Match Reports
Liverpool 1-2 Grimsby Liverpool suffered probably their most embarrassing defeat since Gerard Houllier took over, as they went down to a battling Grimsby side after extra time. Liverpool dominated the match from very early on and despite the absence of a natural goalscorer in the team, there was no shortage of chances. Jari Litmanen and Nick Barmby fronted the Liverpool attack, and the two men combined well to carve through the Grimsby defence on countless occasions during the half, but the final chance was not taken and the half time score remained goalless.The best chance of the half fell to Frode Kippe, but his glancing header was cleared off the line. The second half was much the same as the first. Grimsby were rarely seen in the final third of the pitch and most of the action was in their owen penalty area. And, also as in the first half, the one man who looked capable of breaking the deadlock was Jari Litmanen, who nearly did so early on with an overhead kick that was well saved by Danny Coyne in the Grimsby goal. A weak chip followed by the Finn, and also a well struck long range effort, which flew a couple of feet over the bar. But before the hour mark, Litmanen was once again withdrawn from the action by Houllier and replaced by Redknapp. Following the departure of Litmanen, only Heskey came close to scoring and he was unlucky not to score with a powerful header that was blocked on the line. After 90 minutes the game was, incredibly, still without a goal. But the goal was not long in coming, and 11 minutes into extra time, Liverpool were awarded a penalty after a blatant handball in the area. Gary McAllister kept his cool, and Liverpool led with 19 minutes to go. However, the goal lifted Grimsby and for the remainder of the match, the visitors had much more of the ball and looked dangerous. Then, after 8 minutes of the second period of extra time, Grimsby found themselves in the Liverpool area, and after the Liverpool defence failed to clear the ball, Marlon Broomes fired in the equaliser. As both sides looked for a winner, Danny Murphy forced a good save from Coyne, but it was to be an ex-Evertonian who would have the final say. Inside the last minute and with the game heading for penalties, Phil Jevons picked up the ball from around 35 yards out and struck a magnificent looping shot over the despairing reach of Kirkland, and into the top corner. It was to be the final piece of significant action in the game, and completed one of the biggest ever cup upsets at Anfield.
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