This was a game that encapsulated everything great about the 3rd round of the FA Cup with a former league side now playing in non-league football being drawn to play one of Europe's biggest names.
The atmosphere at the formerly named Field Mill was electric with the media cameras all turning up hoping for a massive cup upset.
Liverpool settled very quickly and dominated possession early on culminating with wonderful through ball played byShelvey through to our new 12m pound signing Daniel Sturridge who with great assurance calmly placed the ball past Mansfield keeper Alan Marriott for a fantastic debut goal.
Within a couple of minutes it should have been 2-0 with theSturridge/Shelvey partnership combining again with Shelvey again playing Sturridge through on goal but this timeSturridge dithered on the chance too long enabling Marriott to block the shot at close range.
Throughout the rest of the first half Shelvey and Sturridge combined so well that eventually it could have been a comfortable 4 or 5 goal lead with Sturridge missing further chances to grab himself a hat-trick.
At half-time with a 1-0 lead it was expected that Mansfield would try and push us further and they lived up to those expectations with the opening minutes of the second half seeing the Liverpool half besieged by constant threat mainly by aerial bombardment.
The constant pressure from Mansfield was now becoming an increasing concern until the 53rd minute when we broke clear with Downing providing the service this time for Sturridge to this time drag his shot wide.
With that miss we decided to give our talisman Suarez a run out in place, so Sturridge was subbed for Suarez and given that he had only played a limited time in the past month had given a very good account of himself on his debut.
With the Uruguyan's introduction we saw immediate rewards for us but with the usual controversy with Downing the provider with Suarez's initial effort being blocked by Marriott, he then appeared to use his hand to bundle the ball home for our 2nd goal.
The game seemed to be petering towards the expected result when Mansfield finally got their deserved consolation goal forall their endeavour with 11 minutes to go when their pacystriker Matt Green lashed home a right footed shot from about 15 yards that bounced off the turf and beyond our impressive reserve keeper Jones.
The Mansfield goal heralded a frenetic last ten minutes with Mansfield almost getting a late equaliser through Matt Green which produced a very good save from Brad Jones in injury time.
Man of the Match - Brad Jones - He had an outstanding game for us in goal producing several vital saves in the second half and showed why he is a very able deputy to Reina when needed.
Positives - Daniel Sturridge - Produced a very impressive 60 min debut. Providing pace and strength and technical ability on various occasions - really looking forward to seeing him link up with Suarez.
The first half we were very much in control of the game withShelvey and Sturridge linking up very well on numerous occasions.
Jamie Carragher as captain yesterday showed the particular fighting qualities that are required in these sort of games and justified Rodgers attempts to try and keep him playing for us beyond this season.
Negatives - Luis Suarez - I felt he shouldn't have celebrated the goal because he knew it had hit his hand - it left a bad taste to a very good game and adds further controversy to the player's image.
LFC Team vs Mansfield
Jones, Coates, Carragher, Wisdom, Robinson, Suso, Allen, Shelvey, Downing, Leiva, Sturridge
Attendance - 7,574
Ref: Andre Marriner
I would also like to add that if a ball hits a defender in the penalty area he would never own up to it so I do not think that it is Suarez's call to make but for a referee or linesman to spot any incidents such as these.
ReplyDeleteI just have an issue with the celebrating of the goal as that is rubbing it in the opposition fans faces - fans who prior to the game showed exemplary respect with their warm gesture to our 96 fans who died at Hillsborough.