THINK of the Merseyside Derby and, in a flash, any number of sporting icons should come flooding into your thoughts.
They are names that will stand the test of time, men whose achievements on the field of battle will still be referred to when this generation is long gone, but never would you have considered linking the great golfer Gary Player with this contest. Until now, that is.
You will know where this is going. Player, of course, famously declared “the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get” and that quote could have been coined for the offering Liverpool served up at a rain-sodden Goodison Park yesterday.
Had this been a boxing match, the judges would, in all probability, have given the verdict to the Blue corner, such was their dominance in round 212 of this local squabble and not many would have been able to quibble with the assessment.
Hemmed against the ropes for most of the first period and a chunk of the second, Liverpool were fortunate Everton’s main goal threat spent the first 65 minutes resting his damaged thigh on the sidelines.
If Louis Saha had passed a fitness test before kick-off, there is a chance this narrative would have been more a post-mortem, reflecting on the latest in a line of sorry results to make the landscape look bleak going into mid-winter.
Yet thanks to perseverance, diligence, hard work and a sheer bloody-minded will to win, Liverpool were able to avoid being caught up in another maelstrom and, instead, got the result which just might kick-start this stuttering campaign into life once and for all.
There is no getting away from the fact Liverpool, as an attacking force, were dreadful, lacking cohesion or any sense of panache and Tim Howard, Everton’s reliable keeper, has probably never had so little to do on derby day.
Fortunately, the performances of the men at the back were a complete juxtaposition and the efforts of Jamie Carragher and Company, who provided the base to grab three precious points, standing tall when some may have expected them to cave in.
“I thought our defending as a team was very good and that is a positive for the future,” a relieved Rafa Benitez noted. “(Daniel) Agger and Carra did a very good job and we had (Javier) Mascherano and Lucas working so hard in the midfield to help the defence.”
Very true. There is no doubt Evertonians will be simmering with a sense of injustice today but there is also grounds for arguing their team got precisely what they deserved from an encounter that was played out in a terrific atmosphere – nothing.
It wasn’t Liverpool’s fault Everton had a striker – one that not long ago cost £24m – who kept wandering into offside positions or a £9.2m winger who couldn’t keep his feet when presented with a glorious chance to change the game.
What’s more, it’s hardly good fortune the Reds were able to keep their neighbours at arms length thanks to the brilliance of Pepe Reina, whose double save in the second half from Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill was the moment of a chaotic match.
Everton, simply, could not make their territorial superiority count and when you fail to take opportunities in games of such significance, there is always the danger it will come back to haunt you – Liverpudlians know that only too well.
Remember the visit of Manchester United in February 2007? Alex Ferguson’s men were battered to the point of submission but still ended up pilfering a 1-0 win; more recently, they failed to put Lyon away after dominating from start to finish.
So while they benefited from a huge slice of good fortune to take the lead after 12 minutes – Mascherano’s initial shot, if we are kind, was heading the wrong side of the post before deflecting off Joseph Yobo – there was nothing lucky about their defending.
Carragher, for one, was flawless; organising his cohorts at the back and chivvying that extra ounce of effort from them, he thundered into tackles, put his foot through bouncing balls and climbed highest for headers.
Alongside him, Agger was never in any danger of being bustled from his elegant stride, Glen Johnson and Emiliano Insua ran from first whistle to last, while Reina – whose save evoked memories of Jerzy Dudek in Istanbul – never put a glove out of place.
“You have to earn your luck,” David Moyes admitted afterwards; if that’s the case, he can have no quarrel with Liverpool’s clean sheet as, the more those defenders scampered and scurried, the less Everton threatened.
Despite winning, however, some continue to harbour grave doubts about Liverpool’s current health and after a performance that failed to see them put together a decent move of note, their minds are unlikely to be at rest.
Victory, though, was all that mattered here and while there may have been a paucity in quality, there was no disputing how much Liverpool wanted it – you only had to look at the celebrations which greeted Dirk Kuyt’s clincher and the final whistle to see that.
Everton might be enduring a similarly wretched run of form but it would have been naïve and misguided, had anyone expected them to simply roll over after a shambolic trip to Hull and back in midweek.
For one, their supporters would not have tolerated a repeat – especially against the arch enemy – and they generated a noise which was designed to help Everton’s players in any way possible; Moyes, equally, was up for the fight.
Happily for Benitez, and the pocket of Reds tucked away in the corner of the Bullens Road, so were Liverpool and there is now reason for believing this result will give the confidence that they should really have taken from flattening United on October 25.
That said, this is no time for making bold predictions; Liverpool, after all, have been so out of sorts for so long this season, that is best to simply look no further than the next game and see what that brings.
In all likelihood, another grind will be in store at Blackburn on Saturday but at least the Reds have shown they will not be fazed by the aerial bombardment Sam Allardyce is inevitably planning.
Liverpool, you see, have got their fight back – and should they continue to work so hard, it will a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ the quality returns to provide a perfect accompaniment.
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