Mansfield Town 1:2 Liverpool, In game & post match debate.

We did the job, but just nearly. Too many players didn't look like they were up for it, and a draw would have been a fair result, I felt. I'm glad for Sturridge's goal!!

About Suarez's handball, was pretty much expecting their manager to spout all sorts of things, but his interview was class. Credit to him, not many are honest like that.

On to the next round, REDS!!

Good win, without need for replay, on shitty away pitch, while giving a lot of the main players a rest, and new signing gets off the mark.  No complaints.
Btw, anyone who thinks Suarez should 'own up' to the ref is on cloud 9 - if none of the officials spot it, it's their fault. Sure it's a shitty break for Mansfield, but with no 'video ref' this can happen, it's a general problem in the game. Ask Theirry Henry, he'll tell ya, it's just sh*t you have to lap up.
And does that Manfield chief exec love herself? Maybe just a tad.

Thought the game was fun... I never for a second thought we could lose it so I wasn't nervous, and it was funnier than if we had scored a 2nd goal earlier and just cruised to win...

Totally agree Diego, actually enjoyed that game today and never once thought we'd concede the equalizer.

Great finish by Sturridge, good way to start his Liverpool career, Suarez just carries on winding everyone in the football media up, but did the right thing - played to the whistle!!

Great comments by their manager, you could tell he was a red by the way he wouldn't give Ray Stubbs F**k all, in fact I loved his comments on Suarez being world class.

imagine Whiskey Nose - he will be ordering an FA enquiry on Monday

More like he'll be screaming for a one match ban!!

Great comments by their manager, you could tell he was a red by the way he wouldn't give Ray Stubbs F**k all, in fact I loved his comments on Suarez being world class.

My personal highlight.
Class act, against a near interrogation.
Humongous Suarez fan by the looks of it.

They deserved a trip to Anfield.

BBC jumped on the Luis thing in the main news.  They love it dont they.

Always trying to cut down the tall poppy .

Bring up the drawbridge. Boil the oil lads.

What? You're joking?

Luis Suarez is always going to get slaughtered and we just need to get used to it. He has been nothing but brilliant this season but the media will simply ignore that and point out his misdemeanors such as diving, handballs, fouling a player, not signing a kid's autograph book etc etc. The media like to have a hate figure (not always a footballer) and will then run with it until they drive that person out of a job and then move onto their next victim.

I cannot recall the papers covering their back pages when Crouch handled the ball twice to control the ball before scoring against Man City earlier this season (in fact, I recall it was simply laughed off on Sky Sports News at the end of the match). Then there was the Robert Huth stamp on Suarez's chest which was 'accidental and unintentional'. Oh, and when Leon Barnett pushed Suarez in the head with an elbow and tripped him up in the box and the penalty wasn't given - the media said 'No problem - as it was the boy who cried wolf'.

Lets face it people. This witch-hunt will continue whilst Luis Suarez ply's his trade in the Premiership and England. If he moves abroad, they'll then go onto their next target.

Luis handled a ball before kicking the ball into the net. The media make it out as though he is the second-coming of Adolf Hitler. They really need to get a grip.

Luis Suarez is always going to get slaughtered and we just need to get used to it. He has been nothing but brilliant this season but the media will simply ignore that and point out his misdemeanors such as diving, handballs, fouling a player, not signing a kid's autograph book etc etc. The media like to have a hate figure (not always a footballer) and will then run with it until they drive that person out of a job and then move onto their next victim.

I cannot recall the papers covering their back pages when Crouch handled the ball twice to control the ball before scoring against Man City earlier this season (in fact, I recall it was simply laughed off on Sky Sports News at the end of the match). Then there was the Robert Huth stamp on Suarez's chest which was 'accidental and unintentional'. Oh, and when Leon Barnett pushed Suarez in the head with an elbow and tripped him up in the box and the penalty wasn't given - the media said 'No problem - as it was the boy who cried wolf'.

Lets face it people. This witch-hunt will continue whilst Luis Suarez ply's his trade in the Premiership and England. If he moves abroad, they'll then go onto their next target.

Luis handled a ball before kicking the ball into the net. The media make it out as though he is the second-coming of Adolf Hitler. They really need to get a grip.

Well said.

To be fair to Jon Champion - at least he has form for being an impartial commentator...

http://connollyblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/03/shock-horror-espn-and-itv-even-worse-than-sky-sports.html

The main ESPN/ITV commentator John Champion was bad enough, barely able to contain his excitement at the prospect of Reading causing an upset. It's an understandable impulse but, as part of the medium through which the game is watched, Champion should be able to remain impartial.

I though from the way he put the ball in the net and didn't immediately celebrate that Luis expected the goal not to be given - I think he may have been surprised it was.  And no player will say "Oh hold on ref, didn't it hit my hand".  Just waiting for Old Whiskey Nose to come out and criticise him saying he should get banned in retrospect.

Here is an excellent example of the media's reporting of Suarez - tomorrows Daily Mirror back page:



 

The mirror are one of the worst for the Suarez witch hunt

The mirror are one of the worst for the Suarez witch hunt

Yes they are and the Daily Star are no better:



 

I though from the way he put the ball in the net and didn't immediately celebrate that Luis expected the goal not to be given - I think he may have been surprised it was.  And no player will say "Oh hold on ref, didn't it hit my hand".  Just waiting for Old Whiskey Nose to come out and criticise him saying he should get banned in retrospect.

Correct. The way he slammed the ball into the net meant he thought the whistle was going to be blown. And he has no responsibility for owning up.

If that seems to be the actions of a 'cheat' as the media are labelling him - then so should every other player who has intentionally handled the ball to stop a goal going in on the line or blocking a shot at goal. There's absolutely no difference in my eyes!!!

I really hope the media stop hounding Luis, its clearly having a negative impact on his game....

The dumb cu*ts haven't realised yet that he thrives off the hate, I for one hope the media hound him every week cause he'll just reply with goals, goals and more goals, so much to the point where they'll start bumming him off. Deep down I don't think Luis Suarez gives a sh*t what anybody outside of Liverpool thinks of him.

Try searching for a newspaper back page when Crouch handled against Man City and I bet you will not find one... because it didn't make the backpages!!!

Alan Marriott ‏@Mazza_78
Got a lot of time for Suarez though and to constantly call him a cheat is poor IMO! #worldclassplayer

The fact they're attempting to portray his goal celebration as a sinister gesture just shows the level of journalism and honestly it surprises me that people still buy this crap.

"Cheat storm"

It's nice that in paragraph 2 they actually decide to get somewhere near the truth. Embarrassing and only compounded by the fact that this is perpetuated around the country by people who don't take the effort to form their own opinion on the facts or are simply happy to victimise Luis. Thankfully he's proven that this provocation and discrimination serves only to motivate him as long as he continues to get the support of his team-mates and fans. Funnily enough the more they provoke and discriminate him will only strengthen our resolve behind him.

Watched from the side angle at full speed it could easily be argued that Luis had no intent whatsoever, either way, his reaction when kicking the ball into the net was one expectant that the goal wouldn't stand. Hilarious to suggest he should then protest to the referee about his guilt after the number of penalties he's been cheated out of this year by opposing defenders. If you really believed in this sportsmanship behaviour they should admit to the referee when they assault him with a stamp or an elbow to the back of the head.

Absolutely ridiculous, biased and agenda driven journalism that simply reinforces my view that the entire profession is further now from the genuine pursuit of the truth than it's ever been and that's something that in our country we have the power to be a leader in, but no they choose this sensationalist crap because it apparently sells more.

Try searching for a newspaper back page when Crouch handled against Man City and I bet you will not find one... because it didn't make the backpages!!!

What about the Ba one this season when he slid in and knocked it in with his hand (that was Andre Marriner as well).

Luis will be just fine. No.7. Red no.7.

The incompetent, drink sodden has-beens and never were journos and pundits who endeavour to diminish the world class talent in our midst are feeding on his and our waste product.

Credit to Mansfield from start to finish.

Indeed. Credit to Mansfield Town.

They have come out of this weekend with their heads held high with the JFT96 gesture and the manager and Alan Marriott refusing to jump on the 'cheat' bandwagon.

 

Full credit to Mansfield, on & off the field.

On to the 4th round.

Tony Evans on The Times - Spare us the false rage: Luis Suárez merely did what he is paid to do

Just when you thought it was safe to say nice things about Luis Suárez, he goes and does it again. The dirty, cheating little so-and-so. There were even the first rumbling suggestions that he could be a potential footballer of the year. It couldn’t last. Once again, Suárez is the most reviled foreigner since Abu Hamza.

The Uruguay forward has again outraged the British sense of fair play. To make it worse, he didn’t even pick on someone his own size. Little Mansfield Town, those plucky non-Leaguers, deserved better, surely?

Spare us the false rage. Suárez merely did what he is paid to do: score goals. The howls of outrage are hypocritical.

There are very few supporters who are horrified when their team cheat to score or stop a goal. Liverpool fans would have been grinning all the way back to Merseyside last night. Few bleeding hearts there.

It’s not just foreigners who do this sort of thing, either. Francis Lee, a man as English as Eccles cakes, deliberately knocked in a cross with a hand in an FA Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur in 1973. He gloated that the goal, the decisive score in a 3-2 win for Manchester City, “came in handy, a handy header”. It’s part of City folklore, a tale told with a smile and no sense of shame. Tottenham fans will never forgive Lee. That’s how it works.

Plenty of people will invoke some unrealistic and non-existent Corinthian spirit, but right and wrong tend to be entirely subjective in football. In Cameroon, they remember the World Cup quarter-final of 1990 as “the game when Gary Lineker dived”. In England, he’s a national treasure — he wouldn’t shift many packets of crisps in West Africa.

Those calling for Suárez to own up should consider the reverse scenario. Imagine a defender is hit on the hand in the penalty area and the referee misses it — as frequently happens. Would anyone expect the player to alert the official and ask him to give a penalty to the opposition?

It would almost be a sacking offence. So why would anyone expect the Liverpool forward to act differently?

It is easy to make a case that Suárez deserves his folk demon status. He bit Otman Bakkal, the PSV Eindhoven midfielder, in the face three years ago when playing for Ajax. It was an ugly, violent incident that brought him a long suspension.

There was a long ban, too, for his altercation with Patrice Evra at Anfield last season. That racially tinged spat had a corrosive effect on everyone it touched. But yesterday’s handball — and the infamous last-minute “save” against Ghana in the World Cup in South Africa — was entirely different. The vast majority of players would have acted in a similar manner.

Across football there are numerous people who are driven by an obsessive will to win. A handball here, a tugged shirt there, are commonplace. They do little harm. There are darker sides to this obsession.

There are some who are wilfully reckless on the pitch and put opposition players at risk. Worse, there are those whose fierce competitiveness leads them deliberately to hurt their rivals. This is where the focus of outrage should be aimed, at players who threaten health and careers.

Suárez is often the victim of those who try to use brute strength to stop the opposition. His trickery and range of skills leave him susceptible to rugged treatment, some of which exceeds the standards of decency by some way.

His reputation as a diver, a cheat and a serial handballer makes it easier to ignore this. And when he is kicked up in the air, many of those who rage against his unsportsmanlike behaviour will take pleasure in his pain. They will enjoy the sight of a cheat getting his comeuppance. The duplicity involved in these moral gymnastics will probably not even occur to them.

Suárez is one of the great pleasures of the Barclays Premier League at the moment. Along with Robin van Persie, he is playing at an elevated level of skill that brings a sanity and beauty to a game that appears increasingly haphazard and physical.

He is the sort of player you love when he is wearing your club’s colours and you hate when he is in opposition.

So let’s have less of the hysteria.

The real danger to the game is when brute force triumphs over talent. That is when we should be truly outraged. Sadly, we very rarely are.


http://lfcts.tumblr.com/post/39884701046/tony-evans-on-the-times-spare-us-the-false-rage-luis

Excellent article by Tony Evans.