My first away trip of the season and
I almost ended up sitting amongst the home support. Thankfully an 11th
hour interjection meant I took my place with the rest of the Reds...
well the majority of them. The first goal saw a few Liverpool fans who
were sat amongst the Bolton faithful being ejected whereas the 2nd goal
lead to some rabid Bolton fans trying to climb into the corporate boxes
to get at celebrating Liverpool fans!!!
How were there only 2 goals? Keane, Gerrard, Torres & Lucas should
have fattened our winning margin and Ricardo Gardner missed 2 absolute
sitters for Wanderers. We bossed the first half but there was too much
distance between Gerrard and Keane and moves invariably ground to a
halt and had to start again. We looked set to go into the interval one
up, through a sublime header by Dirk, until the ref decided to give
Bolton a disputed corner. A contentious corner on the stroke of
halftime, with 3 Bolton players stood around Pepe Reina? I sensed a
goal, thankfully Rob Styles controversially decided that Reina had been
obstructed before Cahill headed home. Maybe Styles was still feeling
guilty after handing Chelsea that ludicrous penalty at Anfield last
season.
We were dreadful for the first 20 minutes of the second half and Bolton
should have capitalised, Gardner wasting their best opportunity when
after "rounding" Reina (Fantasy Football League anybody?) he sliced
high and wide. The introduction of Torres breathed new life into us and
Gerrard in particular, he was now dying to get forward to link up with
El Nino and after failing to connect with one of Torres's crosses he
made amends by nodding home the crucial second.
All games can now be classed "must win", it's not a familiar place to
be in as by now we'd normally be out of the title race and the odd slip
up wouldn't be too costly in our battle for 3rd/4th. Chelsea &
United don't look like dropping many points and its imperative we match
their resilience, ruthlessness and results.