Lucky?

It takes a bit of luck to win championships. Who knows if, come the end of the season, the point gained at Bramall Lane on Saturday will be vital?

The Reds' fans were probably expecting an easy victory after the disposal of Chelsea in the Community Shield, but with three of our regular back four absent after 28 minutes, and opponents who were up for it after years out of the limelight, it was never going to be easy.

Gifting a goal through poor marking (or poor zonal defending - who was in the zone the two Sheffield United strikers were in?) as Rafa's half-time team-talk was still ringing in the players' ears only made things harder. The ref seemed to be giving 50-50 decisions the home side's way and the yellow-shirted players kept slipping when in useful positions.

But then our luck changed. If that penalty had been given against Liverpool, I would have been swearing at the telly. Every replay from every angle seemed to suggest that contact between the defender and Steven Gerrard was minimal at best. To be fair to the skipper, he didn't dive, but managed to get a shot away. There was no question of cheating, simply an erroneous decision by a referee.

We see a lot of decisions like that go against the Reds over the course of a season, and with every one I call even louder for video replays to be introduced, as they have been so effectively in rugby, ice hockey and American football, to name just three sports. I still believe replays for a fifth official will be quicker than the minute-long huddle of players around the referee, trying vainly to change his mind. But on Saturday a reply would have denied Liverpool the equaliser. Our luck was in.

However if Carragher and Riise hadn't been unlucky enough to have been badly injured inside the first half an hour, we might never have needed the luck in the first place, so let's get things in perspective.

Maybe this season the scales of fortune will tip ever so slightly in our favour. Sometimes that's the difference between first and nowhere.

posted by John