What an incredible day Sunday was! We finally won at Anfield exactly 45 years to the day since our previous triumph in an away game against Liverpool, thanks to a late goal from Peter Odemwingie.
In truth, we rode our luck throughout much of the game. Liverpool could quite easily have had five or six goals before we took the lead, with poor finishing, excellent goalkeeping from Ben Foster and brave defending from the whole team keeping us in the game.
Being in the away end, along with about 1,600 other Albion fans, and out-singing over 40,000 Liverpool fans throughout was superb, with the scenes at the final whistle perhaps even surpassing those seen at Molineux after our 5-1 win there back in February.
We left the ground chanting “Hodgson’s too good for you” at the Liverpool fans who had remained in the ground until the final whistle, many of whom are perhaps now starting to realise that Kenny Dalglish is certainly no improvement on Roy Hodgson.
Every player deserves credit for their performance, but there are some who deserve particular praise.
Stand out
Foster was once again outstanding in goal. He made several very good saves, and commanded his area with the confidence we always expect from him.
Billy Jones was very impressive at right-back. His performances since Steven Reid’s injury have been very consistent, and he kept the potentially dangerous Maxi Rodriguez quiet throughout the game.
Jonas Olsson marshalled our back four superbly on his return to the side after missing last weekend’s 1-0 victory over QPR, with his presence at the back ensuring that Andy Carroll was unable to push us around and cause us too many problems.
Liam Ridgewell was his normal solid self at full-back, putting his body on the line when he needed to and using the ball very well in possession.
Youssouf Mulumbu appears to have found his best form from last season again, with his energy and commitment in midfield ensuring that Liverpool had to work very hard to keep possession in that area of the pitch.
Although he didn’t score, Shane Long was also outstanding up front. He had the beating or Martin Skrtel for much of the game, and might have scored had his decision-making been a bit better after finding space in the penalty area.
Going down
This weekend sees us play Aston Villa at The Hawthorns.
They have struggled for much of this season, and a win for us on Saturday would ensure that we finish above them in the league for the first time in three decades.
Our victory at Villa Park back in October was one of the highlights of the season, and Hodgson and the players will know after the celebrations that day just how much it would mean to Albion fans if we could do the double over them this season.
It will be a tough game, but hopefully we can play well and pick up a positive result!
Boing Boing!
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