There was drifting fog, just like on the afternoon 55 years ago when Yeovil Town laid the foundation stone for their FA Cup legend. There was terracing at both ends and a wet West Country pitch that threatened to cut up. There was, on paper, a wonderful mismatch between the four-times European club champions and a team in its first season in the league. All yesterday's third-round tie at Huish Park lacked was the outcome that would have engraved the match in football history. On an almost windless day, the mist drifted slowly around the stadium without ever threatening to affect the outcome. The pitch stayed firm and true, unlike the ploughed field on which Watford confronted Chelsea on Saturday. After 45 minutes of enjoyable uncertainty, form and fitness finally asserted an inexorable influence. And so, without remotely distinguishing themselves, Liverpool retain interest in a competition that offers one of the few reasons for hope.
Richard Williams, Guardian
Heskey provides missing link
From the chants of “Heskey for Weymouth”, the forward can be certain that there is no corner of England where he is safe from derision — not even Somerset — and he will soon be surplus to requirements at Liverpool, given Gérard Houllier’s long and dogged pursuit of Djibril Cissé, the France and Auxerre forward who will sign for around £12 million before too long. With his England place lost to Wayne Rooney, the notoriously lethargic giant has good reason to be down in the dumps but it was his vigour and opening goal that ensured victory for Liverpool yesterday after his introduction early in the second half. Houllier’s men needed something to liven them up because, for the opening 45 minutes, they looked so laboured that they might as well have been playing up Yeovil Town’s old slope.
Matt Dickinson, Times
Liverpool lift pressure on Houllier
Just as the fog and some noted giant-killers were rolling in around a worried Liverpool yesterday, conjuring up the mists of times when Len Shackleton's Sunderland were famously sent packing at the old Huish Park, the latest distinguished guests to Yeovil Town regained their nerve and survived. Rallying around the impressive figure of Dietmar Hamann, Liverpool ended Yeovil's habitual knockout heroics for another year through second-half goals from Emile Heskey and Danny Murphy. Peering through the deteriorating light, ultimately there was little romance to behold, no celebration of a colourful addition woven into the tapestry of Cup upsets. Not quite.
Henry Winter, Telegraph
Heskey carves a path past Yeovil's bold challenge
The romantics hoped the fog swirling in from the Mendips yesterday afternoon contained the ghosts of the Yeovil yeomen who felled then mighty Sunderland at the old Huish Park 55 years ago. Romance, though, has its limits and the Lufton Trading Estate, venue of the new, flat Huish, will not go down in lore as the graveyard of Gérard Houllier's Liverpool ambitions. Houllier's team are some way from threatening the pre-eminence of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea but, with this ultimately comfortable victory, they have bought their manager time. They may also have generated the vital self-confidence their game has lacked.
Glenn Moore, Independent
