Tommy Smith on Liverpool FC: Let’s celebrate our day of thanksgiving with victory over United!

Oct 15 2011 Liverpool Echo

TWO words should resonate around Anfield before kick off today. Because on the first anniversary of their takeover, our new owners deserve a very big and heartfelt ‘thank you’ from everyone at Anfield.

Tom Werner and John Henry (pictured) will take their seats in the directors box exactly a year to the day since they won the final court ruling which saw them move in – and Tom Hicks and George Gillett finally move out.

It really is the perfect moment for them to be shown appreciation, not just for coming to the rescue of our great club, but also for the way they have gone about running things in their first year. They couldn’t have known much about English football but unlike the two other clowns, they have listened hard and learned quickly. They’ve put Kenny Dalglish back in charge and invested heavily in the team, too. After all we went through a year and more ago, Liverpool FC is transformed. And today is the right moment for us to celebrate all that.

Beating Manchester United would be a wonderful way of making it a very happy birthday, too. But it will be far from easy.

They are top of the league because they are a good side. And only a top performance from the men in red will be enough.

But we’ve done it three years running at Anfield and with a hell of an effort today we can do them for a fourth time.

Not only is this a very big game, it is a very important one as well. Our season started out ok and then went off track with defeats against Stoke and Spurs.

Since then we’ve got it back on track but beating United would really give us some impetus – and three crucial points to close the gap on them.

Suarez and Carroll can cause them problems at the back. And if Steven Gerrard returns to lead the lads out, well what a roar we’ll hear and what boost that would be.

There’s so much to celebrate today - so let’s go all out to try and do it in true Anfield style!