20
Sept 02Last episode
Liverpool Red Diary - part 5
Joel Rookwood
I woke on Thursday morning to the sound of my Evertonian housemate singing the name of Clinton Morrison in the shower. At that point I realised two things - that the previous night's painful draw against lowly Birmingham City at Anfield, instigated by Morrison, wasn't some terrible nightmare, and that my lodger would have to look for alternative accommodation. Irish international striker Morrison was humiliated at Anfield playing for Crystal Palace eighteen months ago, but got his revenge last Wednesday scoring two goals, the latter coming in the last minute of the game to salvage a point for the Midlanders. Meanwhile Everton were beaten, as were the once mighty Manchester United at Old Trafford, but I just didn't care. They're both merely local rivals these days, and pose no realistic threat to our title challenge.
The only game that mattered was the one we were involved in, and Morrison's superb equaliser left me sick. I stood transfixed, unable to move from my seat or take my eyes off the unsurprisingly elated Birmingham fans, as they celebrated wildly following their 'victorious' cup final. A goal from Murphy and Gerrard either side of half time gave us a commanding lead but we didn't defend it. Losing the vastly underrated Henchoz was a devastating blow, and bringing on Salif Diou at right back in a defensive reshuffle probably wasn't wise. But I refuse to complain. We're still unbeaten despite the fact we haven't really got going yet this season, and this result doesn't mean there's any need to panic.
OK, so for the third game running we've been leading the match 2-1 with five minutes to go and not taken all three points, but we finished this game a mere two points behind leaders Arsenal. And the idiots that are conceding the title to the Gunners at this stage should be reminded that the title is never won by mid-September. "No success is achieved without adversity," reflected Gerrard Houllier after the game. So as I said last week, there is no anger, just frustration. We will recover. We've had the adversity, and now it's time for a bit of success.
In typical style the media claimed we didn't win because we failed to capitalise on the lead. The simple fact is if you secure a lead and are good enough to defend it, you do just that, not go all out in search of another goal leaving the defence vulnerable. And we are good enough to defend an advantage. Last year people envious of our ability to hold a lead branded us boring. We just need a couple of predictable boring 1-0 wins now to get us back on track, and instil a bit of confidence back.
Saturday meant a trip to Bolton to face Wanderers, and we left in the early hours, heading for Bolton via Wigan. Travelling to away games by train is never uneventful, and this proved to be no exception. We drank and sang most of the way there, and once we arrived we stopped at each pub we passed en route to Bolton town centre. We were soon faced with a busy pedestrianised street, where we couldn't resist getting the flag out, and singing Liverpool songs for the slightly bemused passers-by. Neither the subject matter, nor our behaviour would have caused any offence, but we were soon moved on any way. The policemen responsible however, admitted to being more concerned about rival fans planning an attack on us than anything we were doing, so we complied, took the flag down from the trees from which it had been hanging, and made our way to the nearest pub.
We moved onto a bar, where in the middle of a crowd of Man United fans, we witnessed Leeds' victory over the Mancunians before setting off to the ground. On the short but packed train ride to Boltonās Reebok stadium, Bolton fans sang 'No surrender to the IRA' to which Liverpool fans responded with more humorous and original songs, the subject of which we could actually relate to and understand. (Pardon my ignorance, but I thought that was the point of football songs). We sang of victories won on the fields of Anfield Road in the immense heat of that Bolton train ride, and continued despite the odd pathetic threat as we entered the stadium and throughout the game.
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As our thoughts were directed towards the game, I again craved a one-nil victory. Again I was to be disappointed. Out of form Owen and Diouf were rested, possibly with Tuesday night's game in Valencia in mind, as Liverpool packed the midfield and gave loan forward Milan Baros a chance to impress. The Czech striker opened his account before half time, a lead cancelled out after the break by a Richard Gardner effort. The brilliant Baros then restored the lead with twenty minutes remaining. Surely being two-one up for the fourth consecutive match, this time we wouldn't squander the lead? Surely they couldn't find an equaliser? But they did. On loan Real Madrid defender Ivan Campo levelled the scoring with three minutes to go. The unbelievable had happened. But we didn't have time to complain - we barely had time to even be stunned by the Spaniard's goal, as within a minute, Emile Heskey had scored his first of the season to ensure that at last the three points were ours.
There was no one-nil victory, nor anything predictable about this game, but we had won, and hopefully this result will have given us a much needed confidence boost before the midweek encounter with Spanish champions Valencia. Houllier admitted in a press conference before flying out to Spain that he's "on fire inside" on European nights. I know a few thousand Scousers, myself included, who will be travelling to Spain this Tuesday who think exactly the same way, Gerard.