Liverpool, Newcastle and added time

After Liverpool scored their late, late, late, late, late, late, late, late, late, late winner against Newcastle United on Wednesday, an army of understandably chippy Toon fans took to Social Media Disgraces to simmer, seethe and generally vent the collective spleen over the injustice of it all. Having seen their new record signing Alexander Isak have what looked an excellent second goal ruled out for an indiscernible offside after the busybody curtain-twitchers at Stockley Park had got busy with their rulers and set squares, they were further enraged when Fábio Carvalho smashed home the winner in the eighth minute from the five minutes of added time displayed by the fourth official.

Suddenly showing a concern for legal technicalities that was conspicuously absent when their club was the subject of a successful takeover by Saudi Arabia the Public Investment Fund last October, they wondered why the referee could have let the game go on so long. Busy impersonating Nick Pope by pretending to have cramp, dawdling over his report and constantly tying and retying his shoelaces in the referee’s changing room, Andre Marriner was finally available to provide an explanation in the early hours of the morning after everyone had gone home.

Despite a frank exchange of views between the opposition benches after the late winner, Newcastle’s manager Eddie Howe took what must have felt like a Tyson Fury-esque gut-punch on the … er, chin. “It’s a cruel game, these things happen,” he sighed. “I’m hugely frustrated with that last action. Someone else needs to tell me whether or not we should have still been playing; I don’t know.”

While Howe may not have known, Jürgen Klopp had a fair idea and the Liverpool manager let it be known that he