Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Liverpool 2 Boro 0
Managed to miss both the live action and the highlights of this one due to the oblivion of the first of the Christmas parties, and I'm quite glad! Chelsea followed by this always looked like the hardest couple of fixtures all season and anything at all would have been a bonus. As it turned out we gave the blues their hardest home game of the season and were not too shabby for the majority at Anfield either. We came closest to scoring first in both games and were simply denied the necessary luck to get something out of either one. Here Mark Viduka must have thought he'd got one in past a defense that has only conceded 6 goals in 13 games in the premiership, only to be denied by the magic leg of Reina who seemed to be going the wrong way before the well placed limb saved the home team's blushes.Then up popped Morientes, proving that if a bad run of any description needs ending then just play Boro! He hasn't even looked like scoring in months and then he goes and gets two against us... The second of which apparently caused a lot of controversy along the lines of the "gaining an advantage by an offside position" rule - although way offside when the ball was played across the field away from him play went on, resulting in a goal and game over when the ball did eventually come to him from a Franck Queudrue knock on.
So... Our league position has slipped again, but in no way truly reflects our merit at this point - We will finish higher than this, but it has not been great for confidence. And it doesn't get much easier with a solid looking Spurs team arriving on Teesside for Sunday's encounter which is a must win in my book; we must take advantage of a run of home games (including two cup games and 2 against Blackburn in 5 days). Christmas is notoriously a slack period for us and that hoodoo cannot be allowed to take hold, or 2006 could be looking a little grim!
My MOTM: The fans voted for Riggott or Southgate, so not having seen it that's good enough for me despite no clean sheet once more.
