Recently by Luke Traynor

DROPPING two points at home to Stoke could be considered unfortunate.
Repeating the feat at home to Fulham would be viewed as worrying. Doing the same against West Ham, and failing to score again into the bargain, is tantamount to a criminal offence.
If we fail to notch up number 19 this season, it's these matches that'll show us where we let it wastefully slip away.

IT'S OFFICIAL. Liverpool are in a bad spell at the moment.
Thankfully, that bad spell is twinned with a professionalism and ability to get results which is just about keeping us on track.
There's no doubt, however, that the unjustified loss to Spurs in the league did more mental damage than we imagined.

THEY always said Houllier had a stubborn struck in him.
As 90 minutes frustrating slipped by on Saturday, it was hard not to conclude that Benitez was displaying a similar trait.

OUT with the amateurs, in with the professionals.
After Wednesday nights dire showing, the proper employees at our club showed how to control and win a game of football.
What could have been an arkward trip up the M62 ended up a fairly comfortable afternoon for the first teamers.

I FOUND last night's game an embarrassing and painful experience.
Ok, it may be argued that it was the Carling Cup and we had a second string team out.
But there were almost 11 players out on the pitch at White Hart Lane who were patently not good enough, or more worryingly not committed enough, to pull on a Red shirt.

Firstly, apologies for the late posting of this blog. It's been one of those weekends...
Secondly, hats off to the first three points from of a six-game run of MUST win encounters, that could determine if we win the league this season.
West Brom, Bolton, Fulham, West Ham, Blackburn, Hull are the next challengers for the Reds.
And with respect to them all, a team like ours, performing as we are, should be looking at getting 18 points.

WITHIN seconds of the final whistle last night, my mobile phone was bleeping incessantly with text messages form irate football fans.
"You jammy gets!", screamed one. "That's just sick!"
Another message that was fired through bodly declared: "That penalty was a joke. Lucky, lucky, lucky, Liverpool!"
The first missive was from a Blue, the second a Red, I can inform you.
Maybe it was natural of me to go onto the defensive, but my instant reaction was to rebuff both statements as being wide of the mark.
I still stand by that view in the cold light of day this morning.

THE BEST start to the 2008-09 season by any club in English top-flight football had to come to an end sometime, I suppose.
The first 10 games of this term has, at times, felt almost too good to be true.
What is galling though, is to be pegged back and knocked off top spot in such unjust fashion.
Likeable geezer Harry Redknapp even admitted as much in his post match interview that Spurs 'rode their luck a bit'
Not 'arf 'Arry.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that 0-3 would have been a fair reflection of the game after 70 minutes.

FOR the first time in years, Liverpool can now talk confidently about a genuinely strong title challenge.
Even the most pessimistic of Reds would have found it hard not be won over by the commitment, desire, skill and will to win that saw us pick off Chelsea on Sunday.
Credit to every single player on the pitch who performed as a true team and to Benitez completely trouncing Big Phil in the tactical stakes.

"Any more of this, and I'll be checking into the coronary ward at The Royal," has been the favourite quip of many a Red this weekend.
The number of times we've come from behind this season to snatch a winner in the last 10 minutes is beginning to stretch the boundaries of probability.
We're still not playing particularly well, but at the same time, there's a newfound never-say-die attitude at Liverpool that can only be admired.