Reasons to be cheerful

CandH blogger Allen Cummings recalls an Anfield miracle

We could all do with a bit of cheering up right now.

So how about a blast from the not-too-distant past to remind us of happier days? Victories at Anfield don’t come along too frequently – and that’s not just a West Ham thing.

Many sides, no matter how good they might be, find the going pretty tough at that particular place on Merseyside. With Liverpool brushing aside all and sundry in the Premier League this season,

Monday night’s trip to face the mighty Reds looks foreboding indeed. But miracles can and do happen – as our visit to Anfield in August 2015 proved. 52 years we had waited for a victory there – and that day one was just around the corner.

Sakho – grabbed an Anfield winner

ive of those likely to be in the West Ham squad on Monday were playing that sunny Saturday afternoon – Mark Noble, Angelo Ogbonna, Manuel Lanzini, Aaron Cresswell and Darren Randolph.

Liverpool, while not the team they are this season, were none-the-less a formidable opponent under the management of Brendan Rodgers.

Slaven Bilic’s team were set up to play in a 4-3-3 formation, and got off to a flier, Manuel Lanzini, making his league debut for the Hammers, slotting home with just three minutes on the clock.

As expected the Reds responded with vigour, but the West Ham defence held firm under intense pressure, and the Anfield roar was silenced a second time just before the half hour when the impressive Lanzini (oh how we wish we’d been able to say that this season) robbed Lovren and following a goalmouth scramble skipper Mark Noble fired home the second.

It was backs-to-the-wall stuff for most of the second half, but all the huffing and puffing of the home side, spurred on by the ever vocal Kop, was to no avail. To add salt to the home wounds, and icing on the West Ham cake, Diafra Sakho stroked home number three two minutes into added time.

Even a Mark Noble sending off on 80 minutes couldn’t dampen the mood at the final whistle of an exuberant team and a wildly ecstatic band of travelling West Ham travelling, of which I’m happy to say I was one.

The bookies will have Klopp’s all-conquering team firm favourites to notch league win number 26 on Monday.

But following a less than impressive 1-0 victory over bottom club Norwich City and a 1-0 defeat in Europe to Athletico Madrid in their last two games maybe, just maybe, there is hope of something for us. Liverpool have to lose sometime – why not on Monday!