Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace
by James Nalton
at Anfield

LIVERPOOL supporters staged a stadium-wide protest against the club’s owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), at Anfield on Saturday, following their decision to raise ticket prices by up to 13 per cent over the next three years.

A warm and sunny spring afternoon outside Anfield saw the distribution of thousands of yellow flyers to highlight the issue ahead of Liverpool’s game against Crystal Palace.

Each stand in the ground turned yellow in the 13th minute as fans raised the cards in unison. Many Crystal Palace fans in the away section of the Anfield Road end joined in by also raising cards in solidarity and an overwhelming majority applauded the protest.

In previous seasons, FSG have gone back on decisions to raise ticket prices, but there is a feeling they will dig in this time, perhaps with a view to selling the club in the not-too-distant future.

In an email to season ticket holders earlier in the month, Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan said: “Liverpool Football Club fully respects the right of supporters to protest, and we acknowledge those supporters who are opposed to this approach.”

The last part of this line comes from the idea being pushed that some fans are OK with the ticket price increase, but Saturday showed otherwise.

On the pitch, everyone involved with Liverpool will have been pleased with the result that played out.

There were goals from Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, but Andy Robertson, who will leave the club at the end of the season and scored Liverpool’s second, was the most popular goalscorer of the three and received a huge cheer when his name was announced after the goal.

There was controversy around the Palace goal as Daniel Munoz lifted the ball over the injured Liverpool goalkeeper, Freddie Woodman, after the referee failed to stop the game in time.

Woodman was one of Liverpool’s standout players on the day, which showed how uncomfortable it was for the home team at times, and that Palace didn’t do too badly considering their focus is solely on a Europa Conference League game against Shakhtar on Thursday.

But Wirtz’s goal in added time made sure of the win and three points as Liverpool solidify a place in the top five, while their fans, en masse, had made sure their own point was made emphatically.