Liverpool soon exert their authority

Liverpool, who hold the Football League championship, are apparently two goals better than Stockport, who at the moment could not be farther away from such a distinction unless they dropped out of the league altogether.

It took Liverpool three hours to prove even this modest point, and that must be the measure of Stockport's consolation for last evening's F.A. Cup defeat.

It is a false measure, of course. Stockport were thoroughly outclassed. All that stood between them and a much heavier defeat was Liverpool's own anxieties and the forest of arms, legs and torsos that blocked one Liverpool shot after another.

Five times the ball was in Stockport's net, but twice Liverpool were offside and once they handled. The only challenge Stockport mounted in return came in the second half, when they briefly raised their pace to the needs of the occasion. But theirs was pressure without penetration. It rattled Liverpool for a while, but Lawrence maintained his command of the goal area and long before the end Liverpool had firmly regained their authority.

Banners flying

Yet what an exciting evening it was, misty and cold yet burning with the heat of combat. Long before the kick-off the ground was throbbing at the seams, the terraces were swaying, the banners were flying, and all Stockport was ringing with the rival chants. Some fool almost sent a goal-net up in flames. There was a scuffle on the pitch. Fever was in the air - cup fever.

By way of an epilogue to these, and kindred events, we had a football match. Stockport were as game as fighting cocks, but it quickly became clear that their over-worked wing-halves would have no time to help the forwards, and that without such support the forwards had next to no chance of breaking through. So it proved, Stockport plodding on with more hope than imagination.

Stockport were not clever enough. Liverpool were sometimes too clever, undue care adding impeding frills to the overall pattern of their game. But they were much quicker than Stockport - quicker to, and quicker on the ball, and also in running into likely spaces for the next pass. Moreover their half-backs had the command that Stockport lacked. Liverpool were always busy, always threatening. Whatever the result might be, there was never any doubt that these teams were a class apart.

The goals that earned Liverpool a visit to Bolton in the fifth round were both scored by Hunt, after 38 and 86 minutes. It all goes to prove an old lesson; the giants of football, like the giants of the jungle, may be safely killed but never safely wounded. If Stockport were going to win this tie, they should have done it last Saturday.

Copyright - The Times