Reds help the grieving process

THIS is how it always used to be.

You’d have a dreadful week, but your team could make everything seem a little bit better whilst looking down on everybody else.The past is back.

Bolton wasn’t as difficult as I’d feared; in fact it was rather pleasant. The first game after losing a parent is a fraught one. Never mind enjoying yourself — should you even be there? A thousand people will say “it’s what he would have wanted” and you’re still not convinced. I had a little wobble during ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ obviously, but after that it was disconcertingly business as usual.

Bolton came with their obligatory stonewall tactics, but none of Hull’s threat. Sammy Lee praised the crowd for their patience, but I’m sure this was flattery with a purpose.

After all the opening goal only took 25 minutes, and it was hardly against the run of play. You’d have to be one serious brat to let that affect you.

We’ve been impatient recently sure, but not that bad. With more nervous times to come perhaps Rafa’s Mini-Me is leaving no stone unturned.

There was certainly more purpose in our play than in previous home games. Earlier wins for Chelsea and United had sharpened minds and provided the necessary focus for the job in hand.

Keane got his free-ish role, a couple of goals and a full game. Maybe the surgeon had a rummage around Rafa’s head while he was anaesthetised for the kidney stones? Insua looks more and more assured. Whether it’s my current emotional state or the fear-cum-phobia of Dossena’s return, but you’ll have to forgive me if I turn a blind eye to the lad’s failings in the coming weeks because I’m just about ready to adopt him.

I came out of Anfield with a warmer feeling for my club than I’ve had for years. Even though Bolton was a fairly run of the mill victory it meant an awful lot to me.

Perspective can be quite damaging for a football fan! I can’t even get worked up by Wenger’s continuing craziness, or Adebayor’s ludicrous assertion that Alonso’s tackle on Fabregas was dangerous. Serenity descended on the Kelly residence, to the point where I don’t care about Rooney and Ronaldo’s antics.

The top teams get away with murder anyway, lest we forget the number of 11 v 10 games we’ve already played this season.

Maybe such favouritism will rile me at the vital latter stages of the season, but for now I’d just be happy to be involved at all and conspiracy theories make you sound like a 1980’s Manc anyway. There must be worse things to be compared to, but right now I can’t think of one.

If anyone ever believed the away supporter mattered to the powers that be, the weekend must surely have shattered such naivety.

Newcastle? On a Sunday? At noon? For God’s sake. I hope there are no teams on Mars because if there were ever an Interplanetary Cup there’d still be 3,000 Reds there despite the fuel budget needing a minor adjustment.

At least there’ll be more oxygen on Mars than up in the Geordies’ away end.

What a fantastic performance. I’m not even going to play the media game and rubbish Newcastle. Let’s just wait for the others to have their “should have scored 12, easily” games there.

You couldn’t have guessed from the line-up that we would dominate so effortlessly and attack at will. Any grumbling about Keane’s absence simply evaporated. Kuyt on his own up front inspired lots of headshaking and muttering about ‘negativity’, but it produced a performance that Valencia (the template, lest we forget) at their peak would have envied.

They may as well have shown last season’s game on a big screen; Gerrard strike confirming our superiority, Newcastle defence pulled all over the place, scrambled effort from a corner nipping any second-half comeback in the bud and the usual political turmoil exasperating our black and white brethren. Not forgetting an exceptional performance from Lucas. After shining here last November he has been hugely disappointing since, so perhaps there’s hope yet.

Apart from Babel’s occasional game of ankle tennis (and even he grabbed a vital goal) you couldn’t fault anyone out there. This was an exceptional result from an exceptional team, without any contribution from Torres, Keane or Riera and a mere cameo from Skrtel.

Did someone mention “feel good factor”? It can’t last. Can it?

The only thing that could possibly ruin my mood is if our best player was arrested for violence, but that’s not very likely is it?