Liverpool came up trumps with their gritty, hard working and physical display as they fully deserved all the three points. David Moyes might feel the gap has closed between Liverpool and Everton but Everton had a very difficult time dealing with their man advantage.

Let me know start off by saying that I thought the referee was awful. Fellaini should have been off well before the tackle with Kyrgiakos. He Rugby tackled Kyrgiakos in the box during a corner kick and then he purposely slid into the face of Kuyt, after the whistle had gone. Both of these actions were completely ignored/missed by this referee. Then unbelievably, the major talking point of the match between Fellaini and Kyrgiakos saw the referee completely ignore the big haired thug as he showed a straight red to the greek letting Fellaini away with assault. Some justice was served as Fellaini was not able to return to action as his further participation in the match would have been a joke.

Well another meeting with our pesky neighbours is approaching and Everton are on a pretty good run of form at the moment. Everton's first half display against Man City was the best 45 minutes I had seen all year, until this Sunday, when United destroyed Arsenal. Everton were simply brilliant in that match so this will be a tough derby, as they always are.

Liverpool's recent performances have been better, but without Torres we just lack that fire power up front that can be so important in these games. I'm not sure what kind of team Liverpool will line up with but I don't see Alberto getting a start in this match. I think Rafa will go with Lucas and Mascherano in the middle of the park, but one of the brilliant things about our manager is that he is unpredictable.

So Liverpool gained a valuable 3 points at home to Bolton on Saturday. The performance in the first half was not great as Bolton had two very good chances to score but this was a much better performance then midweek against Wolves.

Steven Gerrard was our most improved player as he was being man marked for most of the match but his work rate and movement was much better. Our defense also looked pretty strong, the big greek in the middle doing very well.

Liverpool were bloody awful against Wolves. Rafa and Gerrard can spin it any way they but the honest truth is that if you'd swapped kits before the match you could not have been able tell which team was Wolves and which team was Liverpool.

The Reds had one shot on target and that was a fluke more than anything. Who knew that Liverpool's best chance would happen in the opening minute when Alberto Riera flashed a header wide.

Well that was a bit more like it. This was never going to be a night when we out passed Spurs but what we did do was out run and out hustle them, from the first whistle to the last whistle. In speaking of whistles we even had a bit of help from the man in the middle. This made for a nice change after some of the awful decision that have come our way this season.

Aquilani was much better in his advanced role last night and Dirk Kuyt must have ran a marathon. Typically I don't think he is a good selection for the lone striker role, but last night he excelled at it. He actually probably took the hardest chance of the lot when he slotted in Liverpool's opening goal after 6 minutes. He went on to miss 3 easier chances to finish the game off, but kept his nerve with two well taken penalties in minute 90.

The Liverpool vs Reading FA Cup third round replay was a disaster from the 90 second mark on. Once Torres was absolutely clattered into, about 4 second after he gave the pass (four seconds is a long time in professional football) Liverpool's night was going from bad to worse. Torres gets zero protection from the referee's in England, frankly it's disgraceful. Torres has done nothing put continue to pick himself up from hefty challenges since his arrival in Spain and this case was no different as the ref just had a word with him. Regardless of whether that challenge happened in minute 1 or minute 121 it was an booking.

Liverpool played ok for about 6 minutes but just didn't have any real drive. Reading got into the match more and more and had some 3 fantastic opportunities to score. Liverpool finally tested the keeper around the 40 minute mark, by this time Torres was lost to injury and was replaced by Ngog. Liverpool scored against the run of play, Gerrard's cross was put into the Reading net. Only Yossi celebrated the goal as the skipper turned away in disgust.

Just before kick off the number 8 was held up to signal the skipper would not be coming back out as Ryan Babel replaced him. Oddly enough Liverpool enjoyed their only dominate period of the match from about minute 46 to 80, with both Gerrard and Torres off the pitch. Granted Liverpool were playing with 10 men at this point as Ryan Babel was a total waste of space. He never won a single header, jumped out of every challenge and frankly just plain old sucked. After the match, if I was Rafa I would have put Babel in the back of my car and driven him straight to Birmingham's ground to have their owner sign over the 8 or 9 million pound check. He will never make it at Liverpool.

On minute 80 their player made a fabulous run and beat about 4 of our players. With only the goalie to beat he put his shot wide, I felt sorry for the boy at the time. His run deserved a goal. After that moment Liverpool looked shaky. We couldn't get a hold of the ball, passes were nervous and errant. We had chances to kill the game; see chance from Alberto, Ngog and Babel but they were all wasted. It seemed to be that the players stopped believing. As the game went into injury time I felt perhaps we were going to hold on. Then steps Yossi, who was having a stinker anyway, and his reckless challenge resulted in a pk.

Once the game went into extra time their was only going to be one winner, which is a sad statement given this was Reading. They scored a fantastic goal after their right back skinned Agger and Yossi. Yossi had a chance to make amends as he was sent clean through on goal but his shot was pathetic and straight at the goalie. Liverpool had a few half chances but Alberto and Lucas refuse to shoot the ball.

All in it was a terrible night and Liverpool deserved to go out. The news continued to worsen with Torres out for 6 weeks, Yossi out for 3 and Gerrard out for 2.

All that being said I refuse to give up on the a manager that as recently as 10 months ago made us the team that absolutely no one wanted to play, both domestically and in Europe. Things are not going well but we must stand by our manager and hope that he can turn things around.

I try to keep my column about football as much as possible but this weekends events by Tom Hick Junior have forced me to speak about other matters.
His four letter email tirade to a supporter of Liverpool Football Club is a complete disgrace. Tom Hicks Junior learned from his father, which just illustrates the type of man Tom Hicks Senior is.
This email is perfect example of the lack of dignity these two custodians of our club have. They are they type of people who are used to getting everything they want in life and no one stands up to their disgraceful behavior. "Junior" believes he can get away with whatever he wants but in this case he was very wrong. What kind of businessman is sending emails back to his clients in the middle of the night with four letter words in them? I will tell you the kind, a stupid one.
Gillette and Hicks are a continued embarrassment to our club, regardless of the amount of money they spend on players. This is not about football but rather about having respect and class and knowing how to treat people. Hicks and Gillette and their entourage don't have it and never will.
Gillette and Hicks get our club. You are not Welcome at LFC.