Football: Reds rule in rain

Liverpool. . . . . . . 3 McManaman 20, Fowler 35, Barnes 63 Wimbledon . . . . . . .0 Attendance: 31,139 THEY were ideal conditions for ending droughts. The pitch was all but waterlogged by the end, the rain lashed down relentlessly, the ball refused to travel for more than five yards with any certainty. Liverpool duly beat Wimbledon for the first time in more than three years and nine matches, and John Barnes scored his first goal at Anfield for 10 months.

Both statistics had always seemed likely to reach the end of their run.

Liverpool were entirely in control of proceedings by the time Barnes scored their third goal in the 63rd minute.

His strike from 12 yards owed something to the dreadful conditions. The Wimbledon defence seemed to give up on a misdirected shot which they assumed was going out. Rob Jones, however, chased after the ball which had stopped on the line and pulled it back into his colleague's path.

This was perhaps not all that Wimbledon had lost. They had been dismantled by Nottingham Forest five days earlier and, stricken by injuries to seven first-team players, appear to lack their renowned resilience.

It was clear they they had come to defend and pray for counter-attacks, in such close proximity was their midfield to their defence. Not that it took Liverpool long to deduce how to circumvent this mass of inexperience. While Barnes prodded away in midfield, Jamie Redknapp, recalled in place of the injured Jan Molby, had some points to make and did so forcibly. He made several surging runs through midfield which puts him well ahead of the Dane in one respect.

Then there was Steve McManaman. With every viewing he seems a more complete player and just as it looked as though he might be somewhat subdued yesterday (less than electrifying, that is), he scored a scintillating goal.

From a corner Barnes slipped him the ball on the left-hand corner of the area. The flying winger considered a moment, moved to his right and struck the sweetest of shots past a flailing Hans Segers.

Barely 15 minutes later he provided Robbie Fowler with his ninth League goal of the season. Down the right wing he cruised cheerily past three defenders, helped at the last by Scott Fitzgerald's untimely slip, and laid it back immaculately for the striker to score.

Liverpool had the ball in the opposition net on two other occasions only for goals to be disallowed for minor infringements. They might have been disappointed not to have scored more considering their dominance. But Wimbledon's only chance of sustaining their alleged jinx was with a freak abandonment due to the weather. Justifiably, it did not happen.