Anfield's foundations as strong as ever

Anfield's foundations as strong as ever

by Clive White of "The Times"

There you are, another crack in the foundations; you could almost hear them surveying outside the Anfield citadel as Liverpool dropped their first home points of the season. Those of us privileged to be within knew differently. We were watching the cementing of a new Liverpool that may prove strong enough to hold on to at least one of their prized possessions - the championship.

"That was more like the old-fashioned type of Liverpool," said old-fashioned Joe Fagan, their manager, as the new faces, Walsh and Molby, blended another degree into the Liverpool picture. "If we keep playing like that we might even get better."

Such words are praise indeed from the honest Fagan, a man who likes to keep things simple ("The jacket from Marks and Sparks, you know"). He still had the diplomacy to admire the opposition and particularly the uncomplicated approach of Alan Mullery, his counterpart at Rangers but not I think a fellow customer of Marks and Spencer's.

Mullery said: "I told them fiddle the team talk. You're at Liverpool, the Mecca of it all. Go out and enjoy yourselves." Having inherited 10 parts of the team as well as the tactics you could forgive him for blowing his own trumpet as he pointed out the improved results Rangers had gained this season. Fagan would have been even more impressed had he watched Mullery in the stands sitting back casually puffing a large cigar. You had to remind yourself who the chairman was as Jim Gregory, sitting alongside on the edge of his seat, nervously, rubbed thumb and forefinger while in the other hand a cigarette he never lit danced between his fingers.

It was certainly nerve-jangling stuff for both sides after Rangers had sneaked upfield in the 47th minute to pilfer the points, or so we thought. Bannister touched on a chance through ball and the electric Fereday, who was uninhibited by the surroundings, zipped in between the hesitant Neal and Grobbelaar to score.

Mullery, who had boldly promised that Rangers would not string nine men along the back, now saw his team doing just that, though you could hardly blame them and anyway it was doubtful whether they had any choice in the matter. They danced the fine line of offside with amazing agility and consistency considering the sharpness of Walsh, who scored two offside goals in a minute - though had Rush been there I feel the trap would have been sprung.

It needed a shade faster release from midfield and Molby, with a little more urgency, has that necessary touch, a delicate one for such a tall, heavy man. Liverpool have too much in reserve (for example the elegant Gillespie and the natural right-back Nicol) for there to be any panic, and the only threat of subsidence on Saturday was beneath the packed Kop terraces when Whelan's excellent strike went humming home with seven minutes remaining.

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