Newcastle Utd 1 Liverpool 0

"Liverpool, a team badly hit by injury crisis" How true. Look at the makeshift team for yesterday's clash... Somehow i cant make out the actual formation. Most probably its as follow:

---Baros---

Garcia--------------------------Smicer

---Gerrard---Biscan---

Riise--------------------------Finnan

---Pelle---Hyypia---Carra---

--- Carson---

Rafa chose to rest Dudek and we saw Scott Carson making his debut for the first team. Riise played as LB in place of Traore who is out with a thigh injury;.while Pellegrino partnered Hyypia and Carra in defence. In midfield, we saw Biscan partnering Gerrard instead of Didi. Smicer and Garcia played in the 'winger' position right behind Baros and we really looked pathetic playing with only 1 striker up front (apparently Morientes is out with a groin injury).

The game started well with us keeping possession of the ball and some fine passing. But after a while, everything went haywire. Garcia as usual, keep losing possession. Gerrard imho had a poor game. His passings were awlful and the leadership was not there for he could not inspire the team to play. Riise had a quiet game and Biscan *sigh* wat more can i say about him? just another average performance. Vladimir-twinkle-toe Smicer is never ever a man fit to wear the Liverpool jersey!!! He was absolutely clueless!

For the remaining time, we could not even string more than 2 passes together. Ameobi was running all over the place but thank god the defence stood firm. Pelle did a great job marking Alan Shearer, keeping him very quiet on his testimonial match. And thank god as well that Bellamy has left...his pace would have tore Hyypia/Pellegrino to shreds! Baros had very little chances up front. Most of the time he makes solo runs with the ball only to lose possession when 2-3 defenders climbs all over him. The game ended 0-0 in the first half with very little goalmouth action.

Second half started more or less in the same fashion. We still could not keep possession and string passes. How Boring... Boumsong had a great game, keeping Baros quiet throughout. We had difficulty initiating an attack as Newcastle threw more men upfront. The introduction of Kluivert added a new dimension to the game. Finally, a beautiful freekick from Laurent Robert broke the deadlock between 2 teams who were both toothless in attack. A goal even the best GK in the world cant save. So will all of u fans lay off Carson?! With less than 20mins to go, we struggled to find that equalizing goal. The introdution of Le Tallac, Nunez and Warnock served no effect. No matter wat, we just could not break down a determined Newcastle defense.

The game ended 1-0, leaving us without a pt from St. Jame's Park. And the race to 4th place looked almost impossible. I think we'll have to bid farewell to CL nx season...