has certainly impressed this season.
Sunderland too pressed for a winner, and were gifted the perfect opportunity when Jamie Carragher was adjudged to have handled in the Liverpool area after a close range header from Philips, though Kirkland saved the resultant sport kick from Gavin McCann. However the home side were not to be denied a winner, with Proctor grabbing the goal with five minutes remaining. It was a miserable day, a miserable performance and a miserable result, and we couldn’t get home quick enough.
On Tuesday night I again sought solace in a game that had absolutely no relevance to Liverpool, and went to see Wigan’s Worthington Cup Quarter-final clash with Blackburn. A record crowd of over sixteen thousand at the JJB stadium saw this Lancashire Derby, which promised to be a fascinating encounter with the home side flying high at the summit of the second division. However, whilst Wigan put up a brave fight, the holder’s Premiership class proved too much for Paul Jewell’s men. Andy Cole, scorer of the goal that won the competition last season, got both goals, the first after a quarter of an hour following good work from Tugay, with his second coming ten minutes from time effectively killing off the tie.
It was a good game, though aside from the match, it was also an entertaining evening. Before the game, having got lost in Wigan, we stopped and asked for directions. The man we asked wanted a lift to the ground, but can’t have been ‘all there’ because when I told him I’d give him a lift but that he’d have to get in the boot, he proceeded to try to open the trunk of the car. I don’t think that Wigan and humour have ever been introduced. But we took pity on him and gave him a lift to the ground, where he disappeared, though unfortunately left his intoxicating aroma in the back seat of my car before his departure.
Then the youngest looking member of our group perfected his Wigan accent before going to purchase child tickets for us from the ticket office. We then had a pint in the dodgiest pub I’ve been in for quite some time, whose inhabitants were as surprised to see three tracksuited Scousers as we were to be there. Later on in the ground, after one of Wigan’s famous pies (which although didn’t match pan of Scouse wasn’t half bad), we sat on the front row, and abused the Blackburn substitutes for ninety minutes, occasionally looking up to glance at proceedings on the pitch.
The highlight of the evening however was undoubtedly seeing Graeme Souness getting sent from the dugout after arguing with the fourth official. We were more than happy to join in a rendition of ‘Souness is a w£*!er’ led by the Wigan faithful, which rang around the ground as the Blackburn manager disappeared down the tunnel.
Despite this altercation Blackburn were through to a semi-final tie with Manchester United, with Sheffield United facing Premiership opposition in the shape of either Aston Villa or six- time winners Liverpool, who met at Villa Park the following day.
We arrived in Birmingham too late for a drink, with me having been coaching at Liverpool until 4pm. It was a bitterly cold Wednesday evening, as we approached the Doug Ellis stand, and entered the ground, we noticed huge queues around the stadium, though thought nothing of it. We were in the ground half an hour before kick off, the earliest I’ve been to a stadium in England since my pre-drinking days, when I used to like to watch players warm up and hunt the odd autograph. Typically this early arrival had to be on a day when no ale was to be sold in the ground and the kick off was subject to a delay. We were informed over the tannoy that the game would be delayed by fifteen minutes. SIX times. So the 19:45 kick off eventually got underway at just before 21:10. I was supposed to be meeting friends out in Liverpool, 100 miles away after the game, so was not impressed by the delay, which was apparently due to problems with the distribution of tickets. Thankfully though, the match was no to disappoint us.
The first action of any note came when Traore tripped Lee Hendrie in the box, giving the home side the chance to open the scoring inside six minutes, an opportunity that Vassell took with aplomb. The lead was not to last long however, when a Danny Murphy free-kick on the edge of the Villa penalty area left Peter Enkelman stranded soon after, as the ball sailed passed the Scandinavian ‘keeper into the top corner of the net. The contest was evenly fought for the remainder of the opening period, with the 4,500 travelling fans in good voice throughout.
Nine minutes after the interval, Baros made the early second half pressure exerted by Liverpool tell. Ste Gerrard cut open the Villa back line with a through ball to Riise which he subsequently squared to the in-form Baros who converted from the edge of the penalty area to put Liverpool into a 2-1 lead. The Czech striker continued to torment the home side’s defence, and thirteen minutes later, his driving run led to a chance for Gerrard to add his name to the score sheet, which he did so emphatically.
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The Liverpool of the past two seasons would have adamantly refused to squander a two-goal margin in the last half hour of a game, but the Anfield outfit are currently suffering from a lack of self-confidence. So when Hitzsperger halved the deficit with a shot from thirty yards at the Holte end, we feared the worst. And typically the equaliser wasn’t far behind, with Dion Dublin levelling things with a volley from close range with seven minutes on the clock. Then when a long-range effort from Gerrard failed to find the target a minute later, you had the feeling it wasn’t going to be Liverpool’s night. However as extra time beckoned, a period of play which would have taken the game beyond midnight, Gerrard atoned for his miss, breaking down the right before laying the ball off to Murphy, who fired home in injury time to seal a dramatic and memorable win.
The game was shades of the breathtaking UEFA Cup final win over Alaves in 2001, and as that Gary McCallister free-kick sailed in I remember thinking how I had seen us win all three finals with last minute goals. And that memorable season began with success in the Worthington cup, a trophy that gave us the confidence to go on and win four more within a six-month period. We could certainly do with winning it again, and by beating Man United in the progress to instil a bit of self- belief in the players. But if we go out to lowly Sheffield United of the first division in the Semi-final, I’ll wish that Danny Murphy had have scored his injury time winner in the Holte end instead at Villa Park and saved us the embarrassment.
The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by Soccerphile Ltd.
