There's been a rumour doing the rounds this week that Gerard Houllier had three games in which to save his job, starting with this one. I have no idea if there's anything in those rumours or not, but if his team plays the way they did in the final half an hour of this game then he has nothing to worry about. If they play as they did for the opening half hour however, then he may as well start clearing his desk now.
That's the frustrating thing about the reds at the moment, you just don't know how they're going to perform from one game to the next. Actually, you don't know how they're going to be from one half to the next.
The first half of this game the reds were very disappointing. The second half they were rampant, and in the end the margin of victory could have been greater.
Michael Owen's injury opened the door for our number eight to return to the starting line up alongside Sinama-Pongolle. The £11m man has to be one of the luckiest men in football. Whenever he loses his place, you can be sure something will happen to enure he gets back in. He responded with a half decent display in this game, capped with a very, very good goal. Not enough to have the TLW ban on uttering his name lifted, but it's a start.
That goal was one of many positives to come out of this match, but for a while it looked as though it was going be one of those days. The visitors had the better chances of what was a fairly even first half, and it wasn't too much of a shock when they went in front.
Dugarry had missed a great chance after an awful backpass from the otherwise impeccable Sami Hyypia, and Kirkland had been forced into a fine save from Lazaridis before Forsell converted Savage's cross from close range to open the the scoring.
The reds had not started well, although Sinama was very lively again and Gerrard picked up from where he'd left off against Bucharest with a driving display from the middle of the park. Aside from those two however, there was very little else to get excited about other than the occasional driving run from Kewell.
Liverpool's record when falling behind has been pretty woeful under Houllier, so it's an ecouraging sign that we came back to win this one. Much has been made of the change in style this season, and this game offers more evidence that Houllier has changed his tactical approach. 12 months ago we probably wouldn't have come back to get one point, never mind three.
That we did go on to win this game owed much to the referee Neal Barry. Not because the official awarded us the spot kick which got us back into the game and enraged Steve Bruce. No, the biggest thing he did to help the reds was give a string of awful decisions against us in the second half, which served to wind up the crowd and whip up an atmosphere which seemed to really lift the team.
Up until then, the atmosphere was dire, with the travelling Brummies taking the piss by singing "It's just like being in church". It was fair comment. But then Sinama chased a long ball, and was hauled back by Cunningham in front of the Paddock at the Kop end. Barry amazingly awarded the free-kick to the midlanders. The crowd were furious, as it was almost incomprehensible that he could have made such a decision. It really was ubelievable. He then followed it up by booking Hamann for a clean tackle on Savage, and suddenly the Kop found it's voice.
Barry was truly awful, and it was one of the worst refereeing displays we're likely to see all season. Birmingham will no doubt feel he cost them by awarding a penalty when Sinama tumbled in the box. Without wanting to sound too much like Arsene Wenger, I didn't see the incident at the time (my view from the main stand was obstructed by a big post) but having seen the replay Upson had his arm around Sinama, although the striker did go to ground a bit easily.
However, Steve Bruce's comments about the young French star were way out of line. The fact is that Sinama is a livewire who puts himself about and is difficult for defenders to handle. He has a maturity about his play which is way beyond his years, and he knows how to get his body in front of defenders and he knows how to draw fouls. That does not make him a cheat.
In recent weeks he has won us three penalties, and has been denied another two blatant spot kicks. If this one was borderline, it's merely payback for the two which he didn't get against the mancs and Boro. As for Bruce, he needs to keep his mouth shut. Any manager who has Robbie Savage in his team has no right to condemn anyone for diving.
It's not just Bruce who's on Sinama's case though. David Maddock wrote in today's Mirror that of the five penalty incidents he's been involved in, only two were legitimate spot kicks. Well the ones at Fulham and Blackburn were as blatant as they come, and neither Silvestre or Quedrue played the ball when they slid in to bring him down, so there's four out of five that aren't even open to debate.
Maddock is out of order writing that, especially when Bruce is also damaging Flo's reputation by branding him a diver. I have yet to see Sinama dive, and these false accusations should be nipped in the bud.
Houllier is known for reading everything that is written in the press, so he can't be happy about what Maddock wrote today. He needs to come out and speak up for Sinama, because the last thing we need is for the player to develop a repuatation as a diver. He isn't, and Houllier should state his case now before this gathers too much steam.
Sinama was a constant danger to Birmingham, and the boy has been a breath of fresh air these past few weeks. He arrived in the shadow of his best mate Anthony Le Tallec, and sat on the sidelines as ALT made his mark on the first team, but right now he's the main man. With Owen and Baros injured, Flo is our number one striker at the moment. That's what people should be talking about, not all this 'diving' nonsense.
But the penalty was a turning point, as it allowed us to get straight back into the game before Birmingham could settle into defending their lead. They're a tough nut to crack, and had they had time to dig in at 1-0, we may have found the going tough.
But the longer the game wore on, the better we got. Diouf was withdrawn in favour of Smicer. At the time I wasn't happy with it, as the change saw Smicer go to the left, H***** to the right and Kewell up front. Why not just take H***** off and use Vladi as a straight replacement? The way it turned out proved Houllier right, and he seems to be recapturing the knack he had for making important substitutions.
Smicer was excellent on the left, whilst after moving up front Kewell scored the crucial goal which gave us the lead. The goal came from a cross by another substitute, John Arne Riise, so credit to Houllier for getting that right. For the past twelve months his substitions have generally weakened the side, but not today. His changes had a definite positive affect.
Kewell's goal was a belter. He's proving to be a great signing, and now has eight goals to his name already. It's a shame that others aren't contributing as much. Diouf for instance, who although has been playing pretty well and working tirelessly, just isn't a goal threat. With his ability he really should be matching Harry in the goal stakes.
Once in front, the reds just got stronger and stronger. Hamann was denied a goal when the ref ruled his header hadn't crossed the line, when it clearly had. That could have proved costly had Kirkland not pulled off another great save to keep our lead intact. But unlike in recent seasons, the reds kept going forward as opposed to protecting what they had, and it paid off when the big fella controlled Diao's cross on his chest before acrobatically volleying in at the Kop End. Great goal, shame we don't see him do it more often.
Smicer almost gave the scoreline a much more comfortable look with a wonderful curler from the left edge of the box, but after hanging in the air for what seemed like an age, the ball crashed back off the angle of post and bar to deny him what would have been a deserved goal.
Selecting a star man wasn't easy, as there were so many contenders. Gerrard was quality, Pongolle was a menace and Kewell is just class. Sami continued his renaissance with another fine game at the back, whilst Biscan too was absolutely flawless as he dominated Dugarry.
In the end though I went for Hamann, as he never put a put wrong throughout, and his importance to the side simply can't be overstated. His presence allows Gerrard to have more of an influence, and the centre backs also look a lot happier having him there offering protection.
Just how significant this win turns out to be is something only time will tell. If we lose to Newcastle next week, then we're back to square one, but if we can start to put a run together then maybe we'll look back at this game as the start of where things started to pick up.
But before we make the trip to Geordieland, there's the small matter of Bolton in the Worthy Cup. That game has taken on a lot more significance than we would have liked, as it represents our best chance of winning a trophy. Bolton are in good form and will provide a stern test, but we'd expect to go through. It all depends which Liverpool shows up on the night really.
Liverpool: Chris Kirkland; Salif Diao, Igor Biscan, Sami Hyypia, Djimi Traore (John Arne Riise); El Hadji Diouf (Vladimir Smicer), Stevie Gerrard, Didi Hamann, Harry Kewell: Florent Sinama-Pongolle (Danny Murphy), E**** H***** :
