Maine Road V AFC Liverpool, 3rd December 2016

I arrived in Manchester and had a bit of time to spare.  So I popped to one of the Christmas Markets for an expensive pint of German Lager.

With Dave The Rattler watching Bootle in Cleethorpes, I was the sole Rattler.  One Maine Road chap wondered if I was seriously going to use it, and laughed at my two handled rattling when our Keeper Germano Mendes caught an early cross.

Mendes in fact had an impressive match.  He saved us on a few occasions.  In what was very much an even first half, we got our noses in front on 31 minutes when Mikey White had stayed up following a corner, and headed home Paul Speed's cross.

Going into the second half, the feeling was there that the next goal was going to be crucial.  We had won our last last three matches, and one factor in that mini run was Dimitrou Christou's presence in a Defensive Midfield position.  The whole defence seemed more balanced.

A nice sweeping move on the break eventually saw Jason Carey (I think) play in Mini Adegbenro to score a second for the Reds in our purple away strip.  The game was not won at that point with over half an hour still to play.

We still had to remain composed and keep our defensive shape.  We did have a few chances on the break to really kill off Road, but couldn't.  Of equal significance, Mendes had to make a few crucial saves, and I think Road may have had one particular effort cleared off the line.

In the end, we did win.  With the work rate of the lads, it was also a deserved victory.

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