Premier League - Beach ball causes Liverpool woe

Eurosport - Sat, 17 Oct 16:00:00 2009

Darren Bent continued his rich vein of form by netting a freak goal that went in off a beach ball in a 1-0 win over Liverpool at the Stadium of Light.

2009-2010 Premier League Sunderland-Liverpool Darren Bent scores off a balloon (PA Photos) - 0

The England hopeful controversially scored after just five minutes, his effort going in off the ball, which had found its way onto the pitch from the away fans, to deepen the gloom for Liverpool who dropped to their fourth defeat of the season with just nine games played.

The result saw Liverpool slip to eighth in the Premier League, seven points behind new leaders Manchester United, and while it is still too early to write off their title hopes entirely, it will now take a quite remarkable turnaround for Rafa Benitez's side to end the club's 18-year wait for the title.

Sunderland, who continue to impress this season, leapfrogged their opponents and moved into seventh.

Deprived of their three most influential players - Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres were missing through injury, while Javier Mascherano started on the bench due to the rigours of his recent World Cup qualifiers for Argentina - Liverpool struggled throughout.

But as much as Liverpool missed that trio, it still needed a sterling performance from Sunderland to take advantage of their opposition's injury woes. Steve Bruce's side duly obliged, and played a large part in the Reds' downfall.

Having only just missed out on claiming the scalp of Manchester United prior to the international break, Sunderland started out in determined mood to this time claim victory over a member of the 'Big Four'.

Bruce clearly sent out his side with instructions to disrupt and unsettle the visitors in the early stages of the game, and with Lee Cattermole, Lorik Cana and Steed Malbranque all biting at opposition ankles, those tactics initially worked.

Liverpool failed to find any cohesion to their early play and Sunderland enjoyed much the better of the opening stages.

The hosts were soon rewarded for their early hustle and bustle, although there was a rather large element of fortune to the goal.

After the ball found Bent at the back post in the fifth minute, the England striker's goalbound effort hit a large red inflatable ball which had been thrown onto the pitch, seemingly by a Liverpool fan, and took a slight diversion past a bemused Pepe Reina.

It was Bent's eighth goal of the season since joining from Tottenham in the summer and his sixth in his last five outings. He can do little more in his bid to win favour with England coach Fabio Capello ahead of next summer's World Cup.

Bent may even have added another to that impressive record but he glanced a first-half header wide of the mark and was then denied after the break by a big hand from Reina, having rounded the keeper and shot on target.

But the closest Bent came to a second stemmed from a terrible back-pass from Martin Skrtel on 61 minutes which allowed the striker to again round Reina, only this time he took the ball a little too wide and his effort struck the outside of the post.

Skrtel's error was indicative of the uncertainty apparent at the heart of Liverpool's three-man back line, with Jamie Carragher in particular doing little to silence his early-season critics or boost his own confidence with another shaky display.

Nevertheless, with Sunderland unable to kill off the game and with the score remaining just 1-0, Liverpool, as always, still posed a threat of nicking a late equaliser.

And nick a leveller they nearly did when, three minutes into seven of added time, Craig Gordon, who was largely untroubled throughout the game, was called into action to make a fine double save, first to deny Dirk Kuyt and then substitute David Ngog on the rebound.

Mike Hytner / Eurosport

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  1. The reason the mancs are not on here is they are still­ on the floor laughing. I bet that scouser spent the­ leftovers form his dole cheque to buy that ball.­ Hhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahah­ ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
    hahahahahahahaha this­ is the best laugh ive had since Liverpool won the­ title.

    From steve, on Sun 18 Oct 8:04PM

  2. has anyone seen this, there is a company that sells­ football toilet paper, ie you can buy Man Utd,­ Livepool, Arsenal toilet paper etc, it's brilliant,­ if you google footballtoiletpaper you will get their­ website.

    From jamescoatley, on Sun 18 Oct 7:54PM

  3. yeah ha u wish torres would move then youd be out of­ worries wouldnt u hillerious torres belongs in­ liverpool!

    From Baby K, on Sun 18 Oct 3:49PM

  4. DS good display of scouse humour there for everyone to­ enjoy he will put the punchlines up soon Im sure .

    From Glenn T, on Sun 18 Oct 2:19PM

  5. Torres is to lightweight for United I reckon he will be­ playing infront of another load of bitter sad liars­ though soon enough ..

    From Glenn T, on Sun 18 Oct 2:15PM

  6. Yesterdays game was the funniest I have ever seen. The­ irony of it all, the beach ball was actually throw on­ by a Liverpool fan, it even had the Liverpool badge on­ it, and it cost Liverpool the game... simply hilarious.­ And none of you Scousers can argue, cos who threw it­ on, YOUR OWN FAN haha. It could of gone another way,­ Bent could of had an open goal, and the ball could of­ hit the beach ball and gone off target, then you­ wouldn't be complaining would you, but it­ didn't happen did it, haha.
    By the way, that team­ Rafa put out was absolute rubbish, I was shocked to see­ how poor your line up was and you deserved to lose,­ title is over for you. Torres will leave you soon­ enough, he's far too good a player not to ever win­ league titles. Man United is the club for Torres.

    From Prince Edward B, on Sun 18 Oct 12:29PM

  7. you'd expect the sad tw8ts from manc land to be on­ here today, lets face it they've nothing else to­ laugh about. As a life long RED with a sense of humour­ i think the beach ball gaff was hysterical. The ball­ kind of looked like whiskey face fergie heading in the­ ball for slumberland. Bruce didn't know the law, no­ surprise there with his playing past in manc land. Well­ done Rafa for keeping cool under the continuous fergie­ old boy brigade gang. I'm surprised fat Sam­ hasn't waded in with a Brucie "didn't he­ do well".

    From D S, on Sun 18 Oct 12:20PM

  8. Come on guys we need to take a step back ere and lay­ off liverpool, They had a fantastic season last year­ and ended chelseas two season stint as league runner­ ups. In fact i can definitally say without any doubt­ that out of all the other 19teams who lost the league­ last season liverpool were by far the best loosers. And­ remember it must be hard for players like dirk kuyt­ getting paid 70k a week to score goals, Pepe Riena­ can't be blamed for trying to save the big red­ beach ball instead of the little white ball he gets­ paid 80k per week to keep out of the 2poasts in the­ ground, it must have been horribly confusing for him.­ Most of all we all need to lay off Rafa he is a ledgend­ in Manchester the only mistake he made was taking tips­ from mark hughes about how its a good thing to buy­ players who are injured. And next weekend Manchester­ United players will have a tough task at Anfield all be­ it the tough task being how to avoid the plaster­ falling off the walls in the dressing room. Anfield­ like liverpool fc gave after the 80's. Why do you­ think those two annoying twins on the X-Factor were­ wearing Red last night, They were paying hommage to­ Rafa and liverpool Oops they did it again.

    From I am top gear stig, on Sun 18 Oct 10:16AM

  9. ""Liverpoo will win silverware this season.­ They are red­ hot favourites to lift the " Hubcap­ and Alloy­ wheel robbing trophy " ""

    Oh­ go and kill some more Barcelona fans you @#$%.

    Rev up­ a bus and drive it into a bunch of them, why don't­ ya.

    From Kim S, on Sun 18 Oct 10:00AM

  10. I think that it was a great day for all utd fans, the­ poo lost,the russian twats lost and of course the RED­ DEVILS won, i woke this morning with a great big smile­ on my face, going out later bet i dont see any russian­ tops or poo tops....
    MUFC FOR LIFE

    From stevebellham, on Sun 18 Oct 9:53AM

  11. Raphael Beneathus ha ha ha haven't seen any­ loserpool fans they have all gone into hiding, speaking­ of hidings MANCHESTER UNITED (Champions) will give them­ one next week. He's just a fat spanish waiter, I­ hope he stays for the full contract lmfao

    From jeffregan65, on Sun 18 Oct 9:32AM

  12. LIFE IS SUCH A BEACH

    From alba1942, on Sun 18 Oct 9:27AM

  13. the big red ball was in the goal when sunderland made­ their first attack then 2 minutes later it was on the­ pitch so did reina kick it out of the goal? im not ­ sure but surely he must have

    From Jimmyrice man u are champs again, on Sun 18 Oct 9:24AM

  14. wheres the ball gone wheres the ball gone in back of­ the net hahahahahaha i just love it when shitpool get­ beat
    benitez dont leave u are just like the team @#$%

    From ALAN B, on Sun 18 Oct 9:19AM

  15. problem Liverpool have is they gave Raffa a 5 yr­ contract last yr I think so they would have to pay that­ off to sack him
    although this seems to reward­ Incompetence

    From Alex F, on Sun 18 Oct 8:57AM

  16. Liverpoo will win silverware this season. They are red­ hot favourites to lift the " Hubcap and Alloy­ wheel robbing trophy " again.beaten by a beachball­ ?? it's criminal.....Oh sorry Gerrard didn't­ mean to bring you into this !!
    The only thing in common­ between Liverpoo and top of the table is that their­ manager knows how to lay it.Get rid of the Goatie­ Bentass as it doesn't make you look tough....ask­ Steve Bruce.
    As for people questioning the choice of­ selecting Spearing..... i agree Bentass needs Spearing.­
    Good luck Liverpoo and Bentass for the rest of the­ season... you need it !!

    Take me­ home...................................................­ .................

    From neil g, on Sun 18 Oct 8:48AM

  17. Ive not seen to many pool fans simply admiting that­ they lost due to poor formation poor players poor­ tactics, that performance was simply poor. In Rafa we­ trust well at least all us United fans hope you stay.­ here we are a quarter of the way through the season and­ if liverpool continue on current form and there is no­ reason to say they wont they are set for a 60point­ finish which is good for European football next year­ all be it Europa League, but lets bet if that does­ happen all looserfool fans will make out that Europes­ second rate compitition is as big as the World Cup

    From I am top gear stig, on Sun 18 Oct 8:30AM

  18. CAN'T STOP LAFIN'

    From vegasmufc, on Sun 18 Oct 8:27AM

  19. Just watching the repeat of MOTD, Great the way they­ blurred out the face of that muppett pool fan who threw­ the beachball on to the pitch, Next week looserfools be­ ready to recieve a beating again, The CHAMPIONS are­ coming.

    From I am top gear stig, on Sun 18 Oct 8:21AM
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