By Ollie Irish
pa-9276226
Phew. I think Liverpool and Joe Cole are going to get along just fine. Ditto Uncle Woy.
Cole delighted the Anfield faithful with a joyous, unshackled display of the sort he was rarely allowed to produce at Chelsea – and he wasn’t even taken off. As debuts go, this was rather special, even if the opposition was anything but.
Cole spoke afterward: “It was good, I was nervous before the game but it’s always like that when you go to a new club.
“It was good to get 90 minutes in and get the win in the end. The main difference [as a Liverpool player at Anfield] is that I wasn’t getting too much stick! That’s different.
“I enjoyed it, I needed the 90 minutes. I ran out of petrol a bit with 20 minutes to go but it was needed. It would have been nice to have scored but I’m sure that will come soon.”
So Liverpool are safely through, thanks to Cole’s superb contribution and goals by David Ngog and Steven Gerrard (who seemed to relish playing with Cole). Ngog headed home after 22 minutes, from a Cole cross, then Gerrard notched a penalty, in the 40th minute. Job done and you can almost smell the optimism on Anfield.
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