A VIEW FROM THE GALLOWGATE

ON one of Sir David Attenborough’s recent nature programmes, there was a segment about newly born lizards trying to reach the safety of the sea.

To get there they have to cross a stretch of open ground and scale a rocky escarpment, so one of them duly sets off doing that Monty Python-like Ministry of Silly Walks run they employ. Halfway across, a sea of snakes suddenly appear like acne on a 14-year-old’s face. It was caught a couple of times but somehow wriggled free, before scrambling over the rocks to the safety of the sea. When he arrived you can imagine his relief via some severe squeaky bum, and his heart pumping like a cartoon mouse’s. Last Tuesday night against Blackburn I empathised with that lizard, I even replicated its funny run after a number of Dean Martin-sized Jack Daniels, partly in celebration and partly relief.

To say we were fortunate is to state the obvious. Golden opportunities buried with aplomb last season were spurned, similarly, defensive lapses we got away with then, are punished now, like Lascelles jumping for that ball like our new puppy jumping for a toy. The resultant draw was as predictable as night following day, and makes you think that... well, let’s leave that there and move on to Saturday.

It was one of those matches where I felt apprehensive throughout, but I didn’t really know why. Comfortable at 2-0 against a decent opposition, the referee largely just letting both teams get on with it, no prod nosing from wretched VAR and an actual clean sheet, yet until Tino wrapped it up I was still in the mindset that if they got one back, it was back to lizard v snake time. We had a bench that didn’t weaken us when used, and we only lost one to an injury! There are still areas for concern, the midfield isn’t exactly the Maginot Line with Bruno on the brink of a suspension and Joe missing, but we can still score. And to confound the current fawning media narrative, we managed to do it without Jurgen Klopp.