This was the most disappointed I was after a match under our current managers reign. I thought this was our best performance by a country mile and had we had taken our chances, and the referee not been Martin Atkinson, we would have at least got a share of the spoils, if not all 3 points.
I thought we out played and out passed Spurs through out the contest even in the 2nd half. They were constantly hitting the ball long for Crouch, which worked, perfectly for the winning goal but surprising it was Liverpool who played the best football. I thought our center backs were excellent and was the center midfield pairing. The ref showed his true colors early, regular readers of my column have known that I dislike Atkins ever since he was in charge of a Reading v Liverpool game a few years back, when he put Mierceles in the book for a legal tackle on Bale, it wasn't even a foul. He continued to show our players cards at their first tackle (mierceles, Lucas and Carragher) and let their players get away with everything.
Liverpool should have taken all the points just before half time in a frantic end to the half. Torres played a brilliant pass to Maxi who should have scored but didn't ever shoot, he just was in two minds. Maxi could have had a hatrick by halftime, that was how good we were playing. Torres also missed a glorious chance just before the break. Spurs did look dangerous when Carragher had to make a great block after Lennon got the better of current managers left back. Reina spilled the cross and Carragher was on hand to block Defoe's effort.
The second half started just like the first with Torres wasting a great chance, this time on his right foot after being sent away. I was very surprised he didn't even have a shot. Spurs won another free kick and Ngog, for some reason, jumped with his hands in the air. How the ref could have possibly given a pk for that I'm not sure. Go look a the replay again, he had to guess as he was not in any position to see it. Defoe missed it but the ref still had a hand to play by turning down not one but two very strong penalty appeals for tackles on Kuyt. I thought the first one might have been fair but the second one was a stonewall spot kick and yellow card. Nothing given.
At 1-1 we were still throwing punches against the 12 men of Spurs and our Portuguese play maker hit a fierce left footed drive. Spurs won it at the death when Crouch knocked on a header, one of the only things he did all day, into the path of Lennon who scored a fine goal. A very undeserved three points and I was gutted
http://blogs.soccernet.com/liverpool/archives/2010/12/gutted_at_the_lane.php?Since Managers have been warned to never talk bad about referees, are fans ever gonna take the initiative and protest against referees that run amok and ruin games?
No matter how fans try to heap the blame on Managers for poor result, the poor refereeing pay a major role too. Yet it seem as if nothing can be done about it. Looks more like animals like Martin Atkinson get away with murder every time.
For the loss to Tottenham, Martin Atkinson deserves a huge portion of that blame.