Charlie Adam's penalty and Luke Varney's perfectly-timed run and finish did the damage in the first half and although Sotirios Kyrgiakos's header pulled one back Liverpool will spend the next fortnight rooted in the bottom three because of the forthcoming international break. Blackpool were well worth their win on their first-half performance alone. Liverpool were not helped by the 10th-minute loss of striker Fernando Torres to a suspected groin injury, but even then they should still have at least dominated possession. But they did not get chance as Blackpool attacked from the off and Adam's second-minute free-kick had Jose Reina batting the ball away. Torres barely had time to flash a cross into the six-yard box where Joe Cole deflected it wide before he was replace by David Ngog. Blackpool were enjoying far more of the play than they could have expected to at Anfield and DJ Campbell went close at the far post from Neal Eardley's teasing right-wing cross. When Steven Gerrard gave the ball away in his own half it was only Martin Skrtel's sliding challenge which denied Varney's shot but the pressure eventually told in the 29th minute. Right-back Glen Johnson, in particular, has had a dreadful start to the season and it got worse when he brought down Varney, allowing Adam to fire home the penalty despite Reina getting a hand on it. Liverpool's response was half-hearted with Kyrgiakos, Ngog, Johnson, Dirk Kuyt and Raul Meireles all failing to test goalkeeper Matt Gilks with chances.Seconds before the interval the Seasiders stunned their hosts when Gary Taylor-Fletcher flicked a ball into the penalty area and Varney ran on to fire past Reina ... read more...
Monday, October 04, 2010
Liverpool 1 Blackpool 2
Charlie Adam's penalty and Luke Varney's perfectly-timed run and finish did the damage in the first half and although Sotirios Kyrgiakos's header pulled one back Liverpool will spend the next fortnight rooted in the bottom three because of the forthcoming international break. Blackpool were well worth their win on their first-half performance alone. Liverpool were not helped by the 10th-minute loss of striker Fernando Torres to a suspected groin injury, but even then they should still have at least dominated possession. But they did not get chance as Blackpool attacked from the off and Adam's second-minute free-kick had Jose Reina batting the ball away. Torres barely had time to flash a cross into the six-yard box where Joe Cole deflected it wide before he was replace by David Ngog. Blackpool were enjoying far more of the play than they could have expected to at Anfield and DJ Campbell went close at the far post from Neal Eardley's teasing right-wing cross. When Steven Gerrard gave the ball away in his own half it was only Martin Skrtel's sliding challenge which denied Varney's shot but the pressure eventually told in the 29th minute. Right-back Glen Johnson, in particular, has had a dreadful start to the season and it got worse when he brought down Varney, allowing Adam to fire home the penalty despite Reina getting a hand on it. Liverpool's response was half-hearted with Kyrgiakos, Ngog, Johnson, Dirk Kuyt and Raul Meireles all failing to test goalkeeper Matt Gilks with chances.Seconds before the interval the Seasiders stunned their hosts when Gary Taylor-Fletcher flicked a ball into the penalty area and Varney ran on to fire past Reina ... read more...