One afternoon in Anfield - Goldilocks and his 3 Golden Goals. Liverpool 3 Manchester Utd 1...(they're not singing anymore)

The KOP end - clearly too much excitement caused me to arrive this early

Oh. My. Goal scoring father of all things beautiful - God. If there is one wish all Liverpool fans ever want granted, apart from taking home a glinting piece of silver, it's a tantalizing win against Manchester United at Anfield. And Dalglish's army certainly didn't disappoint yesterday! With Manchester United missing defender Vidic from their earlier loss against Chelsea, and Liverpool's rising star right-back Kelly out for a month from an injury with the home side's loss against West Ham last sunday, no one knew what lay ahead for the two teams who are so far still tied at 18 league titles. And of course, I still hadn't heard whether or not £35million signing Carroll was going to make his much awaited debut.

So off I went Northbound towards my adoptive home in the shape of Anfield, with hope in my heart that we would in no way repeat the embarrassment of a week earlier when we lost 3-1 to West Ham (of all teams). Waiting to buy a match day programme, once I was inside the Stadium, I was politely asked by a lovely Welsh gentleman clutching a betting slip as to what I thought would be the outcome of the game. Now, the last time I was asked to help someone make a bet in Anfield was back in January 2010, when I correctly predicted Liverpool to win 3-1 against Bolton. So of course, I went ahead and said the same. Then right behind me I could hear two gentlemen having this exact conversation;

"I'm gonna put down Luis Suarez for a Hat trick, like. Or shall I do Carroll for 3?"

"Nah mate, I say put down Dirk Kuyt for a hatter"

"Nah, he ain't gonna get a hat trick mate, Carroll, or Suarez?"

"I'm saying Kuyt."

"I'm putting down Suarez. Your a d*ck". <---No, YOUR the 'idiot' here my friend!

Foul aroma from those standing up - Utd fans alluringly close.

Not only was I right with us winning 3-1 and there's a Welshman somewhere wishing he'd asked me lottery numbers too, but that poor man behind me
was right and his mate would have won hundreds!
Anyway, as i sat down an hour early in my seat in the Anfield Road stand, I looked to my right to see a mass of ugliness in the form of Manchester United supporters. Yes, I love nothing more than sitting right next to the away fans, and it was even more enthralling knowing they weren't the average Blackpool or Birmingham crowd (well, it is Man Utd so it probably was people from Birmingham as real Mancunians support City/Citeh), but the devils themselves that make belting out all the swearwords in the English and Irish dictionary even more delightful to sing. It was inevitable that this was going to be one hell of a fixture.

As the game kicked off, Van Der Sar was in goal at our end, and so was all the action. In the opening minutes, Suarez just missed tapping in a wonderful ball from Meireles, who handled the ball with a little more caution than usual but nevertheless, still brilliant in his finishes. I only remember two shots that Manchester United being able to take in the first half, one of which was an eye watering close call by Dimitar Berbatov which missed Pepe Reina's reach in front of the Kop just far enough to skim the sidebar and deflect out. In our defence, I was thoroughly missing my favourite Trojan warrior, Greek defender Kyrgiakos, so when Aurelio was substituted with a Hamstring injury, I was incredibly happy to see the man with the iron forehead come on and straight away mould himself into the penalty area for Manchester free kick which almost went in if it wasn't for Meireles quick thinking in placing himself in goal next to Reina!

Then...Kuyt happened. Twice. In what would be his first goal ever against Manchester United, Dirk Kuyt was almost too perfectly placed barely a yard away from the goal when Suarez refused to let the away players get near his ball, hanging onto it for dear life, tangled with opposing players yet still controlling it himself on the edge of the box, and as he tapped towards what we thought was a shot into the goal, he actually slipped it cleverly through the invitingly open legs of Van Der Sar towards Kuyt who barely had to breathe on the ball to have it float into the back of the net and send a roar through us all. A wonderful first for Kuyt and superb assist by the ex Ajax striker. And yes i was screeching in the most girly fashion because it happened right in front of me. Swell! Yet 5 minutes later, Kuyt caught the scoring against Man U bug and netted another cuing us all in the Anfield road end to stand and sing 'Your not singing anymore' to our wonderfully quiet neighbours! Oh what a feeling, you must now understand why I chose to sit so close to them. And once we finished singing that, we then sang this....(click the video to hear us telling them what they need to hear!)

Cry Me a River - Oscar nomination guaranteed

Much to my excitement, and this may sound quite disturbing, there was a lovely manly scuffle which ended in blood. Now it wouldn't be the clash of the Titans without a little bit of the red stuff on the pitch? Unexpectedly, it wasn't just red stuff pouring out from Nani's leg after a rough and painful studs up challenge by our favourite, red card loving Carragher, but there was some of the clear crocodile stuff flowing from Nani's eyes. I didn't see the tears while at the game, but i'm sure by now every google result containing Nani, will now have the word 'crying' next to it. Now, football is a mans game, i'm sure, and even our favourite Prima Donna Christiano Ronaldo never squeezed out a single tear when he slipped and slid like an amputated ballet dancer. But Nani, are you kidding me? Ok it looked painful, Carra only got a yellow and yes he should really have got a red, not that that would have impacted the score in any way as we were already 2-0 up, but there is something seriously wrong about a footballer who sobs with his bottom lip hanging out in result to a gash to his leg. Yes it looked very painful and as a girl, I would cry. But Nani, as far as I know, is a boy. I'm sorry, but only Arsenal's scarily injured duo Eduardo and Ramsay can get away with real tears. Nani, you just need to man up! A part of me wished that Carra did get a red, not for the challenge, but for doing us all a favour and landing Nani with a right hook for being such a girl. Too bad that our defender has more sense than I, and was seen after the game visiting the Utd changing room to say sorry to Nani. Sweet to see that all play is not dirty and our men have manners....

Kuyt and Meireles celebrate the Dutch mans third in front of the KOP

The second half saw yet another goal from Kuyt, much to the annoyance of all utd fans (and the scouse dude who didn't listen to his mates advice on hattrick betting), which left Van Der Sar eating his words when remembering how once upon a time, he told his fellow Dutchman that there would be no way he score past him while he's in goal. Errrm. Yeah, he managed three. In the same game. Less than 5 yards away each time. Kyrgiakos showed Manchester United how to clear a ball, even at his ripe old age, in fact the ball literally developed a crush on the defenders forehead because it spent so much time bouncing back and forth off it and back into the path of a fellow red, right in front of us and the away supporters in the Anfield Road End. There are defenders in the premier league younger than our ageing Greek who are nowhere near as alert, he never loses an ounce of energy, and has only improved further under Dalglish.

And then came THE moment the world had been waiting for when we all found out Carroll had signed for Ye Olde Liverpool. As I waved goodbye to the beautiful Meireles, still waiting for him to answer to my cries of whether he would marry me or not, on came the new Liverpool number nine. Within mere seconds of tottering onto the pitch looking scarily like Kyrgiakos, he headed the ball (again, like Kyrgiakos) as it came to him, right on target, saved by a swift Van Der Sar.  And this is where I shall finish this post, because in a nutshell, Liverpool won 3-1 with a late injury time goal from united, I never saw who scored because it was that insignificant. Need I say any more when I have a video that says it all?

An amazing day came to a great conclusion with some great goals from Kuyt, fantastic assists from Suarez and Meireles, amazing clearances from Kyrgiakos and Lucas and of course, the King with the biggest smile, Kenny...

I leave you with the video of Carroll's first few moments as a Liverpool player. Who was your star man and why? Feel free to comment below :-)