LFC FANS VIEW: Let’s make sure we’re not seeing red

Mar 29 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

APPARENTLY the Merseyside derby is the most keenly-fought in Britain. The most bookings and red cards by all accounts.

Factoring in that that includes the Old Firm clashes in Scotland, then it says a lot about the passion that football on Merseyside generates.

The last derby finished with only nine Everton players on the pitch. I hope therefore, that Steve Bennett is not the referee tomorrow as, if he is, we might well be down to a five-a-side game by half time.

There is a lot riding on the outcome of this particular derby and for Liverpool it could not have come at a worse time. We have just suffered a painful defeat at Old Trafford and fate has served us up with another titanic battle.

Three meetings with Wenger's Arsenal in the space of a week. Those games with Arsenal will certainly define our season and possibly theirs as well.

Having the small matter of the cage-fight that is the Merseyside derby as preparation is not what anyone at Liverpool would have wanted I’m sure.

That said, Everton need to win this game more than we do. A draw will be sufficient for us to maintain our points and goal difference lead over them.

If a good part of Liverpool’s season hangs on this game then it’s also be true to say Everton’s season does to an even greater extent. A defeat would probably end their quest for fourth place.

Nobody really looks forward to derby day anymore. The atmosphere has become poisonous – as bad as it is when we play Man United – and the result is the only thing that matters.