Andy Mitten - Liverpool v Manchester United: Seeing Red (A Short Pass)

Seeing Red
Liverpool v Manchester United, March 2007

One of the most eagerly-awaited games of the season, between two teams whose cultural influence extends far beyond their city boundaries.

My head feels like its going to explode. Barely ten yards in front of me, John OShea is wheeling away in celebration and the stunned Scouse silence means the joyous screams of the Manchester United players are audible. Weve beaten arch-rivals Liverpool in dramatic and, many will say, undeserved circumstances: one-nil, at Anfield, with a killer late goal after defending for much of the game. As a result, were now twelve points clear in the race for a Premiership title most fans considered out of reach last August.

As the players shout at lung-bursting volume and frenziedly hug each other, I have to contain the euphoria of this perfect, body-tingling buzz, not showing the slightest sign of pleasure. Im standing on the Kop, a lone Mancunian in a mass of 12,000 fuming Liverpool fans.

After glancing one last time at the ecstatic United players and 3,000 delirious travelling fans in the Anfield Road stand, I jog back to the car through the streets of dilapidated and boarded-up Victorian terraces which surround Anfield. Past pubs, the ones closest to the ground teeming with fans from Bergen and Basingstoke with their painted faces, jester hats, and replica kits. It reminds me of Old Trafford. Finally, in the relative safety of the car I let my emotions go and punch the air repeatedly, before looking out to see a man staring at me from his front room window. He raises his two fingers. Its no V for victory and I dont need assistance from a lip reader to know what hes saying. Its time to get on the East Lancashire Road and back to Manchester.

SIX CLASSIC GAMES

United 3 Liverpool 4

League, February 1910

Uniteds new Old Trafford home, resplendent with an 80,000 capacity, earned the club the Moneybags United tag. The stadiums grand opening was going well as United led 31 after seventy-four minutes. Then the visitors scored three times

My mood had been so very different before the match as I queued to get onto the Kop for the first time in my life. Id not seen a United fan all day, save for the Mancunian ticket touts working the streets alongside their Scouse counterparts behind the Kop. Were in the same game and we all know each other, explained one. Whether youre at the Winter Olympics in Japan or Glastonbury Festival, the vast majority of spivs will be Mancunian or Scouse, an unholy alliance of wily, streetwise grafters.

Like me, 95 per cent of the United fans at Anfield wore no colours, but paranoia gripped me as I reached my seat. It would take just one person to suss I wasnt a Liverpool fan and Id be in serious trouble. I wasnt going to attempt to fit in by trying a Scouse accent, mutilating words like chicken to a nasal shickin or calling people la, soft lad, or wack, but I wasnt aiming to advertise my allegiances either.

Alright mate, said the lad next to me in a North Wales accent as I found my seat.

Alright mate, I replied, cagily. They were the last words I spoke all game.

When Liverpools fans sang Youll Never Walk Alone I focused firmly on events on the field. I did the same when they chanted, Youve won it two times, just like Nottingham Forest, in reference to Uniteds two European Cups compared with Liverpools five.

I ignored the continual anti-Gary Neville abuse, was surprised that Cristiano Ronaldo wasnt booed once ls;We dont go for all that little Englander nonsense, a Scouser explained later and stunned that the Kop applauded Edwin van der Sar as he took to his goal. The Dutchman applauded back warmly.

All around me, Liverpools flags continue the European theme: Paisley 3 Ferguson 1 reads one. Liverpool are obsessed with flags. One piece of cloth even has its own website; others try hard to be examples of the famed Scouse wit.

SIX CLASSIC GAMES

United 2 Liverpool 1

FA Cup Final, 1977

With the League Championship in the bag and a European Cup final to follow, rampant Liverpool were clear favourites even among some United players. We were not too confident, admits striker Stuart Pearson. We knew wed give Liverpool a game but they were so good you could never say: Were going to beat these. United won a thriller, thus denying Liverpool the Treble.

At half-time, I met Peter Hooton, former lead singer of The Farm and lifelong Liverpool fan in front of the Kops refreshment kiosks where the Polish catering staff struggle to decipher the Scouse brogue.

What are you going to do when we score? he asked.

When?

When.

But Liverpool dont score and United have taken six points from Liverpool this season.

It is commonly agreed that there is rising tension between fans of Liverpool and Manchester United. At Old Trafford last October, both clubs sought to defuse the increasingly fraught atmosphere. During an FA Cup game at Anfield in February 2006, a Liverpool fan had hurled a cup of excrement into the 6,000 United fans on the lower tier of the Anfield Road, hitting one on the head. After the game, Liverpool fans rocked the ambulance carrying injured United striker Alan Smith to hospital though Smith later received hundreds of cards from well-wishing Liverpool supporters, keen to stress that this was something which made them ashamed.

At Old Trafford, past greats like Bobby Charlton, Ian Callaghan, Denis Law, and Roger Hunt were paraded on the pitch before the game and a penalty competition was held between rival fans. It didnt work. Not that anyone was too surprised given the levels of animosity. Liverpool fans approaching Manchester that day had been greeted with freshly-painted Hillsborough 89 graffiti on a bridge over the M602 in the gritty United heartland of Salford. Closer to the stadium, another sprayed message bore the legend: Welcome to Old Trafford, you murdering Scouse bastards.

The teams were led out by Gary Neville, punished for the heinous crime of celebrating a goal in front of Liverpool fans the previous season, and Steven Gerrard. Both understand the United v Liverpool rivalry acutely given their lifelong affinity with the clubs they captain. Both would rather stick pins in their eyes than join the enemy. Both were subject to dogs abuse in the songs which rang round the stadium, which also rehearsed some enduring stereotypes and prejudices about the two clubs and the inhabitants of their cities.

United fans: Gary Neville is a red, he hates Scousers.

Liverpool: USA! USA!

United: Michael Shields gets bummed by queers. (Referencing Liverpool fan Shields, who was jailed in Bulgaria for an attack on a waiter before Liverpools 2005 European Cup victory, a charge which he denies.)

Liverpool: Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, youll never walk alone.

United: Sign on, sign on, with hope in your heart, youll never get a job.

Liverpool: We won it five times in Istanbul, we won it five times. (Liverpool fans hold up placards bearing the number five.)

United: Steve Gerrard, Gerrard, he kisses the badge on his chestthen puts in a transfer request, Steve Gerrard, Gerrard.

Liverpool: All around the fields of Anfield Road, where once we saw the king Kenny play and could he play. Stevie Heighway on the wing, we have tales and songs to sing, now its glory around the fields of Anfield Road.

United: Murderers, murderers.

Liverpool: Shit on the Cockneys, shit on the Cockneys tonight. (A surprising reference to Uniteds perceived out of town support United are usually loathed by Scousers precisely because they are Mancunian).