West Brom 0 Liverpool 2

West Brom 0 – Liverpool 2

In the end, it turned out to be a good win for the Reds today; the contrast between Liverpool’s muted performance, and West Brom’s fighting spirit was the main feature of the first half hour of the match.  It was only when ‘Geronimo’ Gerrard pounced on a defensive slip that the West Brom’s heads fell a little, and the game become a bit more comfortable. 

This pattern of play was inevitable in a match that the Baggies needed to win to realistically have a chance of survival, and the Liverpool players struggling to get up for what was now a meaningless game.  West Brom had chances to put us under pressure, but the game looked comfortably won as ‘Dangerous’ Dirk Kuyt scored a good solo effort on the hour.  West Brom made a fight of it in the last 15 minutes, and the continued pressure resultied in a bizarre bust up between ‘Crazy’ Jamie Carragher and “Ave a go” Arbeloa.  Let’s hope that the boys kissed and made up afterwards.  The West Brom fans did themselves credit at the end, and stayed to support their players and manager;  there’s no pleasure in relegating a genuine football club.  

On a football related note, I was concerned that I may have come across as somewhat bitter in yesterday’s post (It Is Now).  As it turns out, I needn’t have worried.  Checking out the Liverpool stories on Teamtalk, I came across this story:

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1776_5330893,00.html

In it, Rafa basically says that he has to try and buy wisely in the summer as Manchester United have a better, bigger squad than he does, and are in a financially better position to improve.  A pretty reasonable comment I would have said (especially as he will have been asked specifically how he can catch the champions next season).   Then I read the Comments section; apparently I was wrong, Benitez is making outrageous excuses as well as being a unrepentant liar.  I won’t go in to the specifics about what the comments were, and how wrong the majority were – it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, biased or not.  But, given that most of these remarks come from supporters of a club that’s just won the league, it’s nice to know I’m not the most bitter man in the room.