Galvanising win for Liverpool

Things haven’t been going well for Liverpool in recent times and wins have been hard to come by. Going into yesterday’s game against Stoke they hadn’t won in five games and it was a case of winning by any means possible, and through Glen Johnson’s heroic goal they did.

A 1-0 win over Stoke at home would generally not be considered anything special for a Liverpool team but this was different, this game was massive for Brendan Rodgers and his side. You could sense the importance of the game amongst the crowd and amongst the players as they spent the final seven minutes of additional time inside their own half desperately defending their one goal lead.

The roar at the end of the was reminiscent of great Champions League nights at Liverpool, it was as if something big was accomplished and it was, confidence is everything in football and winning games is what creates confidence within a team, after such a bad run of form this could be a turning point for last seasons 2^nd place team.

The performance itself was admirable, the character of this Liverpool side was brought into question and if there is one thing yesterday’s performance showed it’s that these players are willing to fight for the jersey.

In the second half they had chance after chance to score but it just wasn’t happening, that didn’t stop them however, with the crowd roaring them on they kept plugging away and finally got their reward, after Rickie Lambert’s header hit the bar Glen Johnson flung his head at the ball through the boots of two defenders to knock the ball home, the celebrations of the players showed how big a goal this was, Johnson’s own celebrations were subdued as he received staples in his head after his heroics.

It was a scrappy goal, the kind of goal you would expect from a team struggling for confidence, but a match winning goal nonetheless. It could prove to be the goal that turns Liverpool’s season around.

Liverpool travel to Leicester next and after this win will be hoping to add another three points to their tally and begin climbing the table. Rodgers will also now have to make the choice whether to bring Gerrard back into the side or to keep Lucas in the starting eleven after his good showing yesterday.