Remembering Bill Shankly’s arrival at the club has become a fixture and a duty. A mosaic is displayed, his then players strut out on the pitch and his own favourite tune, ‘Amazing Grace’ is played. Ten years ago, Coventry City happened to be the guests and a then a newly built Houllier side dispatched the guests empty handed after two goals by a certain young kid and Titi Camara. That day the Kop commemorated the past but was also looking forward to the future, as the likes of Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and David Thompson were showing promises that the glory days are not too far away. And they could have no safer hands than the Frenchman’s. Some promises were kept, some were exceeded, some fell by the sidelines, others came back to try to haunt us. Step forward ten years, and I think most of us wanted to celebrate Bill Shankly’s arrival to forget the ignominious present.

But for ninety minutes the happenings on the pitch were not bad, and if the final 2-1 score-line was offered before kick-off it would have left the offeror with both his hands scarred. It was not pretty at times, but it was never ugly either. For all the myths and stories that surround Shankly, such games did happen under his tenure and at the end of the day the three points were deserved by Liverpool.

With Fernando Torres on the bench, David Ngog was given another start and Dirk Kuyt was pushed forward alongside the new kid and dare I say, the one-off positive aspect of the season so far. Kuyt proved he does have a striker’s instinct, albeit not finding the net but he was on target a couple of times testing the ex Chris Kirkland’s reflexes to the limit. Then again without any argument, Ngog proved he knows and feels where the net is. Fabio Aurelio’s delivery was penetrative, Ngog kept on the last man’s shoulders to beat the offside trap and then rose high enough to beat the approaching keeper. It was a sigh of relief but after what happened against the likes of Birmingham and as recent as last Sunday nothing could be taken for granted. The first half continued with Liverpool on top, without doing anything special but at the other end of the pitch, Reina’s main problem must have been to keep warm.

Wigan improved during the second forty-five minutes and it was the crossbar that kept them from leveling the score after a rare lapse by Reina. The chance was never too convincing either, and it was one reprieve that Liverpool deserved both on the basis of this match alone and more than that on what this whole season has offered. Torres entered the fray and naturally found the net in front of the Kop, albeit without the usual aplomb as after rounding his keeper he looked to unbalanced himself and his first attempt was somewhat scrambled away.

The clean sheet got marred at the end, it seems Reina had to be punished after the earlier sortie. The three points were already wrapped though and being the festive period it was only the wrapper that got scratched.