Carroll Brace In 3-0 Win For Liverpool

A minutes silence before kick off to remember the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough and also to remember a soldier who recently lost his life in Afghanistan and ex super sub David Fairclough's wife. The silence was impeccably observed by both sets of fans.

A Liverpool side stricken with injuries yesterday managed to pull out all the stops and confidently beat Manchester City whilst maintaining a clean sheet. Three goals for the Reds were the result of a strong attack from kick off. Considering the midfield also had a major hole in it after the absence of Steven Gerrard, the lads could have fooled anyone into thinking we had drafted in Iniesta to look after the place for 90minutes.

Most fans looking at this fixture were fearing the worst. City are above us in the table and can pack a punch when their stars are up for it. Last night however Mancini's side only backed up my opinions about them, it's ok spending millions on top class players but you can't just buy big names and assume it's all going to click. City don't look like a team, they don't play like a team, they play like a selfish bunch, sometimes that works to a tee but against this Liverpool at Anfield, it just wasn't going to happen.

Weakened side put out by Man City? Yes, maybe you could argue that but we were suffering ourselves and I'm not having any excuses from people saying we didn't deserve all three points last night.

It took Liverpool just 12minutes to get off the mark. I don't know how many more games it would have taken for people to start to get worried but Andy Carroll began his goal scoring in a Red shirt in style! An absolute smash from his left foot saw the ball fly into the back of the net before Hart even saw it coming.

The chance outside the area fell just right for our number 9 and he wasn't going to miss this opportunity. An emphatic celebration afterwards showed how much it meant to him and it was fantastic to see him get his first goal.

Shortly after the Liverpool goal City suffered a set back when Carlos Tevez had to be substituted after what looked like a hamstring injury. Balotelli took his place... That was a good sub, haha!

Meanwhile youngster John Flanagan was quietly getting on with the massive task of playing right back in this game. He wasn't afraid to get stuck in and some early challenges including a slide tackle from the academy starlet proved the enormity of the occasion hadn't got to him. A superb 90minutes from Flanagan who didn't put a foot wrong.

Dirk Kuyt found Liverpool their second goal just after the half hour mark. A goal created after a string of attempts from the Reds after City's defence struggled to get the ball out of the danger area, saw Aurelio provide an assist for Kuyt who from just outside the area slid his attempt past a now very annoyed Hart.

Just over a minute later and Liverpool were at it again, a lovely ball in from Raul Meireles gave Carroll the edge in an aerial battle. The big man had scored a fantastic brace which perfectly highlighted what he can bring to a team.

City were well and truly being put to shame and it wasn't even half time.

In the second half the highlight wasn't on goals for Liverpool but on the midfield pairing of Spearing and Lucas. The Reds were still attacking and Pepe Reina was once again rarely called into action but i don't think we can ignore the shifts put in by those two in midfield.

Spearing i must admit for the first few occasions seeing him play i thought lacked confidence and to me being confident is a massive part of your game, however, with Dalglish at the helm, he can instill confidence into anyone.

For such a small guy he doesn't half have such a big presence, he's certainly not afraid to push forward and with the pairing of Lucas sitting behind him holding the fort it was a tactically sound move last night from manager Kenny Dalglish.

Hilariously with ten minutes to go, Mancini decided to make a substitution, Baoltelli who came on himself as a sub was taken out of the action. I seriously don't know what's amatta with that bloke but jeez he ain't half miserable and he's no top class striker.

I laughed when he was dubbed the next Fernando Torres but the more i think about it perhaps that was a good prediction... Sulky, can't score, complains all the time when it's his own fault... Hahaha.

Times are good at Liverpool FC, we may be in 6th but who cares, the only way is up! Now roll on Arsenal.