Red rising in the heat of the night

WITHOUT wishing to sound like a doddery greybeard, your correspondent has experienced some extraordinary atmospherics in his football-watching career — from the spectacle of a Don Givens-inspired Ireland walloping the USSR at a heaving, disbelieving Dalymount Park back in 1974, to what virtually amounted to an Irish ‘home’ game in Giants Stadium in New Jersey 20 years later.

Bearing in mind that I obviously had something of an emotional investment in both occasions, I would have thought it unlikely that my spine would ever be tingled to greater effect by a game in which my status was purely that of neutral observer. That was until taking my seat in the press box at Anfield last Tuesday night when, a full 30 minutes before kick-off, the ground was shaking to a massed rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', the awesome opening movement of a night on which Liverpool would be carried to victory against Chelsea in the Champions League on an unrelenting wave of volume, colour and raw emotion.

Truly, this was the phenomenon of the crowd as 12th man, and it was no wonder that Rafa Benitez and his players made a point of acknowledging the contribution of the fans at the end of a tumultuous night. Even Jose Mourinho was forced to conceded the significance of "the Anfield effect."