Apologies for the piss taking title but having spent the last week being told that there are moral imperatives in the game just weeks after Beachballgate which is 'funny' apparently, you'll have to forgive me for my jocularity. The FAI's intervention and call for a replay left me flummoxed. It just doesn't happen and to even suggest it proves that they live in a different world from players and fans. Leaving the Stadium of Light back then I never heard one call for a re-match. When referee Jose Maria-Garcia-Aranda gave Roma a penalty and then downgraded it to a corner in 2001, did the Romans shriek to the world? Well, yes, of course they did and I'd do the same but they didn't run off to UEFA with a list of alternative dates. Scousers are often mocked for citing conspiracy theories but Damian Duff's insistence that FIFA and France were allowed through to aid Adidas sponsorship takes the bon-bon. Damian Duff is also sponsored by…you're ahead of me, aren't you?
Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against pointing out wrong-doing but having official bodies make empty demands and hollow requests is ridiculous. Football is an imperfect sport and it's the errors that make it what it is. I've still yet to see the Ngog incident (I was there but on The Kop with a full hundred metres of fog between us. Y'know. Phil Dowd's usual view) but I refuse to feel any guilt. Why? Because years ago we were denied a CL place years ago when a Leeds player dived at Derby on the final day of the season. A penalty was awarded and summarily despatched and we finished fourth. Imagine the horror of finishing so low! Incidentally, the miscreant was Harry Kewell. What you gain in chips you lose in beans.
Ireland were unlucky, desperate unlucky but it's time the FAI and the politicians grew up. You take it and move on. Something will work in their favour in the future. It always does.
Anyway, we've got out own problems. Man City weren't much despite Hughes moaning about his disappointment with a single point. Sorry, but that's not going to cut it, Mark. You've drawn six on the bounce with the most talented squad you'll ever have. If the words 'Guus Hiddink's availability' isn't creeping onto your edge of your thoughts you're seriously deluded. Again, we battered a team and got nowhere. The injury to Agger was a blow and Babel's saw another example of us injuring our own players but we still had enough on the pitch. We huffed and puffed and got our rewards and, thanks to Martin, we took the lead. Then, thanks to Martin, we lost it. Incidentally, I was a bit disappointed about Skrtel's celebration. I wanted him to walk back with his usual granite like stare rather than legging it up the Paddock.
The equaliser saw Liverpool's season in microcosm. Work hard throughout the game albeit with little skill and then allow a man who is a fantastic header of a ball a free go. He had enough time to point at Pepe and shout 'it's going there'. Once that went in, Bellamy (a great player) tore us apart as he should have done from the first whistle. If we hadn't equalised Rafa may be facing the hardest derby of his life. He may still do that. Of course, Lucas was to blame. Who else? His miss was shocking. Dirk Kuyt, however, gets another pass for running around and trying hard. Am I alone in wanting to see Johnson take his place on the right when both he and Kelly come back? Our right hand side has the pace of Colleen Nolan at the moment.
Rafa faces the brickbats again but he'll be used to that. If he takes a press conference sandwiched between the League and the European Cup he'll still be asked about Robbie Keane. He was criticised yesterday for not bringing on Aquilani but I've no doubt he would have had Agger and Babel not limped off. I suppose that's his fault too. I haven't been convinced by Rafa for a long time despite the hackles he raises in the press which is one of the reasons I like him (perish the day when Martin Samuel and Jeff Powell write something nice about him) but it's senseless handing him his hat when there's no alternative to hand. A dream team of Pellegrino and Sammy Lee. Nah. He'll need a win against Debrecen and the other lot, plus a Lyon win before he can turn things around. Yet again this is the most important week of his Anfield career and he can only control two of those outcomes.
He still needs to change certain things. I could appear in front of you every weak and chant 'Clean sheets means points' but, again, no one seems to be listening. If Moyes isn't studying our back four's ability to let people rise unchallenged then he's not the man I took him for. Fortunately for us he'll be dusting off his Heysel references, ready for the nation's press. It's his favourite week of the year. I'll just write his derby notes up for Monday morning. Bad refereeing, Liverpool favouritism, we would never get that decision at Anfield, big clubs get those, Cahill's red card was harsh etc.
Still, he could always order a re-match.