Looking for a Silver Lining

And exhale.

There was a lot of pre-match talk about how everybody expected Liverpool to easily dispatch Newcastle United at Anfield yesterday, which is insane considering the way things have gone this season. For every 5-1 victory against Arsenal, there was a 3-1 loss to Hull, for every moment of genius a calamitous mistake. But that’s why we’re the most entertaining team in the country, and at the end of it all, the second best.

There will be people who say that this is the year that Liverpool threw away the title, and mathematically, they would be absolutely right, after all we did hold our fates in our hands until that misstep against Chelsea two weeks ago, but in the minds of the people for whom this season truly matters, the fans, that’s not how the 2013-2014 season is going to be remembered.

We are going to remember this season as the year that we had the best striker that the league has seen in many seasons, as Suarez joined such illustrious names as Shearer and (sigh) Ronaldo in the history books with his 31 goals, seconded only by the best English striker in our own Daniel Sturridge. We’re going to remember the double over a comically bad Manchester United and Tottenham, both of which were supposed to be the teams that once again kept us out of the Champion’s League. Most of all we’re going to remember this year as the season that for the first time in ages, we could finally hold our heads high again.

Liverpool read the preseason script, and threw it out, storming to the types of wins that will be shown in highlight compilations for decades to come, the club treated us to the sorts of moments that belong in folklore, like the day Luis Suarez figures a third Norwich hat trick wasn’t enough and helped himself to four world class goals. We fans were privileged to witness our club defy all expectations and they made us dream in a way that, for a lot of us, we have not been able to in our lifetime.

This is what the season will mean to us, the season that we returned, and hopefully, the beginnings of something truly special. Now it’s done, we look back in fondness, forward with belief, and for the first time on the final day, we can smile, and we go again.





