VIEW FROM THE STANDS: Can life get any better... hopefully

Jan 21 2008 by Mark McKenna, Liverpool Daily Post

AFTER pumping billion upon billion into the Premier League, Sky may well have been checking that they kept their receipt after yesterday’s no-show of the beautiful game.

The Office of Fair Trading would have viewed their case favourably for faulty goods after the 90 minutes at the JJB Stadium.

The three points that have put us fourth are heaven sent, but in all honesty, if you counted up the minutes that we actually played anything like our best, you’d be struggling to reach double figures.

The end product was probably in fitting with the surroundings though. The JJB is the sporting equivalent of a flat-pack stadium. Sweat drips off the forehead at the prospect of playing at a bigger version of this effort in Kirkby.

But at the end of the day, who are we to complain?

We came, we saw, we conquered… albeit not in the most ‘cultural’ of manners in fitting with the Capital of Culture celebrations.

After the initial howl of a rare wasted ball by Mikel Arteta, it was then apparent that the best little Spaniard we know had placed a precision pass to Titus ‘Shambles’ to in-turn put Andy Johnson clean through on goal.

You could tell the first goal had been practised on the training ground all week!

Yesterday’s game was about the spirit and not the skill of the squad. Though he self-admits he has his obvious limitations, the positive reaction of Phil Neville to be substituted spoke realms for how bonded the squad are.

So here we are, fourth in the league and looking down on the red side, in the semi-final of the League Cup and progressing well in the UEFA Cup… does life get better than this?

By midnight on Wednesday, hopefully the boys in the Royal Blue jerseys will have proved it does!