For the second time this season, I headed to the south coast to observe the Reds do the enterprise in testing situations towards Bournemouth. Right here’s a take a look at how the day went.
It was one other early begin for the 1,300 who made the journey to the Vitality Stadium for what was set to be one other big sport within the context of the title race.
Typically it takes explaining the itinerary to a non-football fan to grasp simply how daft it’s to make a 500-mile, 10-hour spherical journey to observe 90 minutes of motion.
Doing it as not too long ago as November I justified it to myself as desirous to tick off a stadium I’d not visited earlier than, however making the choice to go once more proved to me that the fact was purely that the soccer membership consumed me an excessive amount of to overlook out.
It began with a 9am pick-up at The Rocket pub on Queens Drive in Liverpool – with kickoff nonetheless seven-and-a-half hours away the match itself is barely on the mind at this level.
The journey down
A fast pitstop on the companies roughly an hour-and-a-half into the journey adopted, earlier than heading right through to Bournemouth and making good time.
It rapidly grew to become obvious that the climate was going to be an element once more, as was the case for the 2-1 victory within the League Cup.
I vividly recall seeing Caoimhin Kelleher take a objective kick into the wind that started to return again in direction of him in mid-air on that event, however fortunately the situations weren’t fairly as brutal for the league encounter.
Mello Mello was the drop-off level once we arrived in Bournemouth, a pub located round a 15-minute stroll away from the bottom.
We watched most of West Ham‘s 2-2 draw with Sheffield United in there, though it sounded very very like we missed nearly all of the drama by leaving with round 5 minutes of regular time to go.
Two stoppage-time pink playing cards and the most recent objective in Premier League historical past, it should have been an eventful finale, and it was some extent which was joked about as a superb one so far as the larger image of Everton‘s security is worried.
As is commonly the case, once we arrived there have been faces you recognise and solely ever see on the match, individuals who provides you with a nod if you stroll previous them though neither of you already know one another’s title.
Successful in type
Everybody was in good spirits and with good motive: Liverpool are high of the league and even the worst-case situation couldn’t change that on the Vitality Stadium.
The Reds weren’t in a position to get out of the blocks and it ended up being a fairly irritating first half, with little occurring at both finish.
Final season that may have anxious us, the away finish would have change into edgy and people anxieties would typically translate throughout to the pitch.
Solely 12 months in the past we have been subjected to a dismal 1-0 defeat on the identical stadium, the place a Mohamed Salah missed penalty added to the anguish and it grew to become obvious that hopes of a top-four end have been slipping away.
Now there may be an virtually unanimous sense that this group can navigate their approach by totally different matches, and discover methods to win that they have been unable to supply final season.
The opener was a joyous expertise, though we all the time felt assured that it was coming. Darwin Nunez objectives all the time appear to elicit that bit extra vigour within the celebrations amongst supporters
It was the absolute best strategy to begin the second half and also you sensed that it was going to trigger the sport to open up, which is strictly the way it transpired.
Diogo Jota put the sport past doubt with two good finishes, the second of which I’m selecting to consider was arrange by a dummy as he didn’t make contact together with his first try.
Nunez rounded off the scoring with a objective which took it from a win to an announcement win.
It was the second time he’d silenced the Bournemouth crowd this season, scoring an outstanding objective from distance seconds after being mocked for miscontrolling the ball within the wind.
The following ironic rendition of “only a shit Andy Carroll” from the away finish was the icing on the cake, after the house supporters had given the Uruguayan loads of stick throughout the second half.
Embracing the method
It despatched us all residence with smiles on our faces, it reminded us of why we do it and why we make investments a lot of ourselves in keen this group to win, be that from the stadium or all over the world.
As you would possibly count on, the journey residence was a jubilant one.
There have been loads of beers, laughs and songs as we soaked up the sensation of being on high of the Premier League pile.
We would not win the league this season, however as supporters, we’ve got to attempt to embrace the journey and see the place it takes us.
We might have killed to have been on this place a yr in the past, and the stresses that include attempting to topple Man Metropolis are one thing our rivals are trying on at with envy.
Loads can change in a yr and our away kind demonstrates that completely, with the Reds now high of the away desk with six wins from their 11 journeys up to now.
The coach acquired again to The Rocket shortly earlier than midnight and the discussions have been all about once we’ll get to observe this facet once more.
The reply to that’s at Craven Cottage on Wednesday evening, the place we’ll be trying to e-book ourselves one other date at Wembley.
There’s fairly merely no higher group to help on this earth.
