MyRAWK Exclusive - Views From Merseyside

Fellow REDs,

We are honoured to have a fellow Red, who has been supporting the team longer than I have been living, Terry De Niro from RAWK to write for us. He will be writing for a column called "View from Merseyside" on various matters. The column might not appear every week as we will try to fit it in with his tight work schedule and other commitments.

Terry De Niro is a respected forumer in the independent Liverpool supporter's forum, www.redandwhitekop.com (RAWK), from which we derived our name. He offers genuine & unique views from Merseyside on all matters regarding our beloved club. It is indeed a great honour to have someone of his stature to write for us. I hope that everyone enjoys his insight to the game and matters surrounding the games as seen through the eyes of Terry.

Jonno
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Liverpool v Man United

Sunday 16th December 2007

At Anfield, Liverpool.

Kick off 13:30 GMT:

Firstly, I’d just like to say that it’s an honour to be invited to write on this wonderful site-via a request from Jonno.

Where do I start with a fixture as massive as this? In comparison to the derby against Everton, that is always full of tension and of late there’s a slight bit of hatred there (I’m sorry to say).
But when it comes to a fixture against our fiercest rivals, anybody who’s ever been to any match against Man United home or away will tell you that the tension and hatred gets bigger every time.

My first home experience was in 1975 when we won 3-1 thanks to goals from Heighway, Toshack and Keegan, my first away was in 1976, where it finished 0-0, but I’ll never forget the atmosphere at Old Trafford that day and the fact that I was only 16 and getting abuse and even spat on from grown men of 40 something. I realised there and then that this was a fixture like no other.

A trip to Wembley to contest the 1977 FA cup final was marred by a 2-1 defeat, but Liverpool fans were smiling broadly a few days later when we lifted the European cup in Rome for the first time. We then went on to win it another three times before 1985, and as well as winning trophy after trophy, League after League, whilst they hardly won anything of note.

So it seemed to me that that the hatred from their fans grew stronger, obviously down to the fact that we were so successful at that time. I seem to remember that a certain-Liverpool born, Ron Atkinson who was their manager at this time, and every time he signed a player, he proudly announced, “they were signing for the biggest football club in the World”. Yeah, OK..
Who was winning all the trophies, then?

Fast-forward to 1986 and Alex Ferguson starting his reign as Man United manager and proclaiming that “it was time to knock Liverpool off their f***ing perch”. He then luckily proceeded to win the FA cup in 1990 after he was on the verge of being sacked after another indifferent League campaign. As, we went on to win the League again.

There’s no doubting that they have been very successful since then, even winning the Champions league in 1999, but we stole their thunder by doing the same-against all the odds in 2005, so that adds to the rivalry.

I’ve been very lucky and old enough to have seen us win the League time and time again and it’s about time we brought that Holy Grail back to its rightful place, and to quote a certain Mr Ferguson, It’s time we knocked them off their f***ing perch…

They have a very good team, of that there is no doubt, but I’ve got a feeling that we’ll turn them over on the 16th. We are on a run of good form which I think is peaking at the right time, and hopefully just the right time to be meeting them.

COME ON YOU MIGHTY REDMEN, LET’S BATTER THEM MANCS!!!

© Terry De Niro 2007
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Reminder: MyRAWK "Clash of The Titans" match viewing gathering this Sunday, Dec 16th starting at 8:30pm. Come join your fellow Reds and MyRAWKites in witnessing this titanic battle towards the ultimate prize in English football and bragging rights to who is the King in North West England! There will be quizzes and Q&A sessions to test your knowledge and love of LFC. Correct answers will win you premiums from Carlsberg, premiums and wines from Barcardi Martini, and autographed pictures of the legendary goal scorer par excellence, Rushy! So what are you waiting for? Head on down to M Bar and show your shades of red this Sunday!