Matt Wills is back with his rewind-forward as Liverpool’s team of 89/90 brush shoulders with the Premier League of 1997/98. They’re competing on three fronts but how long can that be sustained with an ageing squad?
Welcome back again to my experiment to see if the last Liverpool league title winning side can topple Man Utd in 97/98.
We’re heading to the end of 1997 and one of Kenny’s old teams can’t cope with this side from another era
Barnes-Aldridge-Dalglish. BAD news for any opposition.
Another one of Kenny’s old sides and young Peter has his fun too
LIverpool’s FA Cup campaign kicks off against Ipswich and Emerald Ray is the difference against the Tractor Boys. It’ll be the Baggies in round 4.
No 9-0 demolition this time out against Palace as Rushie settles matters in our favour
Spurs, Klinsmann and Ian Walker conspire to halt our little winning run. The goals were flowing now they are starting to dry up . Finding the right striking duo is a bit of a conundrum…
No sooner do I put jan Molby back in the line up and he gets himself injured. Single goal again but enough this time to get into the hat for the next round and a date with Oggy’s Coventry.
Title credentials take a blow when Utd come to Anfield. I’m left ruing that Steve Nicol red card, but Schmeichel was immense as always.
All you can do is pick yourselves up again and carry on and after 2 minutes all seems right with the world but we seem incapable of second goals at the minute….
Finally – 2 goals in the FA Cup, but Coventry get 2 aswell and it’s an unwanted replay to fit in somewhere…Bright start, crap finish
I don’t know what sort of form this is, but it’s not Championship winning form. Have I invoked the spirit of Graeme Souness?
A rare treat of 3 goals in the FA Cup replay and Rocket Ronnie even gets his first of season! Derby await us next time round.
The game against West Ham was so dull I can’ even describe it…
Some respite in Europe though and Pedro remembers hes meant to score late goals…
Derby give us a right old run in when we visit in the FA Cup. Grobs saving a Le Tissier penalty and big Jan earns us another unwanted replay…
Molby obviously likes that goalscoring feeling and grabs a brace in the league against Chelsea…
Which is followed up with another flipping draw, this time against Coventry. What is going on with this team?
It feels like Europe suits us more at the minute and with Bilbao out of the way it’ll be Parma in the semi’s.
I heard Aldridge sy after the game he’d quite like to try his luck in Spain one day. ‘Don’t bother’ says Rushie, ‘its like living in a foreign country. I hear Tranmere is nice this time of year…’
The Crazy Gang make the Culture Club fight for the 3 pts back in the league. I wince when Vinnie and McMahon go head to head
United aren’t in action in this round of games as they are in the League Cup Final against Chelsea. Mark Hughes must have been delighted to put 3 past Fergie. John Collins with the solitary reply for 10 man Utd.
Eufa Cup Semi-final time spins around and Parma peg us back twice to give themselves two valuable away goals, whilst that injury to Barnesy is a worry…
Extra time is needed to get past Derby in our replay – 2 days after playing in Europe the last thing we need is 30 minutes of extra football but the job gets down and to my amazement we’ll play Third Division Peterbororugh in the semi final
As the Semi-final is only a few days later and its against a Division 3 side I make some much needed changes to the line-up and luckily it doesn’t blow up in my face.
Des Linton ‘Travel Tavern’ with the consolation. When Nigel Spackman asks me why he didn’t get a run-out I confess that Wikipedia isn’t correct and Nigel had left Liverpool before the 89/90 season. He then asks my Aldridge is still here and I say because I need some bloody goals!
Sometimes those goasl come from all over the park, and good job too…
Aldo’s back at it against Everton in the derby and its a welcome 3 pts.
So where does all this frustration leave us in the league?
Well, not too great but not too bad, but with 2 pts and a game in hand behind, we’ll be preying our strikers start scoring again and United’s don’t!
At t’bottom, The Saints are all marched out. Never sell Le Tiss to Derby….
Hope you enjoyed that rattle through Part 3 of this blog save, its fun and frustration in equal measure for me at the moment. I need to get our strikers scoring before I’m forced to rely on Ronnie Rosenthal!
