THE HILLSBOROUGH TRAGEDY HAD A PROFOUND EFFECT ON FOOTBALL AS A WHOLE AND THE THOUGHTS OF ALL OF US AT SAFC ARE WITH EVERYONE AFFECTED BY THE TRAGIC EVENTS OF APRIL 15TH 1989.
YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE
Sunderland showed their class with footballing family in full effect mode.
Both teams started as if searching for confidence with not much football played until a sharp Liverpool move prized open a chance for Suarez who shanked his shot wide. Borini then had a great chance to give Liverpool the lead pre-empting a headed pass he latched on to it only to shoot powerfully against the keeper when a spot of finesse would have more likely proved profitable..
With Gerrard, Allen and Shelvey seeing more of the ball, Liverpool began to control matters and hence moving Sterling into more dangerous areas further up the pitch. Shelvey picking the ball in the middle of the Sunderland half played a lovely ball into Suarez path, who for once kept his head up to play the ball back into the on-rushing Borini. The young Italian opened up his body to hit a drive which was easily saved by Mignolet.
Glen Johnson’s defensive frailties then reared its ugly head. With Luis Suarez getting back manfully to put pressure on the marauding Gardener, the ball broke Glen Johnson for a fifty-fifty tackle with the player. His timid tackle led to the ball being whipped dangerously across the area behind Agger who had stepped up to leave the space for the cross for Fletcher to tap home leaving Skrtel in his wake.
Luis Suarez was then booked after a maisy run saw him by-passing three Sunderland defenders, only to be brought down by John O’Shea. Unfortunately, referee Martin Atkinson saw the trip as a dive and penalised the Uruguayan International.
Early in the second half with Liverpool on the front foot, Glen Johnson, unleashed superb whipped cross from the left, with no Liverpool forward within a mile of the ball and Sterling’s lack of experience showing in not getting to the far post in way which had become Dirk Kuyt’s calling card. A few minutes later from another flowing move, Johnson dipped his shoulder to take out the right-back, his curling shot beat Mignolet all ends to crash against the bar.
On the hour, Sterling breezed on to a through ball down the right and delivered a devastating cross on the run which could only be palmed out to Shelvey, who showed composure to role the ball into Gerrard’s path. His shot clipped the outside of the post when the net bulging seemed to be the odds on bet. With Downing replacing the ineffective Borini, almost immediately his corner was headed out to Gerrard whose resultant shot deflected to Skrtel with his header lacking the power to sneak past Mignolet in the bottom right.
Sterling Liverpool’s dominant attacking force was giving Danny Rose a torrid time. His dazzling feet seemed to blind Rose and the youngster, chosen by Roy Hodgson in the England squad against Ukraine in midweek, cross was sliced into Bramble, with Suarez crashing home rebound with his left foot. It was nothing more than they deserved having dominated possession.
Liverpool, with a free flowing move between Kelly, Shelvey and Suarez fashioned a chance out for Shelvey. His left footed shot was pushed out by Mignolet and with Suarez stretching every sinue headed over from close range.
While its all to easy to look at the negatives with it being the first time since the 1911 season that Liverpool have failed to win any of their first four games. Liverpool outplayed Sunderland, creating more chances having hit the woodwork twice as is their wont and controlling possession, but the lack of a cutting edge was again there for all to see.
Man of the Match: Raheem Sterling – Possesses a surety of touch which many wingers with blinding pace do not possess and is mature beyond his years looks to bring team mates into the game and is confident to look for possession even in the tightest of areas
Glad for us to get through it unscathed. Alan Shearer summed up Joe Allen's performance really well on MOTD. Basically, there are times when we pass the ball just for the sake of it, quite often backwards rather than incisevely forward like Stevie G demonstrated. I'm quite a big fan of Jonjo and think he's improving game by game and if he gets a decent run, and keeps his head down, he will stake a decent claim to regular games in the side.
ReplyDeleteLots of different emotions going on this week. To hear so many apologies, without exception was amazing. Football stood up this week, going beyond geographical and boundaries or kit colour. I was listening to the Reading game before the kick off and to hear their club blaze out YNWA to such ruptuous applause was quite touching.
The country stood up too expressing its remourse and empathy for the families - even David Mellor questioned the long standing integity of the police not just in Sheffield back then but also during the London G8 summit demonstration when a vulnerable demonstrator was killed by the policemans' batten. Without delay, the lying MP should be stripped of his knighthood. Perhaps his knighthood title shoudl be redistributed to the famillies given their persistent pursuit for Justice for the 96.
I echo those sentiments. I was impressed when Cameron made his speech in the House of Commons. Respect was shown. The apologies sounded completely sincere and for once I actually listened intently and believed he meant what he said.
DeleteI feel those families have maintained a dignified stand on how they feel and I have total respect and empathy for them. May this be the start of an era of understanding regarding what ACTUALLY happened on that hideous day. R.I.P. all our fellow fans.
I also agree that the knighthood should be shared by the families for their own going fight for justice.
ReplyDeleteThe Sunderland game again demonstrated the lack of a cutting edge in our team and again showed that the lack of striking talent on the bench leaves us high and dry when we require goals from the bench.