Liverpool vs West Bromwich Albion - 8th November 2008

I had a blast this past Saturday. After taking my sweet time getting out of bed and out of the house, we made our way up to Liverpool around 10.30am. I tested out the possibility of twittering with my mobile so that I could micro-blog throughout the day.

The first part of our journey was pretty easy, making a stop just before Birmingham. We didn't stop again until we were maybe 70 miles from Liverpool. The Roadchef services we visited was a little shit to say the least, but I just needed to stretch my legs. I checked in with the friend I was meeting there and once we knew where he was, we made the rest of our journey. It wasn't too long after we left the motorway that we found ourselves looking at the slightly visible roof of Anfield from less than a mile away.

After parking up, we made our way up Anfield road and were soon outside Anfield.

The stadum is impressive, although a little smaller than I had imagined. From the outside anyway. Well, if I'm honest, it's a little smaller than I imagined inside, but when it's full, it feels formidable. I can only imagine the atmosphere on a Champions League night, or in a game against Everton or United.

We were in our seats over an hour before kick off and we took plenty of photos.

I was (un?)lucky enough to sit right next to the West Brom fans, who were actually quite noisy and very upbeat despite the result.

One thing I'll never forget is how awesome it felt to hear and take part in singing You'll Never Walk Alone. My sister took a video of the event, which you can see below.

direct link to video

You can also catch of glimps of me singing it here:



The match got under way once we had observed a minutes silence for Remembrance Day. It was impeccably observed by both sets of fans. West Brom certainly had the better possession for the first 5 minutes, but Riera and Benayoun were soon making their way forward. Aurelio was also very adventurous.

I was so glad that Robbie Keane scored and I got to see both goals close up. He looks a very good player, a lot faster than he looks on TV and as with the rest of the side, they all look like they work very hard.

I was a little disappointed that Xabi Alonso was on the bench, but I enjoyed contributing to the reception that Robbie Keane received as he left and rapturous applause that Fernando Torres got as he arrived on to the field.

Xabi's introduction was also well received and welcomed by myself.

Arbeloa's goal looked very good from where I was and even better once I saw it on TV.

I can't wait to go again and hopefully sit in the Kop.

The drive home was far harsher than the drive up. Firstly, we didn't get back until 2am. We left at 7pm. The weather in the North West was just foul too. Not only was it wet, it was just non stop and I wasn't able to bring myself to do more than 40 or 50mph on the motorway. Once we were out of Manchester (detour to drop my friend off), the weather calmed progressively until it was pretty clear near Birmingham. We did make a few stops and I shared the drive with my Dad but I would certainly try to avoid driving in the future.

I definitely fulfilled a dream of mine and coming so close to my birthday, I couldn't really have asked for a better day!

(I just shared a Flickr slideshow of my Anfield set, which I could have done the day I posted this instead of messing around with the usually wonderful Slide Show Pro!)

(Videos of the goals added, available at the end of the feed)

Check out all the photos we took at Anfield on Flickr