by Melissa Reddy | Mar 3, 2016 | Footie
“WE made it clear from the first second that it will be very difficult for City.” Park the scoreline for a second. Wait a minute with the goals. Just hold off on the fact it could have been more. Breathe in the dominance. Stretch in the dominance. Shake...
by Neil Atkinson | Mar 3, 2016 | Footie
YOU trudge out of Wembley. You have a face on. The face on. The face of yours that your loved ones know. It’s the football. It was more than that though, you know. It was the feeling you were part of an eternally losing battle. Against the system. Against the...
by John Gibbons | Mar 2, 2016 | Footie
THE players and manager deserve great credit to go from Sunday to that. Perhaps the Manchester City players, just like their supporters, failed to turn up. But they are still big and good and need beating — and how they were beaten. The tone was actually set by...
by Martin Fitzgerald | Mar 2, 2016 | Footie
EVENING, everyone. Gareth and Neil have asked me to write a regular column after each match because they probably thought I wasn’t doing enough to earn the “contributes to @theanfieldwrap” line in my Twitter bio. Fair enough, I suppose. The column...
by Rob Gutmann | Mar 1, 2016 | Footie
WHERE to start. The match at Wembley has destroyed my week and my life. The pain is too much to bear. I rarely go out these days. I can’t communicate with my family and friends are becoming fading memories. This is all since Sunday tea-time. And then I realise there’s...
by John Gibbons | Mar 1, 2016 | Footie
ONE of the things lamented as lost from the game of football is the bond between players and fans. Supporters talk about it, old players too. We used to be the same and now we are not. This is mainly put down to money. How can you identify with anyone who earns more...
by Ben Johnson | Feb 29, 2016 | Footie
I DON’T know about you but I had a great day out. One of them where everything comes off. Our minibus turned up when it was supposed to, the driver wasn’t a Bluenose and he was sound (well in, Paul). We got to London without hitting any traffic, found a...
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 28, 2016 | Footie
I LOOK across on 65 minutes or so and Raffy Gutmann, aged six, at his first final, is in tears; tears rolling down his cheeks. He’s in tears and really it isn’t unreasonable. I have no solace to offer. None whatsoever. If I was six years old I would be...
by John Gibbons | Feb 28, 2016 | Footie
THE easiest way to win a cup final is to be the better team. Even if you can’t be the better team on the pitch in the 90 or 120 minutes, you can have the better players to win a shoot-out. Despite what people tell you about it being a lottery. Manchester City...
by Rob Gutmann | Feb 27, 2016 | Footie
THERE are moments when we doubt Wembley. Like when they needlessly play semi-finals there. Like when we sense the smugness in its association with a national side we feel little affinity with. In these moments, Wembley, you seem so very far away. Then there’s the...