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Liverpool v Oldham Athletic - Anfield - FA Cup 3rd Round - Friday 6th January 2012

So we're sat in a city centre Starbucks, of all places, the day after the first Southend cup game and the modern phenomenon that is social networking is about to prove it's worth.  The third round draw is upon us and there's no TV in sight.  And the tweets come in. One grande Cappuccino is almost deposited across some innocent old ladies.

Away at Anfield. Jackpot.

At this point, of course, it's still "Southend or ..." meaning that we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Try telling that to your average Latics fan.

I admit that I found the replay pure torture, knowing what was at stake, and I couldn't say I enjoyed the game at all. The goal and the final whistle were just pure relief. Yes, the club needs the cash but for those who have travelled up and down the country to the same grounds for years on end, a day out like this is the reward they deserve.  Amazaing what beating two League Two teams with ten men can do for a club that hadn't won a cup game for an age.

And now to the ticketing. The away allocation sold out in no time (even the ones behind the pillars and other sight screens).  Much has been said already and no doubt it'll rumble on after the event.  Fair play to those that queued in the rain for hours. Hopefully there aren't too many regular fans that missed out, although I suspect there were plenty.  And may at least some of the "day trippers" (as they seemed to have been christened) return to watch a few more games.

The game had been shifted to a Friday night as the police wouldn't allow Liverpool and Everton to play at home on the same day, especially if there's going to be another fire in that chippy from four years ago.  Don't know why Friday and not Sunday, other than Liverpool playing City in the Carling cup in the week after.  Maybe Manchester plod didn't fancy Latics fans piling through the stations on the same day as City v United.  Timing, then, not great.  Did mean a night match at Anfield though.  And I like night matches.

Following Monday's draw at Chesterfield, the concern has been whether the remaining loan players - Adeyemi, Clarke, Scapuzzi and (to a lesser extent) Mancini - would have the deals extended and be available. In the event, Adeyemi and Scapuzzi signed up again and prepared for action (although one maybe wished he hadn't)

Meanwhile, down the M62, the build up has consisted of a row about what Suarez said to Evra and the resulting fall-out.  The decision not to appeal came just before their midweek game at City, with Sky Sports producing a graphic show the games he's miss - one that implied that Liverpool might not win in the 3rd round of the cup! Cue much amusement from Latics fans.

With it being a night game and all, the travel arrangements would prove tricky.  Mark, who works in the city centre, planned to get a train at half threeish.  He would send a text from the station stating that some Latics fans had arrived with crates of lager - it's a one hour journey.  It was that kind of day.

Our journey started outside a primary school in Rochdale - no, not like that.  Rachel would be finishing at half three and we'd be dropping the car off in  Chadderton en route to Mills Hill to get a train to Victoria and Change for Lime Street. All clear? Good. Bit tight on the timescales but worked like a charm and Mark met us at the station by 5:45. He'd tried a few pubs.  One was a bit rough, the second was Wetherspoons and the third made the first look not rough.  He also reported that there was a "police presence" and had decided not hang about.

A quick taxi ride later (even though the driver didn't know where he was going) and we arrived at the Arkles pub. And it was full of Latics fans. Surprisingly, we were served in no time and joined the Dorans by the Fruit Machine. The fans we singing and the place was bouncing - literally.  As the punters danced to a song about James Wesolowski, the floor was going up and down like nobody's business. Great fun, and it also explains why every picture taken in there was blurred.

The speedy service meant we even had time for round number two before slipping out.  In a packed boozer like this, it requires a deft manoevure for one man to get three drinks back from the bar with minimum spillage.  Looks like our man had done this before.

Time for the flag picture by the Shankly Gates. In what was the longest "pose" in flag history, we stood there for a good few minutes while people joined the picture and took their own including a Japanese tourist in a Liverpool scarf.

Next to the gates We paused to see the Hillsborough Memorial and headed for the turnstile.  Here's Matt and Terry in the same spot before it went dark.

Once inside, we found our seats and Mark went to put the flag up.  A helpful steward told him there was nowhere for it to go, but once it was pointed out that it was “in the programme” a place was somehow found straight away.  He then took the worst flag photo of all time.

As is the tradition at Liverpool, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was played as the teams entered the stadium and the Kop held their scarves aloft – one of the iconic sights in football.  Many Latics fans joined in.

There was, of course, a tribute to Gary Ablett who had passed away the previous week.  The applause started well before the referee blew his whistle and was observed throughout by both sets of fans.

Attacking the Kop, Latics started brightly.  Very brightly.  Amazingly, we could have been three up.  Kuqi charged through Carragher and should have scored, Adeyemi headed over and Taylor put a chance wide.  It seemed like it wasn’t going to happen, but there was only one team in it for half an hour.

And then the moment we’d been hoping for.  Robbie Simpson smashes one from miles out and beats Reina.  Latics take the lead at Anfield and the away end erupts.  I attempt to break my knee-cap off on the seat in front on the way up, then again on the way back down as Mark decide to jump on me.  Simpson dashes the length of the park to celebrate in front of the fans.  Unbelievable stuff, and it’s what makes cold nights against Colchester worth it.

Some lemon had managed to sneak a flare in and now was the appropriate time to let it off.  It was right behind where we were sat and the smell was something else, although we were impressed that they’d managed to get a blue one.  The police and stewards were less pleased and ushered the culprits out (actually, it was less “ushered” and more “wrestled”).

They will have missed what happened next, as Shelvey’s shot hit Bellamy in the gut and went in.  The lead had lasted no time at all and down to a bit of a fluke.  It was a shame it hadn’t lasted for ten minutes – there was no time to really enjoy it.

We didn’t manage to hang on till half time.  Liverpool were given a penalty for a shove on Maxi by Adeyemi. Looked like one to me, but others aren’t so sure and he might have been offside.  Doesn’t really matter because the ref had given it.  Steven Gerrard put it right in the top corner – you don’t stop those.  Being behind at half time was harsh on Latics.

Now then - going back as far as the inflatable sheep machine at Rhyl - Ernieflag has a proud tradition of reporting on visits to to test the plumbing.  The journey from seat to said facility at Anfield took ten minutes for a total of 50 yards.  A few plucky chaps didn’t fancy the wait and were improvising using a bin. This is the first occasion that we have been able to say that Chesterfield had a better “matchday experience” in terms of the bogs – it really was packed.

Amazingly, I had sat down (in the stand) before the second half started.  The flag was now back in its bag having been taken down by a steward.  Fair enough as it had been wafting in someones face, but the steward insisted that Mark make an official complaint to the club that it could go on the fenced off seats (as if they didn’t have enough to worry about).

The second half wasn’t one way traffic.  We had a few decent chance to equalise and maybe should have done, but the game was pretty much finished by Shelvey’s goal.  At 2-1 we had a chance, but perhops now we were in “great peril”.

It was at 3-1 that the “incident” occurred.  Don’t think we need to review exactly what happened -  it’s been all over the papers and has rather taken the attention away from what was a decent effort by Latics.  Stuff gets shouted at games all the time – some of it can be particularly unpleasant and nasty.  Whatever got said by this idiot must have been something else.  Not sure I’ve ever seen a player react like that before.  Hopefully whoever did it is found and the whole sorry episode is brought to a conclusion. This was one or two people out of 45,000 and shouldn’t be allowed to reflect Liverpool fans as a whole, despite what people think about the Suarez case.

Back on topic now, and Dalglish decides to lighten the mood by sending on multi-million pound striker Andy Carroll.  He’s not scored for a while, has he?  “What a waste of money.” We all knew where this was going.  One minute later he’d buried one from the edge of the box.  “You’re still a waste of money”

Anfield is renowned for many things.  One of these is the crowd and the noise generated by the Kop end.  So much so that I was looking forward to describing it in the match report. I was to be disappointed.  For some reason, it was missing tonight.  The place was like a library.  It was loud enough when they’d scored, but other than that – nothing.  Hence the chant “where’s your famous atmosphere?”.

Sadly they got to cheer again and an unfair pasting was completed by Stewart Downing in injury time, annoying Mark who had to take a third photo of the final score.  He will be further annoyed by me not using it here.  Because it says five one on it.

The final whistle soon followed and pretty much everyone had stayed behind to applaud the team.

We headed off to find our lift home, which was between a garage and graveyard/public convienince.  There was was also a 24 hour off license but we didn’t, even though it’s usually considered rude not to.  Our driver headed down the East Lancs Road and we reflected on a great night, despite the scoreline.