[andy villa]

atmosphere was electric from the holte end... was really buzzing about the game...

we started well and looked good going forward, then liverpool found their rythm and they started to dominate the centre of midfield... hardly surprising when we pretty much only had one player in there actually doing any work as petrov was absolute dogshit for the entire 90 mins...

after liverpool scored, a very fortuitous goal, the liverpool fans woke up and so did the liverpool team and they were the better side until the break....

after half time, we worked hard, but couldnt find any rythm, and our day was summed up in two instances... one where we had a shot and it deflected off carew and out for a goal kidk... when compared with the flukey own goal socred at the other end, you start to get the feeling its simply not your day... and secondly, and most importantly, the best liverpool player on the pitch was wearing an all black strip....

the referee had an absolute nightmare... time after time, he gave decisions to liverpool for either us getting fouled, or their players falling over... absolutely shocking display from a referee and if thats the standard we have to look forward to again this season, then we might as well call it a day now...

disgraceful decisions all over the pitch in favour of liverpool, and thats not even with the decison for the free kick from which gerrard scored a sumptuous winner from... pennant should also have been sent off for raising his hands to bouma yet he didnt even get a yellow card, which would have been his second after an earlier foul on young.... in the end, he gave a free kick to liverpool!!

shocking doesnt even begin to describe this refs performance...

villa finished the stronger out of the two sides as we pushed for an equaliser at the end and when we were amazingly given a decent decision by the ref for the penalty we all thought that was a point gained and with our momentum, we might even sneak a win...

but the ref had other ideas and the rest is history... even after that, we still pushed forward and looked the most likely to score, but it wasnt to be and the day ended in frustration and disappointment...

wasnt a great performance, or even a good one in reality, by either side, but i can take heart from the fact that we fought all game, had two sick players playing, yet there still wasnt much difference between the two sides (liverpool marginally scraping the better of the play), yet we only lost narrowly to a fortuitous own goal and a beauty free kick from a shitty refs decision...

taylor - 5 - jekyl and hyde best describes his performance... brilliant saves one minute, couldnt catch a cold the next...
gardner - 6 - performed admirably at right back, but isnt a right back and was often out of position...
laursen - 4 - was ill and taken off at half time... looked and played like it too, scoring an own goal in the process...
mellberg - 6 - got stuck in, and worked hard...
bouma - 5 - worked hard defensively, but his crossing when going forward was abysmal...
reo-coker - 6 - worked hard, made a lot of tackles, got forward, but didnt have much help from his central midfield partner... his passing wasnt the best either...
petrov - 3 - worst player on the pitch... passing was awful, didnt support the attack, dallied on the ball, and generally gave it away a lot.... really poor...
barry - 6 - worked hard and offered some composure when he cut into the middle, but then that left us exposed on our left... when he moved to left back, he got forward and put in some good balls, but again, we were exposed at the back...
young - 7 - when moved back out wide, he ran at players and frightened them so much they had to triple up on him... unfortunately, the poor movement from his team mates meant that we couldnt take advantage of this....
agbonlahor - 5 - worked hard but no real end product..
carew - 4 - poor performance.. was ill apparently, so shouldnt have been on the pitch... didnt hold up the ball well, flick ons were poor and he just wasnt at the races....

subs
cahill - 6 - nothing spectacular... did his job well enough...
moore - 7 - held the ball up, made some clever runs and looked dangerous...

ref
riley - 0 - piss poor... might as well have come out wearing a liverpool shirt...

one last comment for those who are commenting on the game from the motd highlights...

how they missed off half the action, in favour of liverpool, il never know... not showing several of our chances, the pennant "red card" incident, or our play near the end, was piss poor from the bbc who have shown themselves to be far from impartial on more than one occasion when it comes to certain clubs....

so if youre commenting purely from motd highlights, you will have to excuse me if i ignore your view....