The Night of Legends

I honestly wondered if Rafa Benitez had made one of his weird decisions again. Everyone had expected Fernando Torres to start along with Aquilani, but suddenly I started asking questions again and felt a little deflated as I fully expected us to lose.

The stream came to life just before five minutes to eight and I saw the wonderful mosaic that the club had organised on the Kop. I hope the Shankly family felt as proud as I did. Very quickly the camera went around the stadium and it was lovely to see Ian St John, Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan, Phil Thompson, Tommy Smith, Ron Yeats.Gerry Byrne, Ian Callaghan, Gerry Byrne, Chris Lawler, Willie Stevenson and Roger Hunt as they were paraded on the pitch, followed by a lone piper playing Amazing Grace.

The match began and very early on I got the impression that the team were determined to ground out the right result. Liverpool started very brightly and there was plenty of very good passing play although a lot of the passes ended going towards Pepe Reina. Ngog was still playing well and Stevie G looked better playing in the middle which gave him an early shot at the goal. Chris Kirkland (an ex Liverpool player) made his first save of the evening. Wigan had by now gained the ball and held on to it for a while until Liverpool came in with a good challange and regained the advantage. Then it happened Ngog had received a long ball and we were 1-0 up.

Would the team be able to hold out I wondered, we had been in this situation many times only to lose or draw the game. What I did notice at this point was that Liverpool's defence was still looking rather frail. Play was continuing and with an open goal in front of him Ngog tried a shot which was saved by Chris Kirkland who unfortunately fell awkwardly and appeared to have hurt his back. It became clear within minutes as to whether he would be able to continue, but I guess sheer brute strength comes in to play and you carry on. As if to prove a point his first kick of the ball was one that sent it straight to the other end of the pitch.

Liverpool appeared to be playing very well and coping with the pressure of the occasion. There were plenty of good challenges which ended with both Gerrard and a Wigan player going down but thankfully Phil Dowd just let the game continue. Once again, Liverpool seemed to be in complete control of the game and there were plenty of goes at the goal but sadly the second goal did not appear to be on the horizon. It was also at this point things began to get a little heated and Liverpool were rewarded several corners but I guess it was just one of those days and a good goalkeeper - nothing was getting past Chris Kirkland who now appeared to be fully recovered from his earlier injury.

It was at this point that Mascherano was hit in the face by the ball and seemed confused for several minutes which led the cameraman to switch to the dug out and this showed that Aquilani was warming up. Aha I thought, perhaps we are going to see our new great player again. This did not happen and suddenly the board went up with four minutes extra to play. This passed quickly and I honestly wondered what sort of half time talk would Rafa Benitez be giving? I hoped and prayed that it would not be same as one he gave the previous Sunday.

After an interval which saw the legends being paraded on the pitch, Liverpool came out and as usual began to attack the Kop end. They started well but hey presto it happened, unusually Pepe Reiner made a mistake but thankfully nothing happened and we were still 1-0 up. Liverpool quickly found their feet again although it became clear that there were still obvious problems within the defensive set up. I honestly wonder why Rafa Benitez and the players have not learnt any of the lessons that have been there since the beginning of the season.

I was watching the clock on the left hand side of the screen and noticed that we were approaching that magic 60 minute mark. Rafa Benitez seems to have it engrained in his mind that he must change players at this particular point. But stranger things happen and Wigan was the first to substitute. This seemed to give them some momentum and they had possession of the ball for a while although unable to bring the team level. Then it happened Lucas came on for Aurelio which should not have affected the team too much but although I do feel that Lucas has improved, it seemed to unsettle the team. Although Rafa could have made both substitutions at the same time it was a further three minutes before Torres came on for Ngog.

He immediately became involved in the play and very quickly began to poach around the goalmouth but would he give us the lift we needed? The answer to that is yes, but Wigan seemed to find some more strength and were pushing forward more and more exposing our now jittery defence. I sat at the computer just waiting for equaliser to go in. The panic was becoming evident when Mascherano got into trouble and very quickly found himself with a yellow card. Play restarted and the ball was heading towards the Kop end and with Torres in the right position the second goal went in. The score now stood at 2-0 and the clock was counting down.

We were now on 80 minutes and Rafa decided to make his third and final substitution. Aquilani came on for Benayoun. Here we have a player desperate to gain match practice and he is only allowed to play for ten minutes. I am honestly beginning to wonder if he will play a full game before the end of May. Almost immediately he got involved in a bad challenge and Thomas received a yellow card. My heart then missed a beat as Aquilani had a chance at the goal but Chris Kirkland being Chris Kirkland the shot was saved. If it had happened, it may well have got Aquilani the ninety minutes that he desperately needs. Liverpool was now in complete control and it looked as though we had our three points or did it. The fourth official had shown that we were being awarded another four minutes of extra time and seizing the moment Wigan found an opening in our now sleepy defence and you have guessed it scored a goal. I looked at the clock, crossed my fingers and said a prayer.

Was it answered on this special night? Yes I believe it was, Shanks must have been looking down on us as we managed to survive the final 90 seconds. We had finally won a game. The match finished to the sounds again of Amazing Grace,

I listened to the after match press conference this morning and Rafa said that he feels the side is improving and will get better still. I will reserve my judgement on that comment because I honestly feel that we have all ready reached the point of no return. Asked as to why Torres did not start, Rafa said that he was still tired from the match the previous Sunday. I am sorry but if you can play half an hour you can play ninety minutes. He was then quizzed about Phil Dowd and his answer was that he was fed up with explaining the rules that FIFA had set down.

We now have Saturday's match at Portsmouth to look forward too. Of course the question is. Will we continue our momentum and win again or will it be another game that sends us backwards yet again?