Well it finished 2-2 but you won't see a more one-sided match. We battered them for 70 mins and then they scored 2 goals, the second of which was a flukey deflected OG. But it's been a recurring theme this year that we dominate teams, but don't turn our chances and domination into goals. We need more top class players to do so. Kuyt had a great first half but was dire in the second. Yossi did well for his goal and had a decent match. We were so in control at the start of the second half that it seemed a question of how many would we win by. But then the defence seemed to go to sleep and Harewood hooked one in after the ball was headed back across goal. It really shouldn't have been allowed to happen and I'd imagine that Rafa went apeshit when he saw it. The second goal was a freak occurrence when a shot rebounded off Aurelio and went in past Pepe. The team were in shock for a minute but then stepped it up again. Skrtel came on for the injured Arbeloa and did well enough. Crouchie came on and put himself about. He did well to finish from a cough angle, through a crowd of players. Well done big man. He obviously had his nachos.

Javier Mascherano was immense last night. Stevie had something of a quiet night but El Jefe made up for it and was the driving force in midfield. At times it looked like Villa couldn't get past him, no matter what they did. He is absolute quality and was always available. We really need to buy this guy in the summer. But given the current board situation, I wouldn't hold out too much hope.

The mighty Havant and Waterlooville visit Anfield on Saturday. My pulse is definitely not racing. Hope we see some of the kids getting a run out. This would be one to watch with the sound down to avoid the endless cliches of magic of the cups, David v Goliath, Giantkillers etc.

The boardroom saga rumbles on. Dion Fanning had a fantastic article on it in the Sunday Indo. Talk over the weekend suggested DIC are about to launch a bid for somewhere in the region for £350-500m. But then Hicks said that he doesn't want to sell his shares. This may mean that Gillett will decide the future of the club. Al Ansari, the CEO of DIC is a lifelong Liverpool fan and often attends games at Anfield which is a good sign, I suppose.

It looks like we've failed with a £400000 bid to sign an 18 year old Croatian player called Vida. He's decided to stay in Croatia and play for his club rather than sit on the bench with us. Fair enough. Sure he might change his mind in a year or two.

Of interest to Irish reds is the news that Steve Finnan is to retire from International duty. I suppose that it's good news for Liverpool as he won't be going away during international breaks and will get more rest. It is definitely bad news for Ireland though.

There were rumours that Leto and El Zhar might be on their way to Racing Santander for the rest of the season. It now appears that they will both be staying here. It's hard to know if either has a future with us in the first team. Probably not.

Let's get DICed.

He has come again. God walks among us once more. But lucky for us, even God couldn't prevent Cardiff from going down 2-1 at Anfield last night with his heir delivering the fatal blow.



As expected, it was a fairly young team and we got to see some of the youngsters in action. Jack Hobbs, Charles Itandje, Nabil El Zhar, Seb Leto and Lucas all started. It was also notable in so far as two of our oft injured players got game time in Aurelio who started and Kewell who came on in the second half.

Hobbs did quite alright at the back and he did have Carra beside him, giving tips and bollickings if needed. Itandje made a couple of smart saves, notably from a Fowler free kick. Leto didn't have a great game. It's hard to know what to make of him. I've seem him play very well for the reserves on LFC TV but it doesn't look like he's ready for the step up to the first team yet, if ever. Lucas played very well in the middle beside Stevie but he did seem to tire towards the end and gave the ball away a few times. Up until then he had been superb. I think this lad can do a job for us in the Xabi role while we're waiting for the master to return from injury. El Zhar opened the scoring with a cracking strike from distance. It was a superb goal but again I don't think that he's ready for the step up to the first team. He still looks a bit lightweight.

Yossi cam on and did fantastically well to set up Stevie for the winner. I would like to see Yossi get more game time now that Pennant is out. He's an intelligent player who has pace, great control, good link up play and an eye for goal. He gives us something different to what we already have. I think that he's been underused so far but I'm hoping that will change now.

Blackburn away is going to be really tough. They are in great form at the moment having won their last few games. We have good domestic away form but this will be our toughest journey so far this season. The news that Bently and Mokoena should be out is good for us. It sounds like we won't have our spine of Agger, Xabi and Torres back for this one, in fact, it could be another two weeks before we see any of them. I wouldn't be surprised to see Momo start this game if he's recovered from his illness as Rafa likes him for these kind of games. I predict an away draw. A win would be great but I think Blackburn have enough to take 2 points from us.

Fordies had an interesting post last month saying that we are going to try and bring in three players next month. He reckons these are James McCarthy from Hamilton Academicals who we've been linked to before, John Cofie a young midfielder from Burnley and Samir Nasri from Marseille. He reckon that we've built up a good relationship with them after doing business over Cisse and Zenden. Nasri would be expensive, around £11m according to Fordies. I haven't seen much of this lad but he's destined for great things by all accounts.

Let's make Ewood park threewood park tomorrow. Sorry, that was terrible.