A Tale of Two City Derbies

Two contrasting results to the two derby matches involving my two teams.

Birmingham 2 - Aston Villa 0
Liverpool 2 - Everton 1

I did not get to see the Birmingham derby, as I was queueing at Suntec City to upgrade my set-top box to the new spiffy digital set-top unit (which is identical to the Astro unit that has been used in Malaysia for quite a while now, so this is something that Malaysia seems to have a head start in, amazingly). I got home and figured out the set-up in time to learn about the Villa's loss. It's their second defeat to Birmingham this year, so it hasn't been a good season in terms of inter-city rivalry. Apparently the first goal was due to a horrible Sorensen goalkeeping gaffe and the second goal was scored off a silly rebound off a Villa player. I actually think Sorensen is one of the more consistent Villa players, so I hope this doesn't mean a hunt for another goalkeeper, especially when there isn't any money to hunt with. Villa's problems are in other departments, where they are serviceable rather than outstanding. From all accounts, they had only half the goal attempts that Birmingham managed, so it's hard to argue against the result.

I did get to see the Merseyside derby and that was thoroughly enjoyable. And finally, a Liverpool victory in this fixture for the first time in 5 years. However, I wonder how Liverpool will cope with injuries to so many of their players. I was halfway despairing with the 3 substitutions that took place in the first half, all due to players picking up injury. Fortunately, they had managed to score those 2 goals, or the 2nd half could have turned out rather differently. Milan Baros also got himself sent off and will serve a 3 match ban. At the crunch end of the season, this is the last thing the team needs. The largest blow may be the loss of Dietmar Hamman. With internationals over the Easter weekend, the injured players have some breathing space, but I wonder if it's enough time to recover ahead of the Champs League match on April 5th. It's too bad these concerns must cloud a splendid and spirited display by the Reds. I have hope yet that Gerrard may resist the lure of Roman's miliions, given the way he rose to the occasion in this most bitterly hard-fought of city derbies.