Youth trumps experience in a scintillating match
In recent weeks I’ve been spending a lot of my time at my father’s place on the south coast, supporting him, his successive residential carers, local council adult car people and sundry others whose jobs (vocations?) touch upon the needs of the elderly.
In the nature of these things – as with most aspects and stages of life – ‘stuff happens’ … or sometimes nothing much does.
One day everything can proceed like clockwork with no hiccups or surprises and everything seems routine. The next, for seemingly no particular reason, everything is suddenly relaxed, positive and encouraging – little humorous incidents occur – and everything is upbeat.
Or, alternatively, there’s a minor setback first thing, developments follow and (as happened yesterday) by midday a pair of paramedics had arrived to deal with a situation, after which the day inevitably proceeded in relatively sombre fashion, partly because other family members had come for lunch and it hadn’t quite turned out as we had hoped.
Come the afternoon, however, and – with order restored, chores done, one or two of us still suffering the after-effects of bouts of cold/’flu – relative calm descended.
We regrouped in the drawing room and – with our most recently-joined temporary team member a fan of football and the Reds – we switched to the BBC’s live television coverage of the FA Cup clash between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield to make him feel ‘at home’.
Thereafter, fortified by supplies of tea and mince pies, I played my individual part as we watched all 90 minutes (plus stoppage time) of a football match between two Premier League teams for – in my case – the first time in about three years.
From my starting perspective as a sports fan (but non-soccer fanatic) I was pleasantly surprised by the experience.
As it happened I was personally more familiar with the historic reputations of the managers (Klopp and Ancelotti) and clubs than I was about their respective recent pasts but – simply taken as a spectacle as presented – the flow of the game and the range of technical skills on display were pleasing on the eye and continually entertaining.
For squad welfare reasons the hosts had opted to field a youthful side against what was close to an Everton first choice.
Rusters who follow the round-ball game will already be aware that the outcome was a 1-0 victory for Liverpool.
The winning goal – his first for the first team – came from a modest local lad named Curtis Jones who will not turn 19 until the end of the month and has been on Liverpool’s books since he joined their Under-Nines.
He hasn’t had too many opportunities to show what he can do this term – until now … and this screamer was a hell of a way to announce yourself!
See it again – or indeed for the first time – here, courtesy of – YOUTUBE
