Liverpool Res 2 Blackburn Res 2 Sep 4 2001

[dave u]

LIVERPOOL RES 2 Blackburn Res 2

Report by Dave Usher at Hague Avenue

Scorer(s) - Richie Partridge, John Welsh Half Time - 1-1 Venue - Hague Avenue Date - Thu 4 Sep 2001 Star Man - Richie Partridge

 

 

 

 

 

The last time I saw a reds side face Blackburn, it was in the semi finals of the youth cup at Ewood Park last May. On that night, the reds dominated the game, only to cruelly lose the tie on penalties. Penalties also played a big part in tonight's game too, as this time a ten man Liverpool were twice pegged back following horrific blunders by a referee who was way out of his depth.

Despite the early sending off of skipper for the night Gregory Vignal, Liverpool dominated the game and played the better football. Pegguy barely had a save to make, yet at the end of the day they saw two points stolen away by a comical penalty three minutes into stoppage time, when young striker Neil Mellor was ludicrously adjudged to have handled in the area.

The reds had started the game quite slowly, and before they'd really had much of a chance to get into their stride they were a man short, as Vignal was adjudged to have committed a professional foul. Kippe got himself into trouble on the edge of his own penalty area, and tried to force the ball to Vignal, but it was intercepted by a Rovers striker, who burst past Vignal into the box. Gregory had come across to try and reach the attempted pass, and appeared to do everything he could to get out of the way of the striker once he had reached the ball first. There was contact, no question, but there was certainly no intent.

Sadly, referees these days seem to be totally lacking in common sense, and after an age he finally decided that Greg had to walk. Vignal was distraught, and initially seemed to want to have a go at the ref, but Jamie Redknapp stepped in and prevented the young Frenchman from doing anything silly. As he trudged off he was disconsolate, and when a Rovers player appeared to try and console him, Greg just shoved him away. His face was like thunder as he made his way off the pitch, and I don't blame him to be honest. Worse was to follow from the official, but I'll get to that later.

Rovers were unhappy that they weren't awarded a penalty, but the ref adjudged that the foul had taken place outside the box (it probably did, but had he given a penalty and allowed Vignal to stay on I expect everyone would have been happy). Pegguy made a routine save from the free-kick.

Both sides were fairly inexperienced, with Redknapp, Diomede and Arphexad the only seniors involved for the reds, and Ostenstad and Filan for Blackburn. The reds had started out with Diomede and Partridge on the flanks, with Mellor and Miles up front, but once the sending off occurred, something had to give, and it was the unlucky John Miles that was subbed to allow left back Alan Coupe to replace Vignal.

Despite being down to ten men, the reds were the more dangerous side, with Diomede's clever prompting and Partridge's pace, combined with the willing running of the tireless Mellor, Joe Corrigan's side looked the more likely scorers, and it wasn't much of a surprise when the goal eventually arrived, courtesy of Richie Partridge.

Richie had looked lively right from the off, and this goal was just the type of thing you expect from the young Irishman. He picked the ball up about thirty yards out and ran straight at the heart of the Rovers defence, beating at least four defenders before firing a shot at goal. The shot was fairly tame to be honest, but somehow Filan allowed it to slip though his hands and go between his legs into the net. Richie deserved the goal for the brilliant run, but Filan was subbed at half time.

Partridge was operating on the right of a midfield three following the sending off, and his work rate and discipline was exemplary all night. I've seen Richie have better games in terms of explosive running and crossing, but his all round game tonight was excellent, and he appears to have started the season in really good form. I felt he went backwards last year, but hopefully he can start to fulfil the potential everyone knows he has.

The switch in formation meant that Diomede was operating in a free role just behind the lone striker Mellor, and the Frenchman turned in a fine performance. He rarely wasted a pass, and some of his control and touches had class written all over them. With Paddy out injured (he was in the crowd for this game though, along with his mate Vladi. I like to see that, the first teamers turning up to support the reserves), we are short of options on the left and surely Dio-Dio is a better option than Super Dan (no disrespect intended to Murphy, who I have a lot of time for)?

Half time arrived with the ten men one up, and looking fairly comfortable. That changed straight after the re-start, as Blackburn were awarded a penalty. I don't know what is was for, as I wasn't looking, but the players seemed shocked by it and a couple of people sitting near me said it was a ridiculous decision. Anyway, Pegguy saved the pen, only for an attacker to follow up and beat him with the rebound.

I suspected that Rovers might now start to really put us under pressure, but they didn't. The reds once again looked the more dangerous side, and Mellor was giving their backline a lot of problems with his bustling style. The lad worked his nuts off, and I've got nothing but praise for how he played tonight, I thought he was excellent, and we couldn't have asked for more from a lone striker.

Some of the reds link up play was superb, particularly from Redknapp, Partridge and Diomede. Jamie had a quiet first half, and didn't look at all right to me. He appeared to be holding back, and wasn't as influential as he should have been. Whether the injury was on his mind or not I don't know, but the second half he really stepped things up and ran the show.

For all the neat interplay we produced though, the one constant danger we had was the pace of Partridge, and it was no surprise that he created what should have been the winning goal. Another lighting burst through the middle set up a chance for Diomede, who dallied on the ball and appeared to have lost the chance, but the ball fell to Welsh on the edge of the box and he hit a low shot into the bottom corner. He was ecstatic, and that's his second goal in three starts for the reserves this year. He's got 2 in 2 for the under 19's as well. As I said, the boy's special.

So 2-1, and that should have been that. Rovers created nothing, until three minutes into stoppage time the ball bounced up and appeared to hit Mellor in the chest. He had his arms by his sides, so even if the ball did bounce up and graze his arm, it's certainly not handball. At least, not to a neutral it isn't. The referee's performance tonight suggested that he simply didn't want the reds to win, and he was going to do anything he could to stop them from doing so. The penalty against Mellor was an absolute joke, a disgrace in fact, and the poor lad was devastated by it. Pegguy almost ensured that justice was done, but Ostenstad's penalty slipped under his body this time.

So despite the result, there's a lot of positives to come out of this. For the ten men to dominate a game like they did was very encouraging. Partridge was at his electric best, and Diomede is running into a bit of form. The games other outstanding performer was young John Welsh. Regular readers will know how highly I rate this lad, and he was superb yet again in this game. He's made the step up from Academy to reserve team football with no trouble whatsoever, and looks to have everything. He played on the left side of midfield following the reshuffle, and even though it's by no means a natural position for him, he was superb yet again.

This was my first ever visit to the ground of Southport FC, and it's a nice little stadium to be fair. It's a lot more modern than Knowsley Road that's for sure, but I have to say that I always liked watching the reserves play at St Helens RLFC. There was usually quite a good little atmosphere there, but there was nothing at all like that here. Most of the game was played in silence, and the referee hardly got any abuse at all when he came off. Had he turned in a performance like that at Knowsley Road, he'd have needed a police escort to get off the pitch!


Team: Pegguy Arphexad; Paul Culshaw, Steven McNulty, Frode Kippe, Gregory Vignal; Richie Partridge, Jamie Redknapp, John Welsh, Bernard Diomede; John Miles (Alan Coupe), Neil Mellor: