Liverpool 1 - 0 Everton

Where do you start with a match like that?
As I have been late in submitting the report, it afforded me the opportunity (if you can call it that) to look at the Vital Everton match report before writing mine. When I finally stopped laughing that is. Evertonians are a different breed at the best of times but this was a great example of bitterness.
We went into the game off the back of improved results if not necessarily, form. We had been told all week that we were going to get smashed as Everton hadn`t been beaten in the league since we picked up our annual 3 pts at Goodison in the autumn. They said it was the worst Liverpool team they have seen in years and that they were going to play us off the park. Well they didn`t and that was with us only having ten men for the majority of the game.
Firstly to the dismissals. The big Greek deserved to go because he went in with both feet. No arguments. However, microphone head should have walked also for his sh!thouse over the top tackle when he tried to maim the Greek. This, after kicking Dirk in the face, whilst he was prone on the ground. Sh1thouse. Again Pienarr shouldn`t have been on the pitch until the last minute either as his 'tackle` on Masch was the worst of the game and could have been a leg breaker. I am not going to blame the ref as both set of players were going in very hard but maybe an earlier booking would have calmed things down a little. Everton are always very physical when they play us (school of science? Arf!) and it was nice that we matched them for a change.
After Dirk got a kick to the face it was nice for him to score the winning goal and keep up his good run of goals against the blues. For us to be playing with ten men, we were very rarely threatened as Everton didn`t have the nous or apparent desire to make the numerical advantage count. I had previously written that Dirk needed a rest as he was in poor form before xmas and, again, he has proved me wrong by going on a rich vein of goal scoring form when we needed it most. Dirk is never going to be the most technical player on the team but if they all had his heart, we would take some stopping.
Liverpool, after being written off a number of weeks ago, now sit in the top 4 for the first time since the start of October. We have a couple of very hard games coming up at the Emirates and Eastlands so a continued push is required. We will have a couple of influential players coming back at the right time as well with Yossi, Johnson and Torres all coming into the team within the next month. Arsenal have probably been put out of the title race in the last two/three games and could even be looking nervously at 4th if we put them to the sword on Wednesday.
Still, onwards and upwards. It is never a bad weekend beating the blues. They continue to worship the 'Moyesiah` and ridicule that fat Spanish waiter.
Moyes` points won in Merseyside derbies vs Rafa - 8
Rafa`s points won in Merseyside derbies vs Moyes - 26

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.