Author Topic: What we have witnessed this season, now onto 2014-15. Liverpool FC 2 - Toons 1  (Read 7087 times)

Offline Harinder

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There is always something I pin my hopes on. A sign, an observation, a pipedream or two. Yesterday we had rainbows in the South, a biker group called God's Squad on the M40 and Cafu coming to see his Scouse version. Not to mention 40 odd thousand fans ready and waiting. For all the cynics we have in our collective I doubt any of them didn't have half a hope that Big Fat Sam may produce a miracle at the Etihad Stadium

My journeys are very often alone. It's not because I'm a loner, far from it. Just because no-one lives near me really and I've kind of got used to it. It's usually me, the car and a podcast or two. I'm sure this will change though next season and RAWK has a lot to do with that. This inevitably is bad news for the missus though as it only means I'll be even more up for the visits to Anfield and beyond.

With that I think it's only fitting to thank Mrs Kaur for her understanding. A footballing fans widow of sorts from August to May every year. Each weekend dictated by where I'll be and whether I will make that function or party. I'll give up Anfield for a worthy cause or to take care of those closest to me. If it's some no mark who's got a pretentious get together then you'll find me coming off junction 21a of the M6 before you see me anywhere near them.

Thank you Mrs Kaur. For just letting me be me every time I go to the match. Just don't hold it against me when I start taking the little one too  :)

Talking of journeys my one had a twist. A very Scandinavian one at that! Hedging my bets I'd already planned to stay the night in Liverpool. Win, lose or draw I was going to stay and be around the city that has produced a club that has global support. I already agreed way back towards the end of February that I'd help Aristotleish for Newcastle. When one is coming all the way from Iceland early planning certainly helps. Nobody had any idea what the run was going to turn into then so he'd certainly picked a great match to come for respective to the build up to it since then. He just wasn't the twist though here... Norway was  :)

I'd parked in town at The Central and flagged a cab. Cabbie said he'd be happy to take me on my own but would rather get as many to the ground in one journey. Cue 3 complete strangers holding a lot of hot coffee also looking to go to the ground. Oh, and a random gentleman from Chester. 5 in the cab and off we go.

"So where is everybody from?" I ask

"Norway" say the 3 from err Norway

"Chester" said the other man.

"I'm meeting another Scandinavian called Anton from Iceland, do you know him? he's on Red and White Kop!"

"No but meet this lady, she runs the biggest LFC blog in Norway..."

"I've written a couple of books too" she said.

My ears pricked up a little more at this point. I know of a lady. From Norway. She's written a certain book but it can't be her. Five or so minutes pass and I've just got to know

"Hi, sorry. You said you've written a couple of books..."

"Yes, Liverpool FC - Heroes"

"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!! You wrote about David Fairclough. You were on the Anfield Wrap too a few times!!!"

Welcome to Liverpool Ragnhild Lund Ansnes!!! Well I was very very excited now. The last time I shared a cab to Anfield with totally random strangers was back in 2012 for the 2nd leg of the Carling Cup Semi Final.

The other Scandinavian meet and greet was Aristotleish aka Anton. I kept it simple with him. If we win and/or win the league keep the cards. I’ll get new ones. If we lose well I’ll see you back here outside block H. I’d have no issues in replacing cards as we’d be just way too busy celebrating.

Once in I went straight up and joined my family. When I first got my season ticket in 2011 there were 3 of us together so this was like a bit of a reunion across generations. An amazing uncle who’s seen us win everything, his son who’s seen it all but the league, my brother in law and myself who’ve been knocking around for a long time now. I love this about my family. Most are red, a couple on the wrong side of East Lancs Road too but they are nice guys, and all love going to the game (well the LFC fans do). If I could I would get everyone I know to the matches home and away. In 2011 my mission was to get to as many matches as possible. With a Carling Cup win and FA cup final visit the run meant a staggering amount of games for a person who got to under 10 in a year. In some years lucky to even get to one. Even with all that has happened in life and work I can’t stop myself from continuing that mission. I guess like all the other out of towners who come up and travel all over I’m addicted. Committed and addicted… a beautifully dangerous combination!

Stoke is my final frontier by the way. I can’t stand Stoke. I bypass it. One day that may change for the away. Maybe when Stoke has human inhabitants :D

Back to this match. Seeing a line up without Loic Remy and Hatem Ben Arfa boded well. Seeing a line up at the Etihad with a bench like that made me pray harder for that miracle.

First half

Well it couldn’t be any more stranger if you tried. They were having some scarily good moments on the counter with Gouffran powering through a few times and we were breaking as much play down via Glen Johnson as possible. This season, like so many, I get to see him on that wing. I get so see the movement and swiftness at times of things that it makes your mind boggle.

Nothing makes my mind boggle as much as Glen Johnson though. In stop/start mode like those new fangled ECO engines he just never seemed to switch it off so that the engine just kept running.

The deflected goal was a kick in the teeth. We hadn’t been commanding and I don’t think they’d done anything special to warrant a lead but they got one courtesy of a Martin Skrtel deflection. Cruelly that side of the net crisply sounded for Newcastle to be in the lead. Fate would have it that the very same side of the net would be making that sound twice more. I should add we did score via Suarez and a free kick prior but Dowd said no.

When I heard the Geordies sing about the Man City scoreline that little pipedream became a bigger one. One that we could only hope a galloping and marauding Andy Carroll could turn into a reality.

Oh – I know the above isn’t in any chronological order as such. It’s how my mind was though. Timing has been an interesting factor this season as a whole. The timing of an 11 game run. The timing of crucial goals meaning 3 points instead of 1.

The timing of Sturridge missing :-( Fantastic cross from Henderson. Wide by Sturridge. I just didn’t want today to be one of those days and it coming on the last day of the season against Newcastle United who have been on a road to nowhere since January.

First half musings

• Why Glen, why?
• Paging Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan to the Man City aisle
• Paging Glen to the “I love you, you play for Liverpool, sort it out, cheers in advance” aisle
• We’re coming 2nd. I don’t want to believe it. I’ve got the second half to get used to it
• Just what will I do at the weekends until mid-August?

Second half

Cissokho for Flanagan. I didn’t see that coming. Man City now 2-0 up. That one I kind of did.

Another 10 to 15 minutes of us pushing and progressing but without that final bit of quality. I know we’ve been going all season and really didn’t think the tank would be empty today. Maybe we just need to be reinvigorated. Cue Coutinho for Allen.

Finally we scored. It was a fantastic free kick by Gerrard and the way Agger met it was just as brilliant. All I saw was this huge leg come up and put into the net and then him crash into the kop electronic boardings. His muted celebration somewhat expected… I wouldn’t be jumping up and down after that bang with the board :D

1-1.    We definitely finish ahead of the bus wankers.

And then we did it again. Same kind of free kick. Same kind of placement. Different scorer! Thanking you Daniel Sturridge!!! 2-1 to Liverpool and an early shower for Shola Ameobi. Don’t know what happened but all happened within a minute of us scoring the second. We’d also rediscovered our voices. We’d been so charged up for this match that even before we kicked off the chorus of “Liverpool, Liverpool” shook everyone.

That’s 2-1 and we carried on waiting for Fat Sam’s cavalry to come charging through with 3 goals at the Etihad. Anything was possible.

The 2 goals really did seem to charge us up for a grand finale. We played better and with more purpose after this and could have had a few more but it wasn’t to be. We played out the last 10 minutes happily keeping the ball and even when Newcastle went down to 9 men we seemed content. The blur from that to the final whistle and then the players coming back out seemed to be the time when I further got used to second.

There is nothing I ever read into reactions during that parade. Having seen it a few times now every action can be polarised into something. The one that cannot be mistaken though is Brendan Rodgers thumping his heart. What was once seen as an appointment that could have gone so wrong is now seen as brilliance. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Over a season there has been many what if’s and if only’s. One thing won’t change though and will only get better next season and the fact will remain…

…we are poetry in motion :)
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Harinder, one word. Thanks. Enjoyed these enormously this season.
Still Dreaming of a Harry Quinn

Offline BabuYagu

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/snip

A massive thank you for this and all others this season. By far and away my favourite ever regular thread on RAWK.

It is really weird that I feel like I know you. I mean we haven´t even had a conversation online despite sharing the writers forum and yet you give up so much of yourself in every one of these. Like the protagonist in a very well written, character driven series of books. Thanks for that also as it makes everything you write come to life.

After you shouted "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" at the Norweigan lady - what happened? Did she freak out, think you were that stalker and bail out of a moving cab? Also Stoke is a must next season - Hughes has them playing the best football they have ever seen (not a hard challenge there). The only thing I remember about the place is staying in a B&B there the first time I went to Alton Towers as a kid and the owner forever telling me off about having elbows on the table.

Oh, and I am already looking forward to Harinder Jnr's Eye Witness reports in the near(ish) future. :)
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Offline Chakan

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Fantastic mate, can't wait for next season, and these to continue!

Offline Harinder

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A massive thank you for this and all others this season. By far and away my favourite ever regular thread on RAWK.

It is really weird that I feel like I know you. I mean we haven´t even had a conversation online despite sharing the writers forum and yet you give up so much of yourself in every one of these. Like the protagonist in a very well written, character driven series of books. Thanks for that also as it makes everything you write come to life.

After you shouted "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" at the Norweigan lady - what happened? Did she freak out, think you were that stalker and bail out of a moving cab? Also Stoke is a must next season - Hughes has them playing the best football they have ever seen (not a hard challenge there). The only thing I remember about the place is staying in a B&B there the first time I went to Alton Towers as a kid and the owner forever telling me off about having elbows on the table.

Oh, and I am already looking forward to Harinder Jnr's Eye Witness reports in the near(ish) future. :)

ha - cheers mate.

She didn't freak out. In the way of the world we connected in the only way we know how

We followed each other on twitter :D

Stoke is the place nightmares began.

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Offline BabuYagu

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ha - cheers mate.

She didn't freak out. In the way of the world we connected in the only way we know how

We followed each other on twitter :D

Stoke is the place nightmares began.

Facebook/Twitter etc still don't sit right with me. This is my only online profile now. While the rest of the world opens themselves up more and more to the online world I seem to be building a bigger wall :D

Speaking of which- Game of Thrones recruit all their extras from Stoke - true story. 
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Offline Hinesy

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I can only echo what Albie has said, really really enjoyed these. Thanks for this season mate.
Yep.

Offline hoppyLFC

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Fantastic once again Harinder, brilliant reading.

Take care mate and hopefully bump into you again next season. :)
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Offline Corkboy

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Thanks again, H.

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I'll take you to Stoke next season :-)
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Offline RainbowFlick

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I can only echo what Albie has said, really really enjoyed these. Thanks for this season mate.

This.

Look forward to more!
YNWA.

Offline Harinder

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I'll take you to Stoke next season :-)

Lol. A few on here are now saddened at their loss of the guaranteed Stoke away ticket  :)
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Offline Dougle

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For the last time, this time around, thanks very much, great reads and musings on the poetry of the road with the Reds.

Offline Desi Kopite

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Awesome read yet...thanks for all of ur reports Hari!! And look forward to many more trips next season, particularly Euro aways!!

Offline Mighty_Red

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Thanks, great read as always, its put a more cheery spin on the days events - feel a bit better now!
Some clubs were always destined for greatness...

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Enjoyed that as usual mate. You've set yourself up with a task for next season mate.

Offline AP823

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another brilliant read Hari, its interesting to read a regular match goers match day report so I know I wasn't the only one thinking what happened with the red cards and hoping Fat Sam's boys would score 3 with 10 minutes remaining :)
I look forward to the Stoke away and Madrid away next season  ;D
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Offline Frizzo

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Harinder, fantastic! I have loved yours and all our other scribes contributions so much this season. You guys are absolutely tremendous.

I wrote this upon the conclusion of the Man City game. I don't think it deserves it's own thread but I think this'll be a nice place to share it.



Football Fandom: Pain vs Pleasure

“I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.”
― Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch

As I sit here typing, Manchester City are the Premier League champions. They are deservedly the Premier League champions. They had the best, and most consistent team (or ‘squad’ as you have to say nowadays) over the course of the 38-game 2013-2014 season. I sit here typing as a Liverpool fan who truly believed from about halfway through the season that we could, and indeed for large portions that we would, win the league.

It probably doesn’t come as a shock to any of you that it was the 27th of April – the date of Chelsea FC’s visit to Anfield – that I lost that belief. A dominant and comfortable first half performance from Liverpool punctuated by one mistake. One mistake. One mistake that lead to one Chelsea goal. And that would be all they needed, eventually running out 2-0 victors.
There was still hope, but any true belief that I had was gone. And it hurt. A lot.

When I was younger I used to pride myself on how much of a sports fan I was. I had to have more West Coast Eagles memorabilia and paraphernalia than anyone else in school. I had to be the most upset when we lost, and the happiest when we won. For me, then, fandom was like a competition.

Now, it’s a handicap.

I mentioned to my friend during this roller-coaster of a season that if Liverpool were to win the league it would be the happiest moment of my life. This should be prefaced by saying I am yet to marry the girl of my dreams, or hold my first born child – those things normal people seem to think so wonderful – so it seems possible that something could come along one day to give my perspective a much-needed rattling.

I say ‘much-needed’ because I do realise the absurdity of it. A bunch of grown men on the other side of the world kicking a ball around shouldn’t have a bearing on my emotional condition. It shouldn’t turn a good day/week/month/year into a bad one. Or vice-versa.

But it does.

I spent a good few days after that Chelsea game not wanting to do anything. Work, eat, drink, play…I just honestly couldn’t be bothered. The closest feeling I could compare it to was the feeling of losing a long-term girlfriend. You know, one of the one’s you really loved, not one you were honestly getting pretty tired of by the end of it all. The feeling subsided at times, but it was always there…a nagging sickness right in the pit of my stomach.

It was the first time in my life that I actually thought about taking steps to make myself less invested in the fandom. Like a drug addict weening himself off his habit, because as much as he loves the highs, the lows are never far around the corner. You never know when they’re coming, or how bad they’re going to be, but they’re always there. Waiting.

The rest of the season panned out as expected, with City cruising to victories over their inferior combatants, and taking their second title in three years. I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as I enjoyed their first. The slow burn that begun after Chelsea FC’s visit to Anfield was over. The final weeks of the season were expected, and as such didn’t hurt quite as much as they otherwise could have.

I can honestly say (knowing how much it would’ve hurt were we in a similar situation), that I don’t even take huge amounts of joy from the suffering Manchester United fans went through at the hands of their local rivals two years prior. Well, I can’t honestly say it. I can’t even almost honestly say it. But I very very nearly almost can.

Now that it’s all over though I can reflect.

Not just on another season past, but on what being a football fan has brought to my life.

The people. Numbers one, two, and three on my list. The friends I have made that I will carry through my life because of our mutual love for Liverpool are many, and varied. One of my truly best friends was met at a work function. We got on well, but it was only upon discovering that he considered himself a real Liverpool fan (yeah sure, I’ve heard it all before), and also a FIFA genius, that I had to invite him over. Now we’re tighter than [I’ll allow you, dear reader, to finish this metaphor off and leave any vulgarities up to you].

The people.
The people.


The moments. Few (if any) moments in my life have reached the same levels of passion as those that have come courtesy of sport. I remember Dirk Kuyt’s late goal against Manchester United in the 2-1 FA Cup fourth round win with alarmingly crystal clear accuracy. I remember the Andy Carroll header in the same competition’s semi-final against Everton, and all the drinking and singing that followed. The stunning Simon Mignolet penalty double save in his first Premier League game in a red (no, sorry, white) shirt.

The journey. Year after year, season after season. Combine the afore-mentioned people with the afore-mentioned moments, and you get the journey. It’s hard to describe the joy of watching the previously under-rated Jordan Henderson shove it down the football world’s collective throat that he’s an absolute peach of a player, in exactly the same way he plays the game…without fuss and flair, but with sheer determination and grit. It’s hard to describe it unless you’ve been following the journey…enjoying the moments…with the people you love.

Football fandom might be a drug.

No, football fandom is a drug.

But I think I’ll put rehab off until next season.


“...So please, be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever. We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium.”
― Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch

Offline Aristotle

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Just want to start off by saying thank you for your write ups they've been really enjoyable.

Secondly it was an absolute pleasure meeting you in person. It was a truly strange feeling of thrill of winning the game and not winning enough of the other 37. The mood was definitely strange and a mixture of loud singing and muffled sighs. Can't wait to do this again next season!
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Offline Harinder

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Was a sincere pleasure meeting you Anton - see you again next season!
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Offline Latenight Surfer

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An excellent read Harinder Ji  :). In august then.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2014, 04:29:40 am by Latenight Surfer »
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Offline vicgill

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Harinder, one word. Thanks. Enjoyed these enormously this season.


Yes I think I have been rude or forgetful to put my comment after reading your excellent pieces,Harry I have truly enjoyed every single one. Thank you so much 
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Offline Harinder

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Thanks everyone for comments. I'm certainly looking forward to next season!
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Offline Garcias Sangria

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Great read, good stuff mate.
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