Chapter 3
Saturday 10th September 2011
Liverpool Vs. Manchester City
I woke that morning to what had become the very familiar sound of the toilet flushing, more to the point of Sarah flushing the toilet after the first bout of her morning sickness that day. She walked back through to our bedroom, still looking gorgeous despite what I had just woken up to. She climbed back into bed next to me and put my arm around her, my hand on her belly and on our unborn child.
It had been three weeks since we had made the rest of the league look up and take notice, since then, due to an international break, which saw England guarantee a playoff place for the Euro 2012 competition with a 1-0 win over Bulgaria (Rooney (26)) and a 2-0 win over Wales in Cardiff (Gerrard (57), Carrick (66)). We had gotten through to the third round of the Carling Cup where we would face Tottenham Hotspur, after beating Walsall 3-0 (Torres (1 & 53), Babel (59)), and I Personally had won the Manager of the month after our three wins over Sunderland, West Ham and Chelsea. And going into the game against one of richest clubs in the world, we hadn’t conceded a goal and were sitting top of the league. The only downside to the past three weeks was that Adam Johnson had picked up an injury in the Carling Cup game against Walsall, meaning I would be without my £7 million winger for five to six weeks. But despite the injury I was confident that Ryan Babel and Danny Rose were more than capable of filling in.
Big games come thick and fast in the Premier League, and whilst in Italy anybody can beat anybody, in England the fans of every club expect you to beat everybody you face and the pressure was already building on me as I arrived at Anfield, the fans expecting us to beat Manchester City of the back of our win against Chelsea, and if I was honest I would have to say I was quietly confident we could, especially as we welcomed back Steven Gerrard after his suspension and I had also added another player in the form of Gai Assulin (£4.5m) from Seville.
The game started well, we took control and created chances, Torres and Gerrard combinding well only for Given to save smartly from Torres’ header. Babel and Kuyt both went close with long shot before we finally got our break through. Gerrard broke free from Barry in the center of the park, played the ball into Torres who turned, looked up and tried to play Gerrard in, but the ball richoted off Toure, and fell to Ngog. David coolly took his chance and slotted home past Given, the crowd erupted as I jumped from my seat in celebration. Man City kicked off and went on the attack almost instantly, Tevez’s shot just going wide, and Stephen Ireland forcing a great save from Reina. From the corner, Carragher headed clear and we broke on the counter attack, Gerrard bringing the ball forward, he played it out wide to Kuyt, who chipped the ball over Toure’s head for Torres, but the ball skipped on and Torres was out wide when he pulled the ball back, to Gerrard who hit the ball first time. Given didnt stand a chance as the ball flew past the Irishman to make it 2-0. It remained that way until half time, City having chances through Tevez and Barry, us through Carragher’s header from a corner in the final minutes of the first half.
The second half kicked off, us attacking our favoured end, The Kop. And it didn’t take long for us to create our first chance, Gerrard’s shot saved by Given and the follow up cleared off the line by Toure. Barry hit the post in the fiftieth minute, Toure’s header was cleared off the line by Bale in the sixtieth, before I bought on Lopez for the tiring Ngog. Just three minutes later I was forced to make another change as Stephen Ireland crashed into Babel, the Dutchman dropping to the turf in pain instantly. As Babel was stretchered off, I replaced him with Danny Rose. Man City and more to the point Adebayor took advantage of our slightly unbalanced team, and on seventy minutes Adebayor broke down our left, past Rose and Bale, the later he cut inside of and was one on one with Reina. The Spanish man got a hand to Adebayor’s shot but was unable to stop it and the Man City made it 2-1 with twenty minutes to go. Man City once again went close through Tevez, Reina tipping the ball on to the post and wide in the eightieth minute, before Kuyts’s shot was saved by Given and Agger’s header flashed just wide from a corner.
The crowd were praying for the final whistle as Man City heaped on the pressure, Barry’s free kick flicking the top of the wall and just going over and Tevez crafting out a chance for himself which Reina saved. With three minutes of injury time, we broke on the counter again, Gerrard trying to pass the ball to Torres, lead to a corner, which Gerrard wiped into the box. Agger flicked the ball on at the near post, Lopez met it with a powerful header only for the ball to cannon off the underside of the bar, from where I was I couldn’t see if had crossed the line, but the Kop, the player and even some Man City players thought it had. But the ref didnt give it, and Man City broke, Tevez gliding past Bale and through on Goal, Reina stood tall but Tevez flicked the ball past him. It looked destine to go in, the ground was silent as the ball got closer and closer, I thought it was in as Glenn Johnson came from no where and saved it on the line. A cheer of relief more than anything rung around Anfield as I took a huge breathe out and looked over at Roberto Mancini, He looked at me and the two of us just had to smile at each other, me in relief, him in, well I don’t know what. Finally the crowd erupted as You’ll never walk alone rang out the ref blew his whistle and called to close the game, and our 2-1 victory over Man City!
I walked over to Roberto, a look of pure relief on my face as we shook hands, he leaned over and said something to me, but to this day I had no idea what due to the loudness of the crowd, but to be honest I didnt really care, I wanted to go and find my captain Steven Gerrard, I eventually found him as he walked toward the famous Anfield steps. He looked over at me and put his arm around me
“Get in there!!!”
I left Anfield that night quite possibly the happiest man in England, we were now two points clear of our local rivals Everton, and Chelsea, three ahead of Arsenal and Man City. Whilst we were only four games in, we had already beaten two of the top four and maybe just maybe we could actually push on and challenge for the league. But it was early day and there was a long, long way to go yet. But maybe, just maybe I could finally be the manager who could end all those years of hurt that Anfield had suffered.
I walked into our apartment and was met by a huge kiss from Sarah, the best part of having a beautiful football loving, pregnant girlfriend, is that she doesn’t want to go out on a Saturday night, instead she’s quite happy to stay in and watch Match of the day, so that’s what we done, with a Chinese on our laps, we sat and watched as our highlights came on first, Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Middlesbourgh, Chelsea’s 2-0 win at Newcastle and a thrilling 2-2 draw was player out at Bristol City as they hosted West Ham before I realised Sarah had fallen asleep. As I went to wake her up, my phone rang and did the job for me. It was Chris Morgan.
“Yeah Hi..............................Really is it bad........................how long will he be out for...................Really?............and with Adam out as well..................yeah ok................Yeah thanks for ringing me................ok mate............yeah I’ll be in first thing to see him”
I hung up the phone and sat down next to Sarah, before she could ask me who it was, I told her it was Chris with new on Ryan Babel. He had broken his foot and would be out for five months. And with Adam Johnson out for the next five weeks at least It left me short on the left hand side. But I was also confident in Danny Rose’s and Gai Assulin’s ability to cover for them, I was confident that our squad was more than capable of dealing with the injuries in any positions. If anything injuries would bring the team together, make us stronger and more determined to go out and win every game, to win the league and cup. To win everything we possibly could!
