MARK LAWRENSON: Derby victory may be good omen for Liverpool

Oct 23 2007

FOR the rest of this week, Liverpool and Everton will have to adhere to the old cliche about derbies being one-off occasions when the form book goes out of the window.

They have big games in Europe and dwelling on events at Goodison won’t help the preparation one bit.

Liverpool might have won but it was one of those days when they didn’t play particularly well and got away with it. When it was 11 against 11 they were second best and didn’t really create much.

And if you can take Steven Gerrard off for committing the heinous crime of showing passion in a Merseyside derby than I, for one, have officially given up trying to second guess what Rafael Benitez will do.

But it ultimately worked out for him and at least he knows now he doesn’t necessarily have to rely on his captain or Fernando Torres to steal a win from a tight game.

That’s the fact that will give him the most confidence when he goes for the victory he needs in Besiktas tomorrow. As for Everton, the start of their UEFA Cup group campaign couldn’t have been better timed.

Imagine if they hadn’t made it this far and the had a full week to wait between the derby defeat and this weekend’s trip to Derby. It would’ve been agony. As it is, they don’t have long to wait to get over the result and they’ll be desperate to make amends for what they feel was daylight robbery against Liverpool.

All they need to do is play at the same tempo and with the same philosophy and they should kick off with a much-needed win.