Derby victory a welcome distraction

Kyrgiakos managed to get sent off after nearly getting his leg broken by Fellaini. The TV replays showed Fellaini sizing up the tackle as he approached and he clearly stamped on Kyrgiakos' ankle. Martin Atkinson only sends off Kyrgiakos though? If anything both of them needed to go.

Pienaar was already lucky to be still on the pitch after his potentially leg-breaking tackle on Mascherano so it once again felt like you needed to be wearing a red shirt to attract the ref's attention.

Sideshow Bob (Fellaini) must be unique in football history after it needed two stretchers to get him off the pitch, one for him and one for his barnet.

The first half especially was the usual one-hundred mile per hour snarl-fest. Nobody cares about anything other than the result and I can't see that ever changing.

So we won one-nil, especially pleasing as we only had ten men for the majority of the game, three points taken off a resurgent and confident Everton team and then the rest of the results went for us and we sit this morning still in fourth place. Great stuff.

That then brings us all back to Earth with a bump.

Liverpool FC is battling to achieve fourth place. Battling to gain a Champions League berth because without the riches the Champions League brings next season our financial plight will be even worse.

During the week the news broke that following a recent meeting between members of the supporter's union Spirit of Shankly and Christian Purslow, that two versions of the minutes of the meeting had been published. One the minutes as SoS (Spirit of Shankly) viewed them, one a version of how Christian Purslow viewed what was said the meeting.

The versions were at odds with each other and SoS took the decision to publish both versions and let supporters draw their own conclusions.

The minutes are available on-line so I won't reproduce them here but it is sufficient to say that if the version agreed as accurate by SoS is true then the situation at the club is not as we all thought it was. Divisions are even worse than we thought possible. Power may not sit where we thought it did.

One thing is very clear however and that is that Mr.Purslow's clear mission is to raise £100m. Not to help Rafa Benitez buy world class players to help take us forward on the pitch.

Dear me no. His £100m mission is solely to reduce our current debt of £237m down to £137m by paying the banks the £100m he raises directly back to them. Mr.Purslow is a Liverpool fan by all accounts. Was also an ex-shareholder. His words according to the SoS version of the minutes of their recent meeting would make that quite clear. If so, then we have to trust his actions. The problem is trust is in very short supply around Anfield at present, especially where finances are concerned.

We've just sold players in the January transfer window and raised £6m. We spent none of that money. Maxi Rodriguez is a loan signing.

The clubs we should be competing with, Man United, Chelsea and Arsenal are all financially stronger than us. Man City also now have it seems virtually unlimited funds.

How does the Royal Bank of Scotland or Hicks and Gillett expect the manager and team to compete on level terms with these clubs? If Champions League qualification is so vital to the finances of the club, why is not enough being done to help achieve that goal?

There is something of an answer to be found in the level of support LFC has.

Whether our rivals like it or not, LFC is a global club. Millions of people around the world follow the fortunes of the team. The home-based support is the bedrock of the club and is still solid. Indeed, members of SoS will demonstrate outside the ground yet still pay the money at the turnstiles and go in and support the team.

The banks and Hicks and Gillett obviously think they are on a winner here.

I'm sure at least one person sat around the boardrooms at Anfield or at RBS has uttered the words, "whatever happens, these guys will still turn up every week".

Our passion and love of the club is being used against us.

When Hicks and Gillett rode into town three years ago they spoke about being "custodians" and "stewards of this storied club". They spoke about Liverpool FC being "world renowned".

The only thing we are renowned for in football now is the level of our debt. The debt Hicks and Gillett piled on top of us.

If they were truly "stewards of the club", surely they could agree a deal with one of the prospective buyers Mr.Purslow assures us is waiting in the wings, for a reasonable profit, and LEAVE.

For the good of the club they profess to love and respect so much?

Allow the club to put this period behind it. Move forward. Actually build the stadium that they promised us three years ago. If they did that then there might be some forgiveness of the damage they have caused.

The painful truth is however, that as businessmen (not custodians or stewards) they want to sweat every last penny out of their investment.

It's been said before but we supply a lot of those pennies. The TV companies who pay so much to televise the games like to see full stadiums, awash with colour and sound. They might not be so willing to pay to televise pictures of a half-empty Anfield. Likewise, the corporate supporters in the executive boxes don't want their clients to watch 90 minutes in a half-empty stadium, however good the prawn cocktails might be that day.

Bill Shankly said that the only things that mattered at a football club were the manager, the team and the supporters. Directors, he said, only existed to write the cheques.

Our current problem as supporters is that it is us who are currently continuing to write the cheques to bail out Hicks and Gillett with RBS.

How we change that I don't know but I fear we will not be rid of our two American owners while they can still count on our financial support, week in, week out.