Well, after three months of doing nothing but sitting in front of Sky Sports News, desperately waiting for us to sign someone/anyone, it was finally here. I could reel off a list of tired clichés about no-more Saturdays spent shopping with the lass, and all that, but instead I’ll just say that it’s good to be back, and very nice to be looking forward to a season where we can establish ourselves rather than merely survive.

First up was Liverpool. According to a whole load of experts, “This year will be Liverpool’s year”, which can only mean they will stutter into a Champions League place as the last three years has been “Liverpool’s year”. That being said, they are a top-four side and they did beat us comfortably last season at the SOL, 2-0 with Sissoko and Voronin getting the goals, so it was always going to be an extremely difficult start to the season. We also never seem to do OK at home to the Scousers (19 point season aside), and anything other than defeat would have to be classed as a good result.

There seemed to be a weird mix, pre-game, of optimism and pessimism. The signings we have made have generally been excellent, and massively improve the quality levels in our squad, but we do still badly lack a centre forward and centre back, problems highlighted by the losses of both Kenwyne Jones and Johnny Evans, probably our most influential players from last season. Hopefully, we will have some more players in before the transfer window ends, with the above two positions plus left-back getting filled being the perfect scenario. Rumours that Benni McCarthy is on the verge of signing should be welcomed as his goalscoring ability would give us a real edge to add to our attack.

Looking to the match, the team lined up as many expected. Gordon in goal, behind a back four of (from right to left) Chimbonda, Nyron, Collins and Bardsley. In midfield, we were a lot more flexible. Tainio played in the centre with Reid (our new captain in the absence of Whitehead), whilst Richardson stayed out left and Malbranque out right. Diouf seemed at first to be on the right, but seemed to roam about more behind Murphy as the game wore on.

The first half, we were very impressive and some of the football we were playing was beautiful. With the possible exception of Richardson, whose decision making was poor, the whole midfield played gloriously, with Tainio doing the simple things and Reid pulling the strings. Defensively we were sound, Collins and Nyron making a mockery of suggestions that Liverpool’s strike force would rip them apart and Bardsley very impressive out of position on the left. Murphy was even doing well enough up front, and had a great opportunity with a header after a cross from the left but put it straight at Reina.

We all hoped we could keep this pace going all match, but we seemed to tire badly in the second half and the new boys (Malbranque in particular) began to look shot by the end. We still managed to carve out a decent opportunity for Diouf, which he put straight at the keeper after decent work by Murphy on the left, but in general Liverpool began bossing it, and Gordon was required to make a few decent saves before “Dream Strike Force Torres and Keane” got in each other’s way trying to tap in an open goal.

Into the last ten minutes, and just when you think we might hold on, Torres got the ball 30 yards out, had a great deal of space and hammered an absolute peach into the bottom corner of Gordon’s goal, and for the first time all day the Scouser’s were up and singing. A great goal from a great player who had previously not done much at all – but, as every clichéd commentator knows, it only takes a second to score a goal. We played out the rest, never really looking like scoring, and in fact it was Liverpool who seemed the most likely to wrap it up.

Overall, most people seemed quite pleased with the performance. We weren’t as good as Liverpool on the whole, but we certainly give them a game (more than we did against most of the top-four last season) and if we can play some of the stuff we did in the first half against lesser-sides, we should definitely do okay. We should do even better, if we can manage to get the striker in we are so desperately missing. The need for a centre-half and a left back is still there, but both Collins and Bardsley played extremely well, so striker is the aim. Hopefully by the time we take on Spurs next week (another game we always seem to bloody lose) we’ll have one in.

Final Score: 0-1

ALS Man of the Match: Reid, sprayed the ball about beautifully, looked a yard sharper than last season and ran the show in the first half.

Paul Maughan

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