A nice light-hearted article from the Post:
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Welcome back that giddy feeling
Sep 6 2007
Red Watch
By Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post
GO ON. It’s all right. No-one’s watching. Just pull it out of your pocket, sneak a quick look and then put it back. You can get it out again in an hour or so, and no-one will think worse of you.
After all, what self-respecting Liverpool fan would walk around without a laminated copy of the Premier League table at the moment?
Top of the league, no arguments, no games in hand which would allow teams below to leap-frog above us. And the international break, while irritating in that it interrupts our current impressive run, at least allows us to bask in this euphoria for a full two weeks.
Then if we beat Portsmouth, we could be three points clear for a few hours and then, given our goal difference, we’ll probably still be top for another week and then, and then… Okay, nurse I’ll calm down now I promise. But there’s no denying the spring in your step, the child-like glee, the sense that the natural order of things has been restored, that being top of the table brings to your day-to-day existence.
This experience will be different of course according to age: those of you who are still in the bloom of relative youth may be confused by this sudden feeling of well-being, even slightly embarrassed by the positive effect on your demeanour generated by just four football matches; for those of us who been around rather longer, the joy is that of an old flame, long-forgotten, suddenly reappearing and wondering why they ever left you in the first place.
Yet, as Rafa has commanded us, we must not get carried away, no, no. If you’re looking for cautionary tales, then a quick trip back to the last time we occupied this heady position is all that is required. After Salif Diao (yes, THAT Salif Diao) sent us to the top with a 1-0 win at Leeds (yes, THAT Leeds) five years ago, we stayed there for three weeks before embarking on a run of 11 games without a win, slipping to seventh before a minor revival lifted us to fifth at the end of the season.
Could this happen again? Are the Premiership Gods, wearing their Man United and Chelsea scarves, merely conjuring up new ways to torture us, building up our hopes before restoring the appalling away form of recent years?
Fear not my comrade, but take solace in this: that winless run of 2002 featured the likes of Traore, Biscan, Diouf, Baros, Smicer and the aforementioned Diao. Compare their like to Agger, Alonso, Mascherano, Babel and Torres. We’re in safer hands this time around, so cast those doubts aside, and revel in a genuine title challenge for the first time in recent memory.
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Welcome back that giddy feeling
Sep 6 2007
Red Watch
By Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post
GO ON. It’s all right. No-one’s watching. Just pull it out of your pocket, sneak a quick look and then put it back. You can get it out again in an hour or so, and no-one will think worse of you.
After all, what self-respecting Liverpool fan would walk around without a laminated copy of the Premier League table at the moment?
Top of the league, no arguments, no games in hand which would allow teams below to leap-frog above us. And the international break, while irritating in that it interrupts our current impressive run, at least allows us to bask in this euphoria for a full two weeks.
Then if we beat Portsmouth, we could be three points clear for a few hours and then, given our goal difference, we’ll probably still be top for another week and then, and then… Okay, nurse I’ll calm down now I promise. But there’s no denying the spring in your step, the child-like glee, the sense that the natural order of things has been restored, that being top of the table brings to your day-to-day existence.
This experience will be different of course according to age: those of you who are still in the bloom of relative youth may be confused by this sudden feeling of well-being, even slightly embarrassed by the positive effect on your demeanour generated by just four football matches; for those of us who been around rather longer, the joy is that of an old flame, long-forgotten, suddenly reappearing and wondering why they ever left you in the first place.
Yet, as Rafa has commanded us, we must not get carried away, no, no. If you’re looking for cautionary tales, then a quick trip back to the last time we occupied this heady position is all that is required. After Salif Diao (yes, THAT Salif Diao) sent us to the top with a 1-0 win at Leeds (yes, THAT Leeds) five years ago, we stayed there for three weeks before embarking on a run of 11 games without a win, slipping to seventh before a minor revival lifted us to fifth at the end of the season.
Could this happen again? Are the Premiership Gods, wearing their Man United and Chelsea scarves, merely conjuring up new ways to torture us, building up our hopes before restoring the appalling away form of recent years?
Fear not my comrade, but take solace in this: that winless run of 2002 featured the likes of Traore, Biscan, Diouf, Baros, Smicer and the aforementioned Diao. Compare their like to Agger, Alonso, Mascherano, Babel and Torres. We’re in safer hands this time around, so cast those doubts aside, and revel in a genuine title challenge for the first time in recent memory.
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