Source: Liverpool_Echo
Everton FC 0, Liverpool FC 2: Reds' hard work is paying off
THINK of the Merseyside Derby and, in a flash, any number of sporting icons should come flooding into your thoughts.[LNB]They are names that will stand the test of time, men whose achievements on the field of battle will still be referred to when this generation is long gone, but never would you have considered linking the great golfer Gary Player with this contest. Until now, that is.[LNB]You will know where this is going. Player, of course, famously declared 'the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get' and that quote could have been coined for the offering Liverpool served up at a rain-sodden Goodison Park yesterday.[LNB]Had this been a boxing match, the judges would, in all probability, have given the verdict to the Blue corner, such was their dominance in round 212 of this local squabble and not many would have been able to quibble with the assessment.[LNB]Hemmed against the ropes for most of the first period and a chunk of the second, Liverpool were fortunate Everton's main goal threat spent the first 65 minutes resting his damaged thigh on the sidelines.[LNB]If Louis Saha had passed a fitness test before kick-off, there is a chance this narrative would have been more a post-mortem, reflecting on the latest in a line of sorry results to make the landscape look bleak going into mid-winter.[LNB]Yet thanks to perseverance, diligence, hard work and a sheer bloody-minded will to win, Liverpool were able to avoid being caught up in another maelstrom and, instead, got the result which just might kick-start this stuttering campaign into life once and for all.[LNB]There is no getting away from the fact Liverpool, as an attacking force, were dreadful, lacking cohesion or any sense of panache and Tim Howard, Everton's reliable keeper, has probably never had so little to do on derby day.
