Derby County 1 Liverpool 2 - Prem (Dec 26 2007)

[TLW]

Derby County 1 LIVERPOOL 2

Report by Nunavut Patrick at Pride Park

Scorer(s) – Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard Half Time - 0-1 Venue - Pride Park Date - Wednesday 26 December 2007 Star Man – Steven Gerrard

 

 

 

 

Tenacious gritty performance scrapping for a win on a day when we played poorly or a massive get out of jail free card? There are two ways at looking at the Boxing Day result but at the remains of the day it was 3 points that has kept us in the hunt for Holy Grail.

It wasn't supposed to be this hard, what with a Derby team firmly rooted in the cellar having not attained double-digits in points, and in fact half their point total have come from the disaster that Fat Sam's Newcastle is becoming. But this is the type of match that you have to win, anyway, anyhow. It can't always be 6-0, but its sure looked that it might go that way.

After a little scare in the first minutes when Reina was called on to save smartly from a header we produced the first goal of the match. I was pleasantly surprised at the team selection and with Alonso, Babel and Torres in the line-up surely a day at the races was on the cards. My daughter, attending her first LFC match, was also giddy with excitement seeing Fernando Torres (she doesn't call him Torres, or Fernando, but Fernando Torres). There was a nagging doubt in my mind that he may have been rested for Manchester City so I was made up to see him starting, and with Babel as well.

The goal was pure Fernando, pure class. Babel mad a good run and got the ball to Torres who took on the defence and got into a shooting position. From that moment on it was clear what the Derby 'keeper was going to be doing- picking the ball out of the net. It must have been the nightmare scenario for the lad, a dozen or so minutes in and Torres on target. It took him 35 minutes to hit a back pass properly as they were being wither sprayed into the stands or right at our players.

We kept the pressure on them and it the first half reflected the point disparity in the table. Torres was put through again but a great tackle (I think) denied him. Babel blasted wide and Carragher, from a corner, volleyed just wide. I always felt a second was coming and it would have finished them off so at HT there was a little sense of trepidation and concern. Sometimes you have to finish off these sides because they know they are going down and matches against the likes of us is their Cup Finals.

Their support seemed to be up for it as well. They managed, in the first five minutes to get through the whole repetoire of songs after a bizarre rendition of 'who are ye'. Perhaps most ironic was their your support is shite chant when the tannoy announcer, before, after and at HT was trying to shift tickets to their upcoming games.

Explaining wanker, Liverpool slums, etc to my daughter was a bit of an eye-opener for her as she's only ever been to ice hockey games where such language gets you thrown out. She did find the Scouse lads behind me baaaing and yelling sheep shagger quite funny though.

The second half did not go as to plan. Five yard passes seemed Mission Impossible. The only saving grace was that Derby were reciprocal with their shiteness as well. When we had the ball if it did not originate from Alonso or went to him it seemed doomed to go to them. And Alonso was even sloppy at times, we were fighting the ball constantly.

I'm not sure what Voronin's purpose was tonight; he seemed more interested in bickering with the referee, who was poor but at least he was consistently poor. He never quite got into the game.

As the second wore on and we were no closer to a goal you just felt that they were going to get one. When Yossi Benayoun replaced Hyypia, who must have picked up a knock, I looked to the sideline and saw Gerrard pointing at the back line and gesturing. I thought for a minute he was going to play CB as there was no Hobbs or Agger on the bench. Instead Riise was slotted next to Carragher.

Now, I like Riise. I do. He's been a helluva servant to the club, scored some big goals and has a motor but this year it's all gone as dark as a Hammerfest winter's night for him. His first touch at CB was to play a hospital ball to Carragher, who promptly got fouled. Can you say metatarsal crocked? Thankfully Carra shook it off.

Their goal came from a set piece, and if they were going to score it was going to come from a corner or free kick. The defending looked suspect from the other end but not having seen it on replay I can't say for sure. The equalizer was deserved as Paul Jewell's team of battlers were up for it in the second half. At this point I still felt we could get something from the game as we had such quality on the pitch. But it was not until the last fifteen minutes or so that we started to play.

We began to swarm their goal with Benayoun playing very sharply out on the wing. He's a useful player is Yossi and made some great runs down the right side. It seemed it wasn't going to be our night as the ball fell to Torres and it went all Riise on him. The Derby 'keeper also made two very smart saves, especially one highlight reel stuff off Xabi Alonso.

Just before the winner we nearly got caught on the break and Derby were unlucky not to go ahead as a free header sailed over Reina's bar. Collective sigh from the away support. Not soon after the winner came from a surging Gerrard run. Now I've not seen the replay but Andy Gray has informed me that Gerrard won the ball unfairly. I now get the animosity towards the bitter tit.

He took it sixty yards and Derby were in full panic mode, you could smell it in the air. He laid the ball out to Yossi who got it into the box and after that it was a bit of scramble before Gerrard crashed it home from three yards. It was classic 70s goal with something like seven players all piled in the six yard box furiously trying to score or clear. A rugby try if you will.

I'm not sure how important these three points will prove to be; but with Chelsea and Arsenal 'dropping' points we inch closer to our rivals. IF we win our game in hand we're six behind the leaders. Sometimes you have to win ugly and the mancs were doing that earlier with a flurry of 1-0's.

We can analyze the fixture list, we can say we've got to go the Emirates, OT and Stamford, we can go on aboot our lack of success there, but if we can run the table over the 12 point Christmas fixtures (and we're half way there) who knows?

I prefer to see the pint of Heineken half-full than half-empty. Star man is a hard one - between Alonso and Gerrard I'll go with Gerrard as he took the game by the scruff when we needed it.


Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia (Benayoun), Aurelio: Babel (Kuyt), Gerrard, Alonso, Riise; Voronin (Lucas), Torres:

Feel free to post comments on this report, or to submit your own match report.

[chorlton]

What on earth is Hammerfest ?

[Hooch]

Love the way them inbred derby fans were doing the old scouser slating considering their manager and goalscorer and best player are both scousers! Tossers.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by chorlton What on earth is Hammerfest ?

Hammerfest is the northest city in Norway. Thistime of year you dont get daylight at all, while during summer the sun shines 24 hours a day.