The day we got football back on the agenda

24^th October 2010 – we should remember that day. The first home game of a new era at LFC. After a hellish 3 year downward spiral under the ownership of Hicks and Gillett the most recent weeks and months have seen drama unfold in the courtroom of which many a word and opinion has been cast but now, finally, can we see the golden sky at the end of the storm?

It has been a torrid start to the season and the negativity surrounding the off-field affairs was widely felt, nowhere more so, in my opinion – others will disagree, than in the dressing room. For all the “we just concentrate on playing football” comments from the players it is clear that from all the negative publicity in the press, the vociferous protestations within and around the ground by angry fans and the public litigation, it must have been playing on their minds. After all, if you go in to work and hear talk of a takeover, the Exec board falling out and uncertainty over whether or not the company is going to continue after a certain date, I bet it would play on your mind wouldn’t it?

Anyway, I for one am just glad that we can now get back to what we know we are good at – playing football. Recent results have been less than satisfactory – some may argue unforgiveable, some may argue we had a few perfectly losable games. Look at these fixtures for example; Man City (A), Man Utd (A), Everton (A) – in any season we might come unstuck against these teams especially away from home so there may be justification. Let’s see what we can do when we get them back to our place.

Then there was the game away at Birmingham who hadn’t been beaten at home for almost a year, so a draw seemed a reasonable result, if a little disappointing. Sunderland at home should have been a win but as a result of a poor run and a lack of confidence, a point perhaps didn’t seem quite so bad. Our only win of the season had been at home to West Brom, at least we got that one right! What we didn’t get right, however, was the Blackpool result. Ugh! I don’t want to think about that again. Just a miserable day.

But now, the new era, are LFC back? Judging by the performance against Blackburn I’d say we’re certainly well on the right track again. The performance of the team certainly showed signs of improvement, everyone worked hard, everyone showed some desire. Wave after wave of attack, some skilful interplay and neat passing, solid defending and (rather more notably I felt) the effort and work rate, particularly if the ball was lost, battling back to regain possession.

Perhaps geed on by the rousing rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ led by Gerry Marsden, there was certainly more of a buzz around the Ground than experienced so far this season. Electrifying at times it clearly emanated onto the pitch and the players reacted to it with an inspired first half performance which lacked only the vital goal – but certainly a marked improvement. In turn the crowd got behind the team and spurred them on early in the 2^nd half to get that vital goal. Thanks to Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who again was immense in the back row, leapt to head the opener on 48 from a Steven Gerrard corner. Completely against the run of play, Blackburn squeezed in an equaliser 2 minutes after. Jamie Carragher deflected into his own net a shot by Diouf, who incidentally was booed for the entire game whenever he got the ball – proper panto!

What we had lacked in recent games was the ability to come back from conceding a goal but, with the crowd cheering them on, the lads continued to press forward playing nice passing football at great tempo and another lively spell meant that within 3 minutes of the Blackburn equaliser Joe Cole placed a perfect cross in to Fernando Torres who could not miss and sent the Kop into rapturous applause. What a time for Torres to get back on the score sheet and silence the travelling fans. The stadium was once again bouncing to the tune of Liverpool’s Number 9 and after a couple of unchallenged crosses into our box and a possible penalty shout for Kyrgiakos in front of the Kop we managed to see out the game and pick up a vital 3 points.

Ok so the win does not move us out of the bottom 3 but it keeps us in touch with several teams above us including Bolton in 8^th place who we go to next Sunday.

A long way to go but we know we can turn things around if we play like we did yesterday. The end of the storm? Not quite there yet but there are signs of improvement and regaining the confidence. I reckon we can get there with a good run of decent results up to Christmas and hopefully next year we’ll be able to forget all about relegation and concentrate on consolidating our place in the top half of the table and from there, who knows where we could finish up.

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

YNWA

Dear Mr Hicks

Get out of our club!




Fantastic effort by Mike Jefferies and all involved in the making of this short film. I just hope the message gets to Tom Hicks and George Gillett and soon.

Probably best not to ask...

Someone asked me how my journey home was after that game on Sunday and rather than just give a one word answer I went off on one >>>>

My journey home was looooooong but it meant I had time alone to reflect on just how sh!t things have become at the club.

I joined the march against the Yanks before the game and remained in my seat after the game to continue the anti H&G protest. This, unfortunately, as it is becoming clearer, is the pinnacle of the problem. There is something deep rooted in the club that is tearing us apart from the inside.

H&G OUT is the start, do not refinance them is the message, we are a matter of days away from realising our fate. We could be on the verge of administration boys, we could be looking at a 9 point deduction and on current form we are not going to recoup these points through winning games because we simply are not good enough anywhere on the pitch.

Whilst my view FROM the Kop was brilliant, the view OF the game was not. Johnson and Poulsen should not be in the side. Carra, Cole, Gerrard, Kuyt and Ngog whilst industrious were 2nd best. Blackpool were fantastic, they made us look poor and, but for a 20 minute period of pressure after we scored the goal, we were – really poor.

Woy has not got a clue. Why does he play Poulsen when that game had Lucas written all over it? Lucas is a great player against the smaller clubs. Poulsen is just sh!t and couldn’t pass the ball if his life depended on it let alone make a tackle that wins the ball!

This is not Rafa’s legacy, Woy has had his time to work with the players and to state in post match press conferences that he is happy with the performance is worrying. Hence why we were chanting Dalglish after the game. The fans know that even 3rd from bottom with Kenny at the helm we’d be in a much better position. I fear for us, I really do. It is going to get worse.

I honestly can’t see Torres regaining his form, not under Woy. Gerrard is out of sorts. Carragher is getting slower. Cole has been ruined, there is no spark anymore. Who do we have to replace these players? No-one. The reason for that is the lack of proper investment by the owners. Owners of a club invest their own money in players, not use borrowed money which they then cannot afford to repay the interest on. We sell players for a half decent profit but we then don’t reuse all the money to buy similar quality, we buy lower standard players for less money and use the rest to repay the debt.

Whilst we all say it shouldn’t affect things on the pitch it has, it is clear. The noise around the ground, around the city cannot fail to be heard by the players. The anti H&G campaign has grown to a significant size now that it is having an impact.

Songs we sang for an hour after the game

“All we are saying, is sell up and go”

“Tom and George tell lies, they tell lies”

“Gillett and Hicks, are full of sh!t, Gillett and Hicks are full of sh!t, they’re full of sh!t, sh!t and more sh!t, Gillett and Hicks and full of sh!t”

“What do we want? Yanks Out. When do we want it? NOW”

“Get out of our club, get out of our club, you lying b@st@rds, get out of our club”

We’re sinking guys, we’re going under. It’s not going to stop until H&G sell up and go. Purslow is killing us and will continue to do so.

That ‘storm’ that we walk through will end but we are a long way from there yet. I have been to 2 games this season and it is so clear that the ‘buzz’ I experienced last season has changed. It’s not a buzz of expectation or excitement, it’s a buzz of inevitability. The fans support them team unreservedly but the club is dying. The cancer is eating us from the inside out. Listen to the comments made by Kenny, Thommo, Hansen etc. These guys know what it’s meant to be like at LFC. Hansen said “it’s a disgrace” – he’s right. These guys know what they’re talking about. They say Yanks out – they’re right.