Liverpool v Newcastle United - as it happened

Season's greetings everybody. With assorted holidays conspiring to make it difficult enough to know what day of the week it is around this time of year, the good folk at Premier League Towers have helped add to the general sense of discombobulation by scheduling football on a Friday night this week. Premier League football on a Friday ? It just seems weird. Just a single point separates Liverpool and Newcastle United, with the Merseyside club in sixth place in the Premier League table , a solitary place above their Tyneside rivals, who haven't won in the league at Anfield for 16 years. The hosts go into tonight's match with Luis Suarez, who must serve a one-match ban for hoisting his middle digit in the general direction of Fulham fans some weeks ago , which means Andy Carroll is almost certain to start against the club where he made his reputation as a free-scoring battering ram … before quickly losing it in the wake of his highly publicised move to Liverpool last Christmas in a record-breaking £35m deal for a British player. While Carroll didn't set the large fee and much of the ridicule to have been levelled at him seems a bit unfair, he has been the subject of much criticism since moving to Anfield, for scoring just two goals in 16 appearances and occasionally looking ponderous and on a completely different wavelength to more canny and intelligent team-mates. Having made his first appearance since October coming off the bench against Blackburn Rovers, Steven Gerrard looks a likely starter for Liverpool tonight, while Newcastle may play midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa, who lined up against Bolton in their last outing, from the get-go. For Newcastle, Sylvain Marveaux, Peter Lovenkrands and Steven Taylor are all sidelined through injury. But with Liverpool having drawn against both Manchester clubs, Swansea, Norwich Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland at home this season, the Magpies are likely to be fairly confident of taking a point from tonight's game. Kick-off is at 7.45pm and I'll be back with all the team news and pre-match build-up shortly after 7pm. Team news we've yanked from the wires: Strikers Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy both start for Liverpool against their former club. Club-record signing Carroll keeps his place from Boxing Day's draw with Blackburn while Bellamy replaces Luis Suarez. Jay Spearing comes in for Maxi Rodriguez, the goalscorer against Rovers, while Steven Gerrard starts on the bench. Newcastle make one change from the side which beat Bolton on Monday with 19-year-old midfielder Haris Vuckic making only his second Premier League start - his first having come nine days ago in defeat to West Brom. Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Jose Enrique, Henderson, Spearing, Adam, Downing, Carroll, Bellamy. Subs: Doni, Gerrard, Maxi, Kuyt, Carragher, Shelvey, Kelly. Newcastle: Krul, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Ryan Taylor, Obertan, Tiote, Cabaye, Gutierrez, Vuckic, Ba. Subs: Elliot, Santon, Ben Arfa, Perch, Best, Shola Ameobi, Sammy Ameobi. Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire) Alan Pardew speaks: In his pre-match interview, Newcastle's manager says "there are certain balls you can't defend against Andy Carroll, because if the delivery is right and he gets at them in a certain angle there's nothing you can do." He goes on to say that "stopping crosses" will be a key feature of Newcastle's game-plan tonight. Kenny Dalglish speaks: "We'll stick together as a one and then take it from there," says Liverpool's manager. "If we don't concede a goal we'lll go a long way." To be fair to Kenny, he could have added something more interesting and insightful than that, but my attention was elsewhere as he spoke. Nostalgia corner: On Sky they're reliving Liverpool's famous 4-3 win over Newcastle at Anfield in 1996, as seen through the eyes of assorted players who lined up for the Magpies that night: John Beresford, Steve Howey, Lee Clarke and David Ginola. Many people believe it's the greatest Premier League match ever played, but they obviously didn't see Stoke 0-0 Aston Villa earlier this week. An email from Phil Sawyer: "Re: the photo caption, '£35m, this cost'," he writes. Very questionable decision for the Guardian to be shelling out this kind of money on a photo largely unproven at the highest level." Weather report: It is hammering down with rain at Anfield and the men with forks are out prodding the pitch. How they'll line up: Liverpool look like they'll play a standard 4-4-2, with Jordan Henderson tucked in on the right of midfield, Stewart Downing on the left and Charlie Adam and Jay Spearing in the centre. Newcastle will play a 4-5-1, with their midfield bookended by Gabriel Obertan on the right and Jonas Guttierrez on the left, anchored by Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote and Haris Vuckic in the middle. Demba Ba will play alone up front. An email from Peter Oh: "I agree that King Kenny could have given us something a bit more substantial than nearly quoting verbatim from USA for Africa's We Are The World," he says. "But he has a point. There comes a time, when Liverpool heed a certain call, and the squad must come together as one." 1 min: Game on, with both teams kitted out in the colours with they're most readily associated. Liverpool are playing into the Kop in the first half. Bellamny is played in behind a high Newcastle line and sends a hopeful shot goalwards, but is flagged for offside. 2 min: Glen Johnson wins the first corner of the match for Liverpol, putting the ball out of play off Ryan Taylor. 3 min: Nothing comes of the corner and Newcastle break on the counter-attack. Gabriel Obertan tries to send in a cross from the right flank, but his effort drifts high and wide, possibly after taking a deflection. 4 min: Jordan Henderson appears to have lined up in the centre of Liverpool's midfield, with Charlie Adam taking a wider position. I could be wrong about that, mind. I'm neither Zonal Marking nor at the game. 6 min: Daniel Agger advances and advances down the inside left, with nobody in a Newcastle shirt seeming too bothered about stopping him. He eventually decides to try his luck from the edge of the penalty area, but drags his low diagonal effort harmlessly wide 7 min: Ah, I see now. Liverpool are actually playing a 4-5-1, with Bellamy on the right. More pertinently, does anyone really care? 9 min: It's been a lively enough start, with plenty of enthusiastic gadding about by players from both teams, without anything much being created in the way of chances. 10 min: Ryan Taylor spots that Gabriel Obertan has stolen a march on Jose Enriquez and laarrups a long cross-field pass towards the corner for the young Frenchman to chase. His pass is as overhit as his intentions were noble and the ball flies out of play. 11 min: Stewart Downing hits the ball against Ryan Taylor's hand in the Newcastle penalty area and the loud shout for a penalty goes up from the denizens of the Kop. No spot-kick is forthcoming. 13 min: Right, it's getting as bit boring, now, to be honest. While you couldn't rerally fault either team for effort, the lack of finesse on show here is jaw-dropping, considering this is top flight football from the Best League In The World. Pass after pass is being overhit or misplaced and the game has yet to settle down or find anything resembling a rhythm. 16 min: Craig Bellamy takes advantage of hesitation from Danny Simpson and then plays the ball to Jose Enrique, who was galloping behind him on the overlap. Enrique squares the ball in behind the defence across the face of the Newcastle goal, but there's nobody in a red shirt in a position to poke it home. 17 min: According to Sky's man on the touchline, Geoff Shreeves, Andy Carroll just took advantage of a break in play to run back in to his own half and have a go at Glen Johnson for not whipping the ball into him when he has it on the flanks. The full-back waved by way of apology, apparently. 19 min: A misplaced pass from Gabriel Obertan clunks against referee Lee Probert's shins and the ball sits up nicely for Charlie Adam, who tries his luck from distance. The ball whistles wide of the goalframe and Probert shakes his head and blows his cheeks out in relief. There'll be particularly paranoid fans of both clubs reading way too much into that gesture. 22 min: Glenn Johnson tries to slide the ball down the inside right channel, inside Ryan Taylor for Bellamy to chase. It's a fine pass, but Taylor manages to poke it out of the path of a lurking Bellamy with an extended toe. 22 min: Possession stats: Liverpool 64%-36% Newcastle. 23 min: Demba Ba shakes off his marker and holds the ball up on the left-hand side of the Liverpool penalty area, before trying to pick out Yohan Cabaye with a neat dink. Liverpool clear. GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Newcastle (Ba/Agger/Cabaye 25) I'm not sure if that's an Agger own goal, another one on the tally of Demba Ba or if Cabaye should get it. A deep, raking cross was sent in from the left by Ryan Taylor, Cabaye got the flick-on and Ba and Agger both rose to head it. The ball, which looked to be going in anyway, hit one, or possibly both, heads (or a head and an arm) to be deflected past a horribly wrong-footed Pepe Reina from about eight yards out. 28 min: Having seen that again, I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that Daniel Agger turned the ball into his own net with an arm. GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Newcastle (Bellamy 28) Charlie Adam drills the ball across the Newcastle penalty area, it ricochets off a Newcastle defender and sits up nicely for Bellamy. The Liverpool striker picks his spot and smashes the ball into the bottom left-hand corner from 12 or 15 yards out, doing well to avoid the thicket of legs between him and the goal. 31 min: Here's a stat for you: I'm pretty sure Newcastle have won every single match in which they've scored first this season. 33 min: Craig Bellamy wins a corner for Liverpool and sends the ball into the mixer from the left. Skrtel gets a flick on at the near post and the ball fizzes tantalisingly close to Charlie Adam on it's way wide of the far post. The Scottish midfielder curses his lack of awareness - if he'd been more alert he could have diverted that goalwards with his head. 34 min: It's interesting to note that at each Liverpool corner, Andy Carroll uses Daniel Agger as a kind of shield or blocker ... putting one or both hands on his team-mate's back and sticking to him like glue as the centre-back makes a darting run through the penalty area to clear a path before the ball is sent in. 38 min: "With half an hour gone, you'd only once mentioned the £35-million man, Andy Carroll and that was to report him bollocking out a teammate," writes Justin Kavanagh. "Is he really that bad? I've never watched him play a full game, but if he cost nearly twice what A.C. Milan once paid for Ruud Gullit, he must have something going for him, even with adjustments for inflation." 39 min: Tiote sends the ball long towards Jonas Guttierez on the left touchline, but the Argentinian is dispossessed by a fine tackle from Martin Skrtel, who takes man and ball out over the touchline. 40 min: Stewart Downing picks up the ball on the right touchline, cuts inside and then lays off to Glen Johnson, who was up in support. Downing then shouts at Johnson, while simultaneously pointing at a hulking ponytail-sporting Geordie in a red shirt who is standing in the Newcastle penalty area. I wonder if Glen Johnson ever gets sick of all his team-mates telling him what to do? Perhaps to spit his team-mates, he hits his cross straight into the midrift of somebody wearing a Newcastle shirt and the visitors clear. 43 min: Great defending by Ryan Taylor, who makes a crucial interception to prevent Downing putting Bellamy through on goal with only Tim Krul in the Newcastle goal to beat. 44 min: Jose Enrique attempts to pick out Stewart Downing with a fine dinked cross to the far post, but the Liverpool winger had carelessly meandered into an offside position and is penalised accordingly. 44 min: "Justin Kavanagh (38 mins) might be fundamentally correct in suggesting that Andy Carroll is, well, not especially good at football," writes Rob Marriott. "But let's be fair here; who doesn't look poor when set against Ruud Gullit?" That's a fair point, well made. 45 min: Liverpool win a corner and Andy Carroll immediately starts doing a two-man conga through the Newcastle penalty area, holding the waist of Martin Skrtel. Craig Bellamy's delivery is woeful and he fails to clear the first defender. 45 + 3 min: Haris Vuckic goes on a galloping box-to-box run in a move that ends with Johan Cabayeshooting harmlessly wide. That's it for the first half - it's all square at the break. "Having a nervous breakdown 5,259.14 miles from Anfield," writes Paul Roughley from Los Angeles. Paul is the brother of my colleague Gregg, whose wedding I attended a few months ago. Lots of Polish people and Scousers getting hammered together on vodka and lager in one room - it was a lively night. Half-time Punditry corner: "He's gotta work harder and he's gotta be on the move more than wot 'e is," says Jamie Redknapp of Andy Carroll, shortly after saying that he feels a bit sorry for the striker because assorted Liverpool players keep trying to whip cross after cross in to him at the near-post, instead of just "standing one up" for him to attack. Justin Kavanagh says much the same thing, but more eloquently than wot Jamie did: "Maybe Liverpool should sign David Beckham until Suarez is back," he writes. "If you have a giraffe in your house, you need to buy a ladder to feed him. And yes, Rob Marriot is right, Gullit was a lion in comparison to every other animal on planet football." Although strictly speaking: You don't need a ladder to feed a giraffe - they do have very long flexible, bendy neck-type things that enable them to either eat leaves from trees, or bend down to munch things off the ground when the need arises. Few things are more relaxing than watching a giraffee eat leaves from a tree. 45 min: Newcastle kick off, having made a change. I'll tell you what it is in a moment. Corner for Liverpool, which Craig Bellamy takes in front of the visiting Newcastle fans. As the ball fizzes high across the Liverpool penalty area, referee Lee Probert blows for some infringement or other and awards Newcastle a free-kick. 47 min: That Newcastle change: Davide Santon on for Ryan Taylor, who apparently picked up a knock in the first half. 49 min: Charlie Adam goes on a charging run towards the Newcastle penalty area with the ball at hids feet, only to be dispossessed by a robust challenge from Mike Williamson. 49 min: Stewart Downing tries a shot from distance, but his effort is feeble and flies well wide. 51 min: Jay Spearing tackles Jose Enrique in his own half of the centre-circle and goes down roaring and clutching his shin. After a bit of treatment, the Liverpool midfielder is fit to carry on. 53 min: With his back to goal on the edge of the Newcastle penalty area, the ball is pinged to the feet of Andy Carroll. Without even attempting to turn, he plays it 30 yards in the opposite direction, picking out a team-mate near the halway line. Great play from the big man. 55 min: Substitute Davide Santon is lucky to avoid a booking after getting skinned by Stewart Downing on the right flank. With the Liverpool winger threatening to get in behind him, the full-back tripped him, before pleading his innocence. From the ensuing free-kick, Liverpool choose to "stand one up" for Andy Carroll. He gets on the end of it, but only after shoving Mike Williamson in the back. Free-kick for Newcastle. 57 min: I thought last summer that Liverpool should buy Joey Barton. He always struck me as being excellent at "standing the ball up" for Carroll when they played together at Newcastle. 59 min: Newcastle win a free-kick about 35 yards from the Liverpool goal, a might left of centre. Johan Cabaye takes it and sends the ball high and wide. 59 min: Liverpool substitution: Steven Gerrard on, Charlie Adam off. 60 min: From the right flank, Steven Gerrard sends in a peach of a cross. It should be perfect for Andy Carroll, but Newcastle defender Mike Williamson does well to get in front of the striker and prevent him from getting his head to it. 64 min: Gerrard plays a wonderful defenc-splitting ball from the centre of midfield, which Andy Carroll runs on to. His first touch is comically bad and the ball clanks off his shin into the arms of a grateful Tim Krul. Oh, Andy. GOAL! Liverpool 2-1 Newcastle (Bellamy 68) Liverpool win a free-kick about 25 yards from the Newcastle goal, to the left of the D on the penalty area. Craig Bellamy shoots for goal and the ball sails inches past the head of Andy Carroll, who was making a nuisance of himself in the penalty area, and takes the mildest nick off Danny Simpson before fizzing past Tim Krul. 70 min: That's a sensational clearance off the line by Martin Skrtel, who performs heroics to prevent a marvellous effort from Demba Ba from crossing the line. He ends up in the back of the net holding his back in agony after preventingt a dinked Ba effort from the tightest of angles from bouncing over the line. 73 min: Craig Bellamy has the right hump, shouting abuse at somebody or other as he wipes blood from a cut on the corner of his head. 77 min: Carroll is getting closer and closer to scoring a goal. This time he isn't quite strong enough as another cross fizzes his way at the near post. Liverpool substitution: Dirk Kuyt on for Bellamy, who has a bad cut on his head. GOAL! Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle (Gerrard 77) Jay Spearing picks out Jordan Henderson on the edge of the penalty area and he plays his midfield partner through on the inside left channel with a beautiful pass. With plenty left to do, Gerrard surges forward, before shooting diagonally from a tight angle, finding the bottom right-ahnd corner after nutmegging Tim Krul. 80 min: Liverpool have been rampant since Steven Gerrard came on and they go close once again. Well, I say close, but after a cross is cleared as far as Glen Johnson, the full-back shoots so wide from distance that hiis effort threatens to go out for a throw-in rather than a goal-kick. 81 min: "The glaring difference in quality since Gerrard came on the pitch should be inspiring," writes Phil Sawyer. "It isn't. It's depressing. It shows just how far away some of the rest of the team are from that standard. Bloody good to see him back though. Lovely goal as well." 83 min: Fabricio Coloccini is lucky to be still on the field, having caught Craig Bellamy with a really nasty elbow in the head, which eventually forced the Liverpool striker off the pitch. I'm told Johan Cabaye should also have got his marching orders for a challenge on Spearing that I either missed completely or saw but didn't actually think was too bad at all. Apologies for my gross dereliction of duty. 87 min: Jose Enrique squares the ball hard and low, but it doesn't quite get through to Andy Carroll, who was lurking at the far post. Newcastle substitution: Sammy Ameobi on; I didn't see who went off. 89 min: Jose Enrique tries to tee up Andy Carroll in the penalty area again, but it's just not happening for the striker who's been the focus of so much attention tonight. He's outmuscled again... 90 min: "Hasn't it been the case that Gerrard has been head-and-shoulder above the rest of the Liverpool squad for just about all of his career?" asks Patrick Finch, in relation to Phil Sawyer's mail. "It was depressing towards the fag-end of the Houllier regime to be sure, but with two of Liverpool's best players absent, and having put three past one of the best defenses in the league, it feels a bit churlish to claim to be depressed by this performance. Is Phil's what you'd call a sense of entitlement?" 90+ 2 mins: We're two minutes into four of added time and the Liverpool fans have just finished a rousing rendition of a well known tune from a Rogers & Hammerstein musical. Andy Carroll proves it definitely isn't going to be his night once the ball fails to bounce kindly for him after he'd lumbered up the field to cause a mix-up between Mike Williamson and Tim Krul while in pursuit of a hopeful punt from the back. Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeep! It's all over and Liverpool take all three points. It was an entertaining game with a second half that exploded into life on the hour mark, when Steven Gerrard was introduced. We've had four goals tonight and nobody seems to have a clue who scored two of them, with three men's names in the frame for the first one and two for the third. The Dubious Goals Committee will have to earn their corn next week. Last word tonight goes to Phil Sawyer, who is bristling with indignation. Or not. I don't know. Or care. "No," he begins, in response to Patrick Finch. "For example, we used to have Alonso and Mascherano. Now we have Adam and Spearing. Until Gerrard came on the pitch this never looked like a 3-1 result. No sense of entitlement here."