Liverpool 0 Wolves 1:THIS WAS the final Premier League game of 2010, the year – let it be remembered – Roy Hodgson was voted manager of the year. By its end, Hodgson cut a desperately isolated figure. Liverpool were losing at home to the Premier League's bottom club, who last celebrated an away win in March. His substitutions were being booed and the Kop was chanting "Hodgson for England" and from its steep slopes came the more ominous sound of "Dalglish".
The Rennes left winger Sylvain Marveaux was in the directors’ box at Anfield last night and is expected to become the first of Hodgson’s signings in the January transfer window. Marveaux is still recovering from a groin injury and judging from the way some of Hodgson’s other signings were treated he may yet change his mind. Raul Meireles was at least applauded when he was removed. Paul Konchesky was laughed off.
Steven Gerrard, returning after six weeks away, seemed to be nursing an injury by the end.
Wolves’ victory was deserved. Shortly before Stephen Ward scored his first Premier League goal, Pepe Reina had, for reasons best known to himself, passed straight to Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. Whatever Hodgson’s critics may say, he cannot be held responsible for this kind of ineptitude.
What followed was far worse. Sotirios Kyrgiakos could only clear the ball as far as Ebanks-Blake and the striker slid his pass through to Ward who in turn poked his shot through Reina’s legs.
Martin Skrtel did put the ball in the net beneath the Kop but five Liverpool players standing offside seemed to sum up the move.
The night began with applause but by the interval the mood had turned to boos. They had put their hands together in memory of Avi Cohen and Bill Jones, men from different Liverpool generations – the ones that won the league title in 1980 and 1947 respectively.
Wolves had won once at Anfield in 60 years and that, perversely, was in 1984, the year Liverpool won a treble and Wolves finished last. One of these scenarios is still possible this season.
Mick McCarthy had said he wanted no sympathy for being bottom of the league, a combination he described as “shit and caramel”. There was, however, little hint in the opening exchanges of the soft centre that has been Wolves’ constant companion in this campaign. David Ngog, typically, found himself isolated near the centre circle surrounded by five gold shirts and no outlet. Whenever Liverpool lunged forward they were frustrated by some fine last-ditch defending; Christophe Berra, especially, seemed to get his body behind everything.
Wolves were aggressive and inventive when going forward, adjectives that could only occasionally be used about the home team, captained by Gerrard for the first time since the 2-0 defeat at Stoke in mid-November.
It is tempting to see Gerrard as a footballing Ricky Ponting, a great player who finds his career at a sporting institution teetering towards deep decline.
The only clear opening in the first half came from a crossfield ball from Fernando Torres, played into Meireles’s path by George Elokobi. To borrow one of McCarthy’s words, the shot contained too much caramel to threaten a goal.
LIVERPOOL: Reina, Johnson, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Konchesky (Aurelio 73), Kuyt, Gerrard, Lucas, Meireles (Cole 73), Torres, Ngog (Babel 62). Subs not used: Jones, Agger, Maxi, Poulsen. Booked: Johnson.
WOLVERHAMPTON: Hennessey, Zubar, Stearman, Berra, Elokobi, Foley, Milijas, Hunt, Jarvis (Edwards 89), Ward (Fletcher 78), Ebanks-Blake. Subs not used: Hahnemann, David Jones, Bent, Mujangi Bia, Batth. Booked: Elokobi.
Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).
