Before the game, most of the hype was over whether Djibril Cisse would be starting at Anfield in what was his 300 th appearance in football. With both Cisse and regular strike partner Kenwyne Jones having recovered from injury, it turned out that the red mohawked Cisse would have to make do with a place on the bench.

The Lads went for a 4-5-1 formation, with Grant Leadbitter coming in for an injured Teemu Tainio, as we tried to repeat the same performance that saw us pick up a point at Arsenal ten days ago. However, with Liverpool having lost to Middlesbrough, a win wasn’t out of the question, and we could have easily taken the lead in the fourth minute, with a long ball forward finding Jones, who skinned Martin Skrtel, only for the striker to fire a tame shot straight at Pepe Reina. When the Sky cameras focused on Jones afterwards, you just knew that they were expecting him not to shake off the early miss... and shake it off he didn’t.

We did continue to challenge Liverpool early on, as Kieran Richardson found himself flagged offside as he tried a shot on goal, while the hosts tried in vain to get a penalty when Albert Riera blasted a shot straight at the arm of Tal Ben Haim. From there, it was increasingly one way traffic, with Dirk Kuyt forcing a good save from Fulop, as we had to wait until midway through the first half for our next decent challenge, with Grant Leadbitter firing wide as he tried to lob Reina.

Sunderland continued to defend, with a half cleared corner allowing Mascherano to put a shot wide from 25 yards, as Andy Reid’s sneaky pass to Kenwyne Jones resulted in a late offside flag for the Trinidadian who still looked frustrated with himself for his early miss.

From the second half, Liverpool pushed for goals, and they found an early one when Albert Riera beat Tal Ben Haim before sending a cross that scuffed the head of Steven Gerrard en route to David N’gog who turned the shot home from close range. It was a goal that deflated the Lads, after they’d comfortably absorbed the pressure, but the introduction of Djibril Cisse would give us an attacking incentive...or at least, that was the plan.

Steed Malbranque blasted a volley wide from 15 yards out on the hour mark, but the next goal would come from a red shirt after a goalkeeping howler that could give Craig Gordon more reasons to beg for his first team place back. The second goal came from N’gog’s cross that was totally missed by a diving Fulop, giving Yossi Benayoun an empty net to aim for from a few yards out.

Riera almost made it three minutes later as the Lads went into damage limitation mode, and a late mix up could have produced another embarrassment after a miscommunication between Fulop and Ben Haim only resulted in a corner, but the Lads couldn’t find a way past Liverpool as we failed to recover from N’gog’s early second half strike following a strong, committed first half showing.

Final Score: 0-2

ALS Man of the Match: Anton Ferdinand, looked solid in the first half, and kept composed throughout the game

Ian Hamilton

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