Journey. People. Connections. Cobham. My neighbours are annoying. I am a thorn in their sides. Long may it continue!
Never easy writing these post loss but it wouldn’t be right to ignore one just because things didn’t go our way. In a season where so much as transcended into true Poetry in Motion the hiccup may have deflated that gas bubble in the stomach… it won’t stop you from taking another sip from the cup from the cup of glory.
The journey started with Chivasino getting to mine. From mine to DesiKopite and a ropey Ap823. He wasn’t drunk… just a touch of the Delhi Belly quite literally. His medication held out til we got to Norton Caines services. This was an interesting stop – was always going to be when you arrive just as 3 Chelsea fans coaches turn up to. They look at you. You look at them. They look strange. We must look the same to them.
We don’t really care do we?
It’s like fear and loathing in equal measure. We don’t really fear them. I don’t particularly loathe them. The reverse cannot be stated for them.
We got to Anfield just around midday. The noise and colour from the Annie Road was amazing. If the league was won on support alone we would be in with a shout and then some. As the coach passed that emotion of what we all want must have hit them. The club must have been in on it… before kick off who do they bring out to the pitch?
Luis Garcia. Heaven. If the noise hadn’t been deafening before it was now. Game on. Looking at the Chelsea team there weren’t any surprises bar the defender I’d never heard of. They even had the spitting image of one of the lads out of High School Musical. Him and Willian definitely use the same hairdressers I’m sure. His name is Nathan Ake in case you are wondering.
First halfAll Maureen slow down tactics deployed. Hold the ball, change the players, roll the ball elsewhere. Timewaste, timewaste, timewaste. As frustrating as it was it was only to be expected. The frustration must have its effects on the decibels of the crowd too as we went up and down like a sine wave. We went close via Sakho but the tactics were clear to see. Chelsea were set to annoy and disturb any sort of rhythm.
Seeing only 3 minutes of extra time when you reckon at least 7 was a shocker. That shock game with a sting in the tail. Stevie slipped. Ba scored. Whistle blows
First half musingsMaureened
More Maureened
Sturridge downstairs with 10mins of half left. Possibly to get ready for 2nd. We need him
Now to see what we really have
We start with You’ll Never Walk Alone for our team
Second halfRepeat ad nauseam of the first half. I don’t know how it happened or why but Lucas and Suarez made it into the 18 yard box, stopped assuming off side and it wasn’t. More frustration. The bus got stronger and bigger. Nothing new there. We tried. We huffed, puffed and couldn’t blow their house down. Allen close. Gerrard close. Suarez close.
More repeat ad nauseam of the first half. 4 mins of time added on. They break. They score. We’re all trying down the other end.
Liverpool 0, Chelsea 2. A bad day at the office but we haven’t lost anything yet. The day didn’t end as bad though.
So it's happened. My last loss seen at Anfield was a very very long time ago. It was against United on 23rd Sept 2012. That’s an awfully long time. I have to admit to holding an internal flame for winning the league towards the latter part of last year. We were all conquering and then it came to a bit of an abrupt halt thanks to Man City and Chelsea. Leaving those grounds post loss I used to say to myself that I’d possibly been a bit silly for getting giddy for believing. My reality check on those thoughts was a simple one – if we don’t believe then what do we expect will change? So much as changed under this run so for all the neigh sayers I say this – if there was no belief and all we did was presume negativity then we’d just drag ourselves backwards.
The journey back was all about being together. We ride together. We dine together…err bad boys for life?
It was the best non-victory pizza I’d had in a long time. We are all a bit deflated but we all cheered ourselves up and did it with the company we had. Many thanks Aman – your pizzas rock!
So what happens next? It’s 12 rounds in boxing. We’ve got 2 left. When this run started we weren't in control of its destiny. Then results meant we were. We are now back at the first point. The finishing line is still at the same place. The punches may not all be ours to land but while we have to box clever we can apply the blows we need to. I firmly believe this. We do what we do best which is play our game and wipe people off the park.
We have us. We are much stronger than we realise. We fall. We graze. We can dust ourselves off and carry on. If anyone knows how to triumph in the face of adversity it is us. Nothing is beyond our collective power.
Oh yeah - Post match music. Stevie Wonder. Helped in the morning. Don’t ya worry ‘bout a thing