Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

What a game that was. Not a classic in terms of the football played, but this game had everything. I honestly didn't know how to feel at the end of this, as so many emotions came to the fore at once.

Delight at having won.... pride in how the players performed against so many setbacks... relief at having held on.... disappointment at the incredible misfortune which robbed us of what would surely have been an emphatic victory... and concern about the repercussions this game would have for the immediate future.

This game just summed up the season in many ways. There's been nothing straightforward about this year, it's been a real roller coaster ride and there are surely going to be more ups and downs before it all comes to an end in May.

This was a game we had to win of course, and the fact we did means that the race for fourth is still just that, a race. Had we not won, it was all but over.

The reds had lost the derby at the Pit a few months ago, turning in one of their worst displays of the season in the process. The irony is, despite how poor we were that day, I still felt we were better than the blues, who offered nothing but hard work and organisation. Nigel Martyn was the difference between the sides that day.

It's been a mystery to everyone how they've done so well this season, and without wanting to take anything away from them I have to say they look a very limited side, especially in midfield where Gravesen is badly missed.

They've got where they are because of team spirit and a rigid gameplan, not to mention luck with injuries and some very dubious refereeing decisions.

That sounds like sour grapes, but it isn't. They deserve to be where they are, because they have the points and they've worked so hard to get there. When you consider they did it after losing their best player, it's a fine achievement.

Luck has played a part, as they've hardly had any injuries which would have tested their paper thin squad, and they've been the beneficiaries of some kind refereeing on numerous occasions. Even so, considering the lack of resources available to them, credit is due.

At Anfield on Sunday however, they looked awful. Certainly the worst side to visit us this season in terms of the 'football' played. In a one sided first half, the only weapon the blues had was the long kicking of Martyn and the persistence and tenacity of Bent.

Had we not picked up so many injuries in the first half, I'm convinced we'd have routed them good and proper. They were so comprehensively outplayed in the first half it was embarrassing.

The reds just had too much for them all over the park, and the only way they could respond was by persistant fouling. Little Luis tormented them early on, despite their best efforts to kick him out of the game, which would eventually prove successful.

Garcia showed tremendous character on Sunday, and provided the most compelling evidence yet that he's adapting to the rigours of English football.

Often when things have gotten physical, Luis hasn't been able to handle it. Not any more if this is anything to go by. Despite the constant kicking and attempts at intimidation (accusing of diving every time he was fouled) Garcia kept demanding the ball, and kept inviting challenges.

He isn't a physical player, but he took the fight to them in his own way by playing his own game and refusing to be intimidated. His quick feet and brain had the blues lumbering defenders chasing shadows, and more often than not they were forced into fouling him.

It was from one such challenge that we deservedly took the lead. Garcia's trickery drew a crude lunge from Hibbert on the egde of the area, and also should have brought a yellow card from the referee.

It looked a blatant foul at the time, and having seen the tv replay it was much worse than I originally thought. Garcia nicked the ball away and Hibbert went over the top with his studs up right into Luis' shin.

So I was hugely pissed off to read reports in the press of how it was a 'dubious' or 'contentious' free kick and that Garcia 'earned' it. Shame on anyone who wrote that.

It was a blatant foul, a dangerous tackle and should have been punished by a yellow card. Watch the fucking replays before casting aspersions over the honesty of our player, don't just take the word of a bitter losing manager (but I'll get to Gollum later).

Thankfully it was punished by a goal. Initially it looked like Hamann and Gerrard had got into a muddle, but Gerrard expertly changed his stride pattern to adjust himself, and rather than blast the ball he calmly side footed it through a gap and past Martyn.

It sparked delirious celebrations from crowd and players alike. Gerrard's celebration was odd, appearing to kiss the badge (or eat it, I'm not sure which) before putting his finger to his lips to the crowd. Strange given that once again his name was sung first and loudest.

I felt there was something of a change in Gerrard in this game. Not just in his performance, but in his all round demeanour. It was especially noticeable at the final whistle, but right throughout the game it was clear that he was 100% foucussed and committed.

That hasn't always been the case this season, even though some may not like hearing it. Those of us who have been critical of Gerrard of late have done so because his heart has not been in it. When you see him play like this, it merely highlights the point.

The old desire and will to win was there again on Sunday, he chased everything and he put in a few crunching tackles. We haven't seen that Steven Gerrard anywhere near enough recently, but if he repeats this level of performance for the rest of the season, we'll get that fourth spot with plenty to spare, such is the difference he can make.

Perhaps even more significantly though, he actually looked happy at the end of this game. He smiled for the first time in God knows how long. Celebrating with his team-mates, and looking as though it really did mean a lot to him. Maybe he's finally realised how lucky he is, or maybe he just got swept away with the occasion. Time will tell.

To be honest, I don't care anymore. Whatever happens, happens. I just hope he continues to show this desire between now and May.

The same can be said of the rest of the side of course, not just Gerrard. It's more noticeable when he isn't 100% at it because he's so important to the side, and perhaps others have gotten away with criticism because the focus has been on the underperforming skipper.

Against the blues however, EVERYONE was 100% at it. They needed to be to overcome the horrendous injury situation, and a horrible, battering ram of a 'football' team who showed that the ethos of Wimbledon in the 80's is still alive and kicking anything that moves nearly 20 years later.

Our injury situation has beeen horrendous all season, but this was probably the lowest point yet. Losing three players in one half almost defies belief. It would have been four had we been allowed to use another sub, as the blues finally succeeded in kicking Garcia out of the game.

Warnock was first to go, picking up a nasty kick on the ankle after beating Osman (may have been Cahill) to a loose ball. He's a tough lad is Stevie, and he tried to run it off but in the end had to admit defeat and was replaced by Nunez.

It was a blow, as Warnock has been the reds' best player in each of the last two games. Not only that, but it meant Riise had to drop back into defence, reducing our threat from the left wing.

And cruel as it sounds, few could say hand on heart that bringing Nunez on for anybody is going to strengthen the team in any way. At least until recently that is. There's been definite stirrings of life in Antonio of late.

He did a great job against the blues, and more than played his part in the victory. The likes of him and Garcia are not used to facing aggressive, dirty sides like the 'school of science', but they more than stood up to it.

Nunez was strong, direct and not afraid to put his foot in. He ensured Pistone had an uncomfortable afternoon, and 'Crazy Tony' is starting to contribute more and more now.

The injury situation worsened when Hamann twisted a knee in an innoccuous looking tussle in midfield, and then Morientes was forced off with a muscle strain. I was sat there trying to take it all in, but there was something surreal about it all.

As 'Nando' lay prone on the turf getting treatment, I looked across the field and Garcia was hobbling around in agony. There were still something like 50 minutes remaining, and we had FOUR injured players.

By that point of course we had doubled our advantage through the alertness of Garcia. Morientes' shot deserved a goal, but Martyn kept it out with the help of the crossbar. Thankfully Garcia reacted quickest to claim his ninth of the season.

When that went in I was convinced we'd run up a cricket score, so in control were we and so poor were the blues. They were shellshocked, but the injuries disrupted us considerably, and half time couldn't come quick enough so we could patch up little Luis and try and get him back out for the second half.

The loss of Morientes wasn't that significant I felt, because Baros had been causing the blues all sorts of problems. Having him up on his own wasn't a problem, as he could certainly take on Weir and Stubbs without any help

Weir and Stubbs are so slow they make Sami and Pellegrino look like Olympic sprinters. They're also a pair of dirty, snarling whingeing bastards. They can give it out but they can't take it.

They spent the entire game kicking shite out of Baros, Garcia and co, and then bitching to the referee when he penalised them for it.

Baros ran them ragged, but unfortunately his confidence in front of goal just wasn't there. On one occasion in the first half he turned Stubbs with embarrassing ease and raced towards the box. The angle wasn't favourable, but the shot was so wayward it went for a throw in.

Mind you, Nunez topped that one when he hit a shot that actually ended up going backwards! It all happened so quickly, and everyone was on a high as we'd just gone two up, so Antonio got away with it and I daresay many of you had forgotten about it. It made me laugh though.

It was a relief seeing Garcia come out for the second half, but it was obvious he wasn't right. There was no way we could have left him in midfield, as he would have offered no protection to Riise.

The sensible option was to move Vladi there and just give Luis a free role behind Baros where he couldn't do too much harm (to us). Baros was comfortable enough on his own, and didn't need much support, so we still had a good shape to the side and didn't look in any trouble.

Milan should have put the game beyond any doubt when Stubbs comically trod on the ball presenting the Czech with a free run on goal. He never looked confident though as he ran through, and as he approached Martyn his hesitancy was clear and Hibbert got back to make a brilliant challenge.

Worse was to follow for Milan, when he went clean through again shortly afterwards. This time he did everything right, dummying Martyn and sending him to ground. Unfortunately as he dinked the ball over the prone keeper, Martyn flicked out his leg in desperation and managed to get a toe on it to send it wide.

I really can't blame Milan for that at all, it was just a fantastic - and slightly fortunate - save. Milan's day would go from bad to worse soon after, when he was red carded for a foul on Stubbs.

At the time I thought it was a ridiculous decision, although I was sat on the opposite side of the ground and didn't have a great view of it. As I came out of Anfield at the end I heard people saying it was bad one and he had to go, so I just assumed it was.

Having seen it again from several angles on tv, am I the only person who thinks that it wasn't THAT bad? To me it looked like he was just closing him down and tried to block the clearance. Milan missed that ball by a fraction. He was a split second late, and for me it was just a typical forwards tackle.

You see them every week, and it usually just ends up with a yellow card. And has anyone ever seen Milan lose his temper and deliberately try and hurt someone? I haven't, despite the fact he gets kicked from pillar to post every week.

He isn't one to lose his head and start kicking people, yet no-one seems prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. This is a lad with no disciplinary problems on the field, and he's a player with a cool temperament despite coming in for 'special treatment' off defenders every week.

Now we're expected to believe he set out on some revenge mission to get Stubbs? One pundit (may have been Strachan) even tried to explain it away by showing a foul by Weir on him which happened a few minutes earlier. The suggestion was that he fouled Stubbs to get his own back, not realising it was a different player.

Baros has been hammered by everyone for this. Stubbs even called him a 'shithouse' live on Radio Merseyside afterwards. The next day he was bleating on about how it was a 'career ending tackle'. Diddums.

It looked bad, but as I say, Milan missed the ball by a mili-second. His eyes were on the ball the whole time, and although I'm in the minority here, I don't think he set out to do Stubbs at all. As I say, forwards tackle and you see them every week.

The irony is that Baros has the shit kicked out of him every week and not a word is said. He commits a foul himself for a change and suddenly he's public enemy number one.

I don't think it was a red card, but given the way Weir ran forty yards towards him looking like he wanted to kill him, I can see why the referee shit out and took the easy option. Rob Styles saw Weir, and then it was a footrace to see who would reach Baros first.

No surprise that Weir lost out of course, but seeing Styles brandish the red card was a shock. When you look at what Ferguson got away with from the moment he lumbered onto the field, Milan can feel very hard done by.

Once we were reduced to ten, nine and a half really given Garcia's condition, we were in trouble.

The blues had just been bombarding us with high balls, but we'd been coping relatively well, especially as we had the threat of Baros on the break which gave them plenty to worry about.

With no Baros, they could just throw men forward and keep pumping high balls up to the tampon.

When he nodded one down for Cahill to drill a fine low shot into the bottom corner (Dudek was beaten far too easily again for me though), it was panic stations.

I really thought we'd end up losing it at the end, as given the amount of setbaks we'd suffered it just seemed inevitable.

Surpisingly though, they didn't really managed another effort on goal, as the defence performed heroicly, ably backed up by the midfield who worked tirelessly.

The sweetest thing about this victory for me was seeing the amount of time wasting we did. I've seen the blues do this to us on so many occasions, and it's been so hard to take.

So this was payback time. Every time the ball went behind the goal, Riise was signalling to the stewards to just drop the ball and not throw it back to Dudek. The stewards duly obliged, Jerzy had to trot over to retrieve the ball, then he'd walk to the far side of the goal and take the kick. 30 seconds or so wasted, and it happened several times.

Finnan twatted the ball into Kop after they scored, which took the wind out of their sails as they had to wait for a replacement ball to be sent on.

Perhaps the funniest piece of time wasting occurred when the ball went into the Paddock next to the bench. Some lad caught it, and as Moyes raced over to get it off him, the lad just turned and walked away up the Paddock steps with the ball in his hands.

It was hilarious, as Moyes flipped his lid big time, grabbing a policeman and trying to get him to throw the lad out. I was pissing meself, and whoever that lad is, respect to him.

The scenes at the final whistle were unusual, a we're normally a lot more reserved in victory than that. However, given what was at stake in this game, and given all what we went through to get the points, the players were entitled to go nuts.

Even Rafa got involved, making his way onto the field to embrace his players. This is the man who simply looked at his watch and nodded when Mellor scored that last gasp winner against Arsenal. He's normally Mr Cool, but this meant a lot to him.

It meant a lot to everyone. Steven Gerrard won't get this feeling anywhere else. Does he really want this to be his last Merseyside derby? The best thing he can do now is to come out and deny Mourinho's claim, and pledge his future to the club.

What better boost could we have going into a difficult series of games with a depleted squad. I don't think he will do it, but he should do.

This was a massive result, but it came at a price. It looks like we'll face Bolton with NO RECOGNISED STRIKERS available. Baros' recklessness (and that's all it was in my opinion) has given Rafa a big problem unless Morientes recovers quicker than expected.

We may go into that game with Le Tallec and Smicer up front, which doesn't inspire confidence. It seems inconceivable that we have five strikers (six if you count Kewell) and none of them are available.

But you won't hear Rafa complaining about it, he'll just get on with things, and that's what I love about the guy. No matter what happens, he'll just shrug his shoulders, and try to overcome the problem.

It's up in the air whether we get that fourth spot or not, but even though we're four points behind the blues, I'm more worried about Bolton now.

Looking at the blues' upcoming fixtures, I don't see them picking up that many points. We simply HAVE to beat Bolton, or they'll be right in the thick of it.

As a fellow fanzine editor pointed out to me before the derby, if Bolton were to nick that fourth spot, how much money would El Hadji Diouf have cost this club altogether?

Beating the blues was massive, but we have to repeat the level of intensity when Bolton come to Anfield, or this will all be in vain.

The star man could have gone to any of several. Gerrard was excellent, Finnan was superb again (that guy is never less than a 7 out of 10 these days), Riise had a steady game, Hamann was running things until he went off, whilst Garcia was skilful and courageous, a worthy matchwinner.

Pellegrino had another solid game, and Hyypia has a big problem now getting his place back. I think Sami is better than 'big Pele', but maybe the fact that 'the long pork sausage' is familiar with how Benitez wants his side to defend is giving him the egde?

Carra was man of the match for me though. He stood up to everything they threw at him, and wasn't intimidated by Drunkan's bullboy tactics. His celebration at full time was worth the entrance money alone, great stuff.

It's always sweet beating the blues, and they took it with predictably good grace. Stubbs calling Baros a 'shithouse' on the radio, Moyes bitching and whining about not getting more stoppage time at the end, and the lunatics causing mayhem outside the bluehouse afterwards.

Apparently Moyes went on and on about the lack of stoppage time in the after match press conference, until eventually Paul Joyce from the Express sarcastically asked "So do you think that was the only difference between the two sides then David?" Class.

It wasn't too long ago the word from the Everton camp was that they're looking up at trying to catch Arsenal, they aren't interested in what we're doing anymore.

After Sunday they're most definitely hearing footsteps marching up behind them. "We're looking down on the redshite" they taunted from the away end. Well he who laughs last and all that. There's a long way to go yet, and that gap is getting smaller and smaller.

Liverpool: Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Pellegrino, Warnock (Nunez); Garcia, Hamman (Biscan), Gerrard, Riise; Baros, Morientes (Smicer):

Agree or disagree? Email me at dave@liverpoolway.co.uk

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