Woooo-hoooooooo Liverpool are FA Cup Champions, their 7th trophy from the prestigious but gruelling knock-out competition.
OK so it wasn't so 1-sided as my title would suggest. In fact after going 2-0 down in the 1st half, it looked as if Pool were FA-rked. Sloppy passing, an unusually fumbly Reina and an own-goal by Carragher signalled what looked like the beginning of the end to Captain Fantastic's desire to end the 2005/06 season with some silverware at Anfield.
But when you are playing a team that came back from the dead in Instanbul last year, you'd better have a 5-0 cushion before popping the champagne pre-maturely. And the Hammers found out soon enough.
It was 2-1 before halftime with Black Panther Cisse volleying in a superb shot from close range. Stevie G then crashed in the equaliser for 2-2 in the 2nd half before Paul Konchesky's cross caught Reina cold to put the London side back in front at 3-2.
I then left R at the pub for the office, convinced that the Come-back Kings would work some voodoo. And true enough, he sms-ed me to say that Stevie had smashed the ball in for another equaliser from 30 yards to send the game into extra-time, 10secs into Injury time.
It came down to penalties in the end. And Pool could have no better person between the posts than their recently crowned Premiership Golden-Gloved hero. The balding Spaniard went on to save 3, sending Pool to a 3-1 victory on penalties.
I say again..Woooo-Hooooooooo!=))
