By LFC Vancouver member Keith Perkins, 28 March 06.

Merseyside derbies are always going to be something special. There’s a serious rivalry between the blues and the reds, but stopping way short of hatred – something that we reserve for certain other clubs. This time around, we were given the opportunity to prove our superiority over our neighbours by doing the double over them, something that we failed to do last season. They may well claim to have good reasons to be proud of their performance from last season as they beat us at Goodison and finished ahead of us in the League. They grabbed fourth place, supposedly giving them a Champions League spot while we were stuck three points behind in fifth. They spent most of the season reminding us of our poor form in the League with repeated chants of “Rafa Beneath-us.”

It’s an old saying that he who laughs last laughs longest and loudest, and so it was that we spent all of the summer and most of this season laughing long and loud at their expense. We started to seriously annoy them by winning our fifth European Cup, and then asking how many European trophies does “the best team on Merseyside” have? We then threatened to take their European place as defending champions, had it not been for an FA ruling and a compromise to allow us in to defend our prize. The serious whining then started with their complaint that with five English clubs in the competition, it would reduce their share of the revenue to be gained (something of a normal budget item for us, but an unexpected windfall for them). The noise then grew louder as they realised that our lack of country protection and their lack of seeding could put us against each other in the third and final qualifying round. To add insult to their injured pride, Rafa swooped in to take Sissoko from under their noses and sign him for us. Another great Rafa signing - along with several others. Meanwhile, the blue boys dared to laugh at us for signing Crouch and failing to sign Owen.

The whining finally stopped when they drew Villarreal and lost over the two legs. That revenue sharing problem has just been resolved, but definitely not the way they wanted. At least they would have the consolation of a place in the UEFA Cup, but that fell apart with a 5-2 aggregate loss to Dinamo Bucharest. We showed how it should be done as we made it through our qualifiers with some ease to take our place in the group stages, and then further demonstrated our superiority by winning the UEFA Super Cup. Who’s laughing now?

If that wasn’t bad enough, we started off slowly with only a few points and very few goals, but then improved with each match. They started off dismally, losing seven of their first ten and conceding lots of goals. The start to their season was so bad that by the time they lost at home to Bolton in mid-December, it was pointed out that the Trotters had scored as many goals in one match at Goodison as the Toffees had so far that season – four each. By late December, we were in second place while they were in the relegation zone with twelve losses out of eighteen played. They were well out of Europe while we had finished first in our group. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep a straight face whenever anyone mentioned the exploits of “the Best team on Merseyside.” They must have been dreading a visit from us, which turned out to be justified as we ripped them apart from the kick off, with that Crouch guy opening the scoring after eleven minutes. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we took it easy on them after we were 3-1 up. We eased off to play out the clock while the frustration boiled over for them, resulting in both Neville and Arteta being sent off before the end.

That was then, but now is a different time for both clubs. There’s another old saying that for a derby match the form book can be thrown away. That’s not entirely true, but there were a few encouraging facts for the bitter boys to consider. Since that December match we’ve been inconsistent, losing a few and having difficulty scoring. In the same time, they started winning a few and climbed out of the relegation battle up to mid-table. They must have been more optimistic going into this derby, thinking that their improved form might be enough to surprise us. They may well have thought so, but we had no reason to.

The match started off as expected with tackles flying in. What was not expected was referee Phil Dowd’s reaction in giving out yellow cards so easily. Gerrard stupidly kicked the ball away after a bad call and was shown the yellow card for dissent. Less than a minute later he hacks down Kilbane and is shown a second yellow, and is sent off with only 18 minutes played. The worry now was how would we hold out with only ten men for the rest of the match? We might not get the three points that we wanted, but we should be able to hold on for a point. It turned out to be a simple adjustment, putting Garcia in Gerrard’s place out on the right, and leaving Crouch alone up front. Amazingly it was Everton who appeared to be having trouble playing with an extra man as we pressed forward as though nothing had happened. The pressure paid off at the end of the half when Phil Neville scored his first goal since his move to the blues. Unfortunately for him it was at the wrong end, giving us a 1-0 lead at half time. That gave all of us a good laugh.

As the second half was about to begin, one of the commentators (John Champion and David Pleat) mentioned that “Ring of Fire” was playing on the Anfield sound system. He then says he wonders if that’s for Everton or Liverpool. Then goes on about how the England cricket side had used that song to such good effect in their recent win. Where do these guys come from? If they don’t know something as simple as that, they shouldn’t be doing commentary. Why not ask someone at the club if they don’t know?

Whatever Moyes said in his half time talk didn’t work. Two minutes after the restart Reina kicks the ball all the way to Crouch, who flicks it on to Garcia, who lobs the ball over Wright to give us a 2-0 lead. Is this hilarious or what? The crowd were certainly enjoying it, giving a few choruses of “Ten men, we’ve only got ten men, we’ve only got ten men,” just in case any of the blues had missed that fact. We never looked in danger of losing our lead, even when Cahill scored on the hour. Any chance of a stunning comeback ended with Van der Meyde being sent off midway through the second half after elbowing Alonso as they both jumped for the ball. With six minutes remaining, Kewell took the ball on the edge of the area and was pleasantly surprised to be given enough time to pick his spot and bury it in the far side of the goal, well out of Wright’s reach. The crowd now start chanting that old favourite: “Liverpool are magic, Everton are tragic.” The entertainment wasn’t quite finished yet, with Neville ending a dismal day out with a yellow card, and then another one shown to Hibbert.

In a match where Everton believed that they might just surprise us they failed spectacularly, giving us a much needed three points in the race for second place. While we look to be assured of Champions League play again next season, Everton failed to move up the table into the UEFA Cup places and look like being shut out of Europe yet again. They have absolutely nothing to brag about this season, unless they consider avoiding relegation to be a success. We can be pleased with our results this season, especially the double win over the blues, and can look forward to a bright future under Rafa. By comparison, what do they have to look forward to? It must be so hard for them, knowing that their best season in recent memory is long over and fading into history. What was that about having the last laugh? Okay, we can laugh long and loud if we want; but don’t you just feel terrible for the toffee men? I didn’t think so!

Drop us a line and let Keith know what you think of this article

By LFC Vancouver member Keith Perkins, 27 March 06.

It seems like only a few weeks ago that I was writing about the mid-point of the season and evaluating what we had achieved so far. In that article I was writing about the slow start that was happily followed by a string of League wins, including a new club record of clean sheets and a first place finish in the Champions League group stage. Those Premier League wins took us from 13th place to 2nd place, ahead of Man Ure on goal difference. There was a lot to be optimistic about, with the second half of the season to come, as well as the FA Cup and the resumption of the Champions League.

As so often happens, there was a huge change of form following that run of success in the second quarter of the season. The first scare came early in January with the third round FA Cup match at Luton. We scored first but then had to come from behind to eventually win 5-3. Where was the tight defending in that one? A win over Tottenham at home in the League looked more like the style we had become accustomed to, but that was followed by a hugely disappointing 1-0 loss away to Man Ure. We should have won that one, as we were the better side on the day. Perhaps it was fatigue after the number of matches and the world-wide travel that led to a loss of concentration near the end of that match. Next up was the FA Cup fourth round, away at Portsmouth. This was another less than impressive performance with the match wrapped up at half time at 2-0, except that we allowed Pompey to get one back early in the second half. The last thing we needed was a replay, so it was nail-biting time until the final whistle saw us through to the fifth round.

Things didn’t improve much in the League after that. We had an unlucky own goal, late in the match at home to Birmingham giving them an undeserved point, which is really two points lost for us. Then we gave up three more points at Stamford Bridge, with Chel$ki effectively killing off any hope of us challenging for the Championship this season. It should have improved mid-week with a match at Charlton, but that was another unfortunate loss; 2-0 with the first goal coming from a mistakenly awarded penalty.

Still, we knew that this slump would end; it was just a matter of when would it come? Fortunately, it was only a few days later when we went to Wigan and pulled off a 1-0 win. We badly needed that win (thanks Sami) as our next opponents were Arse-nil in the League, to be followed a few days later with Man Ure in the FA Cup. The gooners have been poor away from home this season and so we had good reason to be at least a little bit optimistic that our turnaround would continue at their expense. It did, with a great performance that should have given us four or more goals but only gave one. Still, it was a much needed three points and surely a confidence boost to go with it.

We badly wanted revenge against the mancs, and we got it at home, with yet another 1-0 win, to knock them out of the Cup and see us go on to the quarter finals. Surely the slump is officially over now, which would be a good time to get back to winning as we had the Champions League resuming a few days later.

A trip to Benfica should have been a routine match with 0-0 the most likely result, with the possibility of taking it 1-0 if we were lucky. That was not how the eagles saw it, and instead they matched us throughout and surprised us with a goal near the end. Was this another case of a lack of concentration resulting from fatigue? A one goal deficit is perhaps a cause for concern, but surely we can overcome that in the return leg at Anfield. More worrying was the eye injury sustained by Momo Sissoko. It was thought that he might lose the sight in the eye which could mean the end of his playing career. As we know now, the injury was not as serious as first thought and Momo is already back in the squad.

Two consecutive home League matches against Man City and Charlton should have been straightforward, and should have put us in good shape for that second leg against Benfica. The first was somewhat routine, even though they gave us a few scares in a 1-0 win. Charlton was a different story with a disappointing 0-0 draw. The last few results had seen us concede the odd goal while not scoring more than one in a match. The last time we scored two in a League game was the 2-2 draw at Bolton. Inevitably, the critics were talking about the striker crisis, pointing out that the last goal from a striker was Crouch’s header in the FA Cup against Man Ure. Before that there were a couple from Pongolle (currently out on loan) at Luton (also in the FA Cup) and before that was Cissé and Crouch at Goodison way back in late December.

Benfica came to Anfield a few days later to face the Reds in a must win match. The Reds were flying for the first half hour with lots of possession, lots of control, plenty of chances but no goals. Simao showed why he was so highly valued with a stunning strike late in the first half, giving them a 2-0 aggregate lead. Another one late in the match put it beyond doubt, and we said goodbye to this season’s European trophy.

At this point, we needed something to lift us up, and a win at Highbury would have been just the thing. Another loss, 2-1 with the second one coming from sloppy defending, and now we are starting to worry that maybe the critics were right. Maybe we do have a crisis, maybe we don’t yet have a side that can compete at the highest levels of the game. Is it fatigue that causes the slip-ups, or is it something more seriously wrong with the squad or the strategy? One way to answer that is to look at the fixture list so far. We have played 29 League matches; 14 Champions League matches with trips to Lithuania, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium, and Portugal; a UEFA Super Cup final in Monaco; two World Club Cup matches in Japan; one League Cup and three FA Cup matches. Get out your calculators, or borrow some fingers to check that that adds up to 50. That’s more than most clubs play in an entire season (38 in the League plus a few cup matches), and with a lot less travelling.

The Arse-nil match on March 12th brings us to the end of the third quarter. 29 Premier League matches played, 9 more to go. The players must have needed a break by this time, but I was the one going off on holiday for a week. This third quarter report should have been in the newsletter a couple of weeks ago, but with the congested fixture list and my recent holiday, it wasn’t completed on time. You could say better late than never; I’ll just say sorry and then bring us up to date as we move well into the final quarter of the season.

There were two things we needed as we prepared to meet Fulham at Anfield on the Wednesday after the loss to Arse-nil. That was a win, of course, and a decisive win with goals from our strikers. That’s exactly what we saw with a 5-1 thrashing of the Cottagers, with goals from Fowler, Morientes, and Crouch. That wasn’t a fluke and we then hammered Newcastle with three goals including one each from Crouch and Cissé. Those two results should give us the confidence we need for our next match – the quarter final at Birmingham. That was a 7-0 rout, setting a new club record for most goals in a FA Cup match away. Crouch scored two, Morientes and Cissé scored one each. We’re off to the semi-finals to take on Chel$ki at Old Ratford. What striker crisis?

A few disappointments along the way, especially the Champions League losses to Benfica, but the future looks bright again. The new players are settling in (Kromkamp, Agger, and Fowler) and there are already more players lined up to join us in the summer. Momo came back from his eye injury to play against Birmingham, and the only long term injury remaining is Zenden. At long last the end of the season is in sight, with only 6 more Premier League matches to go (including Everton – see separate article) and at most two FA Cup matches. Those last six matches should give us close to maximum points as they are all against lower table clubs, even though only two of them are at home.

The result against Fulham was good of course, but something else is equally important. That win gave us a further three points for this season making a total of 58 points after 30 games played. That’s the same total as we had last year, at the end of the season after 38 games played. With six more points from the following two matches, against Newcastle and Everton, we have 64 points so far. Add to that fact that we also have 45 goals for and 22 against (+23) so far this season, compared with 52 goals for and 41 against (+11) at the end of last season, and we can see some definite improvement. If we can take advantage of the lower table opposition to come, we should be able to match last year’s goals with seven more in six games while keeping our goals against down.

Our main objectives for this season were to finish in the top four, narrow the gap behind the leaders (from last year’s 37 points behind Chel$ki), and hopefully win a trophy. We are now sitting comfortably in third place, 14 points behind Chel$ki in first, and with a chance to take second place. We already picked up a trophy early in the season with the Uefa Super Cup, and we’re in the final four of the FA Cup with a good chance of winning it. It’s not long from now until the end of the season; and it should be an exciting finish.

Drop us a line and let Keith know what you think of this article

If you're without the Official LFC History DVD or the Istanbul DVD, the place to go is HMV downtown (Robson & Burrard) and you can pick one up there in NTSC (US) format. (thanks, Faisal)

We can confirm that for next season, our card carrying members will get 15% off of food and drink at the LSPH. Good if you're in the area and want a meal or pint. More details as they come.

If anyone has anything else to say (buy/sell, jokes, rants, raves, whatever) drop us a line.

P Gill

send us an email if you have anything to announce, sell, or would just like a rant/rave.