Liverpool came away from a potentially tricky tie at Selhurst Park with a draw that should mean we go through to the fifth round after a repay. However, it could well be argued that we didn’t believe in ourselves enough to get the tie over and done with and avoid a fixture pile up.
I thought I’d seen the back of Selhurst Park when Wimbledon went down in 2000. It’s a bad enough ground on it’s own, without having to go there twice a year
some seasons if both it’s occupants are in the top flight. But Sunday’s game was the second time we’ve been sent back there in cup competitions since Palace’s demise and I won’t be rooting for them in their bid to make the play offs.
The shallow depth of the rickety old Arthur Wait stand means that anybody less than six foot only has a good view of the back of someone else’s head. In addition to
this it’s in an awful location, which means a long crawl through London’s transport maze, or a drive round the M25. This brings the total mileage from Liverpool to 250, further than Southampton.
Once there, there were huge queues to get in and rumours that the kick off was being delayed, as the nearest train station was closed for repairs meaning traffic chaos on the roads. But the real reason for the turnstiles backlog was
their stringent security, which insisted on everybody emptying all pockets and questioning some on how many pints they’d drunk.
To add to my contempt for them, they have to try and whip up the atmosphere through the loudspeakers and on pitch entertainment. In Palace’s case it’s lots of firework explosions, balloons and majorette dancers. Then the teams come out to Dave Clark Five’s ‘Glad All Over’. As I stood with my fingers in ears, straining my neck trying to get a good view, I really wondered what I was doing there. The reason is because I adore Liverpool FC, but even my sanity was questioned when I looked in their programme.
The usual price for home fans for Division One games was £20, but the robbing bastards were charging us £30. Their fans are the usual losers you associate with clubs with no history of success. One of the few songs they sung was ‘Li-ver-pool win-fuck-all’, comical considering their only trophy is the Full Members Cup in the 1980s. Otherwise it
was the usual ‘calm down’ and ‘sign on’ jibes.
Liverpool had chances to shut them up in the opening minutes. Owen headed just over the bar and Cheyrou volleyed just over. But that was to be the last
contribution Cheyrou made. It’s hard to believe this man scored fifteen for Lille last season and difficult to see why he was even picked for this game given his recent reserve performances. Perhaps it’s too cruel to judge so soon
but he did nothing against Palace and with Diouf having a quiet game too, it meant the Reds offered nothing going down the flanks.
Palace had a good early chance too when Adebola headed just wide, but the most potent threat came from Johnson. After 20 minutes he danced past Traore but was stopped in his tracks by Hyypia, then a minute later he was involved in a moment that could have a profound effect on the rest of our season.
Once again he was allowed to waltz through our defence who stood back and admired his skill. Reds keeper Kirkland came out to challenge him and went down in a heap. He was replaced by Dudek and it has since become apparent that he will be out for the rest of this season and struggling to be fit for the start of 2003-4. I feel so sorry for him and even more so considering he got the injury bailing out his
defence.
Liverpool were subdued in attack for the rest of the half, happy to soak up the pressure and pump long high balls forward to Owen. Sadly, these were easily dealt with by Palace’s defence, causing Owen to come in for some stick from those around me for not battling hard enough. But just how is he suppose to deal with such balls? Put springs in his boots?
Heskey was too busy helping out in defence to offer Owen any proper support up front. Owen only looked dangerous once before the break, but the lack of help from his team mates meant he was crowded out in the box after a some great individual ball control.
Liverpool again started brightly after half time, with Gray doing his best to help us out by twice cocking up back passes and having to be bailed out by his defensive colleagues. Riise had a great shot cleared off the line but after that we went back to long shots again, with Owen and Cheyrou’s efforts both being easily gathered by the keeper.
Palace’s answer to their lack of guile up front was to send on Akinbiyi, a clear signal if any that the game was ours for the taking. But instead Houllier seemed content to settle for the draw and left Mellor and Baros on the bench.
This policy so nearly backfired in the final ten minutes however. It was inevitable that Palace would try to come at us if we invited them. The problem is we are not capable of holding out any more and attack should have been our
best form of defence. We gave away too many set pieces in problematic positions and had to thank Heskey for deflecting a goalbound header over the bar with five
minutes left.
It was embarrassing to see us holding out at the end and if
Arsenal or United were in a similar position, they would have gone forward, stopping Palace from having the opportunity to attack.
After the game Houllier said it was a difficult pitch and we did well to come away with a draw blah blah. In some respects I agreed with him, but if we progress in all the cups we will play 67 games this season. That’s too many and we could have avoided this replay with a bit more application.
At the end of the day, if we were going for league points we wouldn’t settle for a draw against a team near the bottom and believe me, if Palace come up, they will go straight back down. Considering this is the second of three 200+ mile away trips in successive weeks, the fans who travelled down deserved a bit more. Especially those who opted for the M40 on the way back and got stuck in an accident
triggered jam for an hour, meaning it was after midnight before they got home.
