What a great afternoon at Anfield!! Luis Suarez was in the directors box with his daughter to see it all and can't fail to have been moved by the support he received from the home fans.
Team selection was slightly surprising, after initially thinking it would be three centre backs it finally clicked that Carra was likely to play midfield and so it turned out, putting in a decent performance until he was replaced by Charlie Adam once it became clear a defensive midfielder wasn't really needed against a 3 man Utd central midfield with superb ball retention but little forward movement and well done to Kenny for being brave enough to make such an attacking substitution.
The first half saw Liverpool lagging behind in possession but certainly not in effort, if only we could inject this much energy into the games where we have the majority of the ball we'd be much better of than we are. If you don't see as much of the ball as you'd like it's vital to make set pieces count and that's exactly what happened when Agger headed home Gerrard's corner after some fairly indecisive goalkeeping from De Gea (it's about time a keeper had a shocker at Anfield this season!). From where we were sat (stood) it was hard to tell who had got the final touch and the stadium announcer was well and truly drowned out by the Kop so it was only on the way home we actually found out who'd scored. From then until half time Man Utd had almost all of the football and though they didn't really get into our penalty area much they merited their equaliser, Park hitting home Rafael's pull back after some sloppy play from Jose Enrique for pretty much the first time this season.
The second half saw some improvement in the Reds performance and the substitutions made a big difference, Adam kept the ball well and Kuyt's introduction for Maxi allowed Downing to move to the left where he seemed more comfortable and managed to beat his man on several occasions, I think he needs to play left more often than right. Bellamy arriving for the driven but tiring Gerrard was another brave substitution but his contribution justified the boss' decision. The winner came late and was route one, long ball flicked on by Carroll and finished off by Kuyt who struck it well and now has two more goals than me this season.. A bit of keep ball by the corner flag for the last three minutes and a place in round five is ours.
I must give mention to Andy Carroll's contribution, he had very little service in terms of goalscoring chances but his work rate, application and willingness to put his body on the line for the team bodes well for his future. He looked a lot more dangerous once he had a partner alongside him and will rightly get praise for his afternoon which can only enhance his confidence.
That's the football dealt with, now how about the atmosphere and the fans behaviour.. A heavy and very visible but friendly police presence on the street around Anfield was to be expected and did a good job of keeping the crowds calm. As always there was plenty of banter between the two sets of fans but the pre match fears of the occasion turning into something ugly never really felt like happening and credit for that must go to both sets of supporters and the players, there wasn't a dirty tackle in the game and there was nothing controversial for the crowd to feed off. Suarez predictably got bucketloads of stick from the visiting fans and Evra was loudly jeered throughout the 90 minutes but neither set of fans really crossed the line with anything they chanted so fair play to everyone for that. The songs about nineteen titles were met with the response about five European Cups, Steven Gerrard 'kissing the badge on his chest' was met with 'you two face bastards, your hero is Scouse', humour all round and nothing unsavoury. There have been reports that one person has been arrested for making a 'racist gesture' and I'm sure anybody that can help with this investigation will do so and if anybody is guilty of any wrongdoing they won't be allowed to get away with it.
The Kop slowly emptied a few minutes after the final whistle leaving taunts of 'there'll be no Mancs at Wembley' and 'you're Man Utd, you'll do what you're told' with the lucky supporters from the other end of the East Lancs who got to enjoy another hour of fine January sunshine in the lower Anfield Road end...
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