Just another game

Liverpool 3-1 Everton

Just another game? Yeah, right...I hate losing to them. Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it! On Saturday as soon as I heard the news about Arteta not being fit I had a bit of a sinking feeling but somehow when Gerrard, their number 08 for the day, got himself sent off I just knew it'd be there day (Anne thinks I am lunatic but I've been a blue long enough to be able to read the signs when it comes to those jammy gets).

It was an annoying getting beat by 10 men especially given the "Gerrard, 9 donkeys and a giraffe" jokes there are doing the rounds I was particularly gutted for Phil Neville who really doesn't deserve to be on -1 career goals for Everton. At the end of the day sucker punches either side of half time meant it was never going to be our day. Their 2nd goal really did expose our veteran defenders' shortcomings. The ref had no choice with either of the red cards though surely it wasn't that bad a game to warrant the host of yellows...apparently this fixture has generated more yellows than any other in the history of the Premiership. Looking at the statistics you'd think it'd be a bloodbath.

Nope we've been screwed over many a time (Handball-Henchoz, Hutchison's 'back header' being chalked off for no reason, the ref allowing McCallister to calmly move the ball forward 10 yards from that freekick *shudder*, Cadamarteri's collar somehow becoming detached as he fell to ground for no reason in the penalty area when clean through and that's just the recent ones) but this wasn't one of them...Sunderland next week.

With the cloud of a derby defeat hanging over me the perfect way to unwind was to spend a nice sunny afternoon watching the rugby...didn't happen. We'd just arrived and about to start our first pint when the rain started and I assured everyone it would only be on for 5 minutes but 80 minutes later it was still throwing it down. Still after a slow start to the game Waterloo hit their stride against a really tenacious Wharfedale side who scored the try of the match despite having a scrum half who must have weight less than 9 stone. From the moment 'loo mauled over (complete with some pretty hardcore exchanges between the respective forwards right in front of us) for the first of 3 quick tries it looked like we could hold them off. Towards the end we sheltered from the rain in the pavilion and chatted to a really nice chap who turned out to be, the number 8, Nijke Tchakoute's father-in-law and afterwards we spent the 'third half' chatting to some nice gents from up at Grassington (where Upper Wharfedale are from) and talked about pubs, beer & rugby.

So apart from the crippling anxiety & annoyance generated by the footy and the constant rain during the rugby not a bad day. When we got home checked the teletext and found out Esher had got beat which puts Waterloo 11 points clear with 4 to play (Waterloo's next game is at Esher so fingers crossed).

Echo match report