Live Thoughts: Liverpool vs Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League)

I covered this match live. Here are my Live Thoughts on the match between Liverpool and Spurs.

Hey everyone, it's me again with another one of those Live Thoughts posts. I'm going to do these less often from now on, maybe once a week or a fortnight. I enjoy doing them but they take a lot of space on my blog, when I cover four topics on here. But this is a match I can't avoid covering. It's a big match. We win today, we stay in the pack for a fourth place spot. We draw, we are on the bottom end of the pack. A loss, while isn't the end of the world, means we are a the bottom of the pack with a big ask to get fourth place. We need to stay in the pack, and above it, if we want Champions League football. Spurs on the other hand also need to win to stay close to the Top 2. It's a must win game for both clubs, but hopefully with a fully fit Gerrard, an Andy Carroll who is looking better recently than in most weeks and most importantly, the little firecracker that is Luis Suarez returning to action, means we'll hopefully have the three points at the end of the night. Let's do this!

Here are the teams: 

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Kelly, Agger, Skrtel, Spearing, Kuyt, Gerrard, Adam, Carroll, Bellamy. Subs: Doni, Suarez, Henderson, Coates, Downing, Carragher, Aurelio.

Suarez returns! Gerrard starts! Looking good. I'd have liked Suarez to start today but I can understand the reasoning. While he's fully fit he's probably a little rusty. Not only that but he can make a big impact later on. Nice to see Fabio Aurelio on the bench, it dawned on me today that his contract ends again this season. He'll probably be released, while I like him, his injury problems are still far too relevant. Flanagan needs to develop further so I think this is the beginning of the end for Fabio Aurelio. I like our starting 11. Lucas, Enrique and Suarez aside, it's our strongest side. Should be tough to break down and hopefully we'll have enough firepower to score and win.

Tottenham Hotspur: Friedel, Walker, Dawson, King, Assou-Ekotto, Parker, Livermore, Modric, Kranjcar, Bale, Adebayor. Subs: Cudicini, Saha, Rose, Nelsen, Luongo, Lancaster, Khumako. 

A weakened Spurs side, lacking Defoe and Van der Vaart. Adebayor isn't fully fit either. Saha will try and make an impact later on, being an ex United and Everton player, let's hope we thwart that plan. This side can still cause problems, particularly Modric and Adebayor if he plays to his potential. Dangerous but a weakened side means we should be taking advantage tonight.

3' - A poor start for Liverpool sees Spurs being pinged back to their goal in the early minutes. We defend a corner relatively well. We usually start with aplomb but not today. 

4' A lovely ball from Gerrard to Carroll and he's through! Dawson tackles in the penalty box and my first thought was penalty, but on replay I'm not so sure. 

6' - Scott Parker brings Glen Johnson down JUST outside the box! Free kick! Gerrard takes it and it hits the wall, there was a lot of messing about in the box, kudos to Spurs for providing enough distraction. 

9'  - The game is looking relatively open for both sides, as expected. Both sides have had a decent spell of possession so far. 

11' - A stray cat found its way on to the pitch. Poor little thing. Really cute as well.  The Liverpool fans boo when the stewards removed it.

14' - Liverpool starting to look a little more threatening now, using the left wing. Bellamy combining well with Johnson, who's on the left today, down that side of the pitch.

17' - There's a lot of crossing today by Liverpool, but not long straight balls to Carroll, but strong diagonal balls that are causing the Spurs defence to tear apart slightly. It's good.

18' - Two defeats in 21 matches for Spurs. Incredible statistic. Hopefully we can make it less awesome sounding tonight. 

18' - That's twice now I've seen Charlie Adam covering Glen Johnson down the left back position. Doubling up. It's working at the moment though as that's the side we're using most. 

21' - Once again we're dominating on the left wing. It's not come to fruition yet but it feels like we're really dominating that area of the pitch and if we score, it's likely to source from there. 

24' - The first time I've seen us go down the right but the cross is poor. I'm not sure who crossed that, it might have been Martin Kelly, but it was high and over the box. 

27' - Another few crosses from the right are poor, by Kelly and Adam. Our end product in the final third really isn't good enough at the moment. We're dominating possession but not doing enough clinical crossing. 

29' - Adabayor accidentally catches Bellamy and he goes to ground. It was accidental but a little clumsy by the man from Togo.

30' - A fizzing cross from Adam from a free kick reaches Kuyt in the box but it was offside and his header was well wide anyway. But that cross is the type of cross we need to be doing. A strong, hard, low drive from Adam.

32' - SPEARING! So close! A beautifully balanced tap from Gerrard sets up Spearing perfectly, and it was inches wide! Excellent shot, it's a shame it wasn't the other way round, with Spearing assisting and Gerrard shooting, it probably would have been in as I reckon Friedel was beat.

35' - Possession statistics are 50/50 for the last 10 minutes. It doesn't feel like it. There's been very little from Spurs over the course of the 35 minutes.

37' - A nice one-two from the two Liverpool Youths, Kelly and Spearing down the right wing wins us a corner. I'm so proud of those two representing Liverpool so well. It's about time we have some fresh Scousers in the squad.

38' - Yellow card for Scott Parker, who blocks off a storming Gerrard run. Free kick just outside the box. 

39' - Bellamy takes it and it hits the wall. We need to be better than this when it comes to attacking these set pieces.

41' - Tottenham counter attack and Gareth Bale has a decent sly effort at goal, a cross from the left wing and Bale somehow volleys discretely with his left foot. Thankfully it's straight at Reina. 

43' - Spurs are on the front foot for the first time since the opening minutes. Needing to defend well at the moment. 

45' - One minute of added time. 


45+1' - Johnson takes his chance from far out and Friedel blocks it with his body for a throw in. Half time.

We've looked the better side, that's clear. We've decided to double up down the wings when needed and try to use the wings to make space and cross the ball. And that's as far as we've got. We've dominated the width of the pitch but our crossing has, to be frank, pretty damn poor. We need to be more clinical than this if we're playing the crossing game. I'm surprised we're playing the crossing game when we have good pace and trickery with Gerrard and Bellamy on the pitch supporting Carroll., and Suarez yet to come. But if that's the tactics we need to be crossing better. Adam is the only one whose crossing has been okay, but even that's hit and miss. If this is the tactics Kenny wants, we need to be more clinical. Or change tactics. One of the other. Either way we're looking the more likely to score, and if that remains the case, hopefully we'll get the goal our dominant gameplay deserves.

45' - Nice to see Adebayor and Bellamy having a laugh before the whistle. They obviously got on when they were both at City. 

48' - The commentators have said that Bale has been pretty quiet today, it's true. We've done well to contain the Welshman. 

51' - Suarez is doing a bit of warming up, I don't know if he's coming on yet. Probably not this early I'd imagine. 

54' - Gareth Bale goes down. Agger never touched him but Bale loses it! He pushes Agger back and is really in Agger's face! Really unlike Bale. He gets a yellow card for his troubles. He's probably really frustrated over his lack of influence in the match. 

55' - Bale is getting heavily booed by the Anfield faithful now. Corner for Spurs

56' -  The ball is all over the place in our box as Spurs don't make the most of a strong attack. Adebayor and Bale both had good chances but failed to have a clean shot at goal.

58' - KELLY! Great save by Friedel! Martin Kelly shoots to Fridel's left post and it was a nice save by the American.

61' - Suarez is about to come on! 

64' - Reina the sweeper kicks the ball long and Carroll heads it to Kuyt down the right wing, it's laid off to Adam whose shot is blocked by Dawson. Nice idea. 

65' - Liverpool Substitution: Dirk Kuyt comes off for the returning Luis Suarez. Kuyt, after scoring two games in a row, has been relatively ineffective today. 

66' - Carroll header from the corner! Straight at Fridel. The angle didn't go in his favour. 

69' - Yellow card for Suarez, who's high foot kicks Scott Parker in the stomach. He's winded terribly. Suarez accepts the card with understanding however. 

70' - Tottenham Substitution: Adebayor comes off for Luis Saha. Adebayor has had a relatively poor game, he hasn't really made an impact today. Let's hope Luis Saha makes a poor impact in his place, on his debut. 

72' - Liverpool Substitution: Stewart Downing comes on for Craig Bellamy. Another player who hasn't really had the right impact. Hopefully Downing's crossing ability works well in the last twenty minutes in Bellamy's place. 

73' - CARROLL! Awful shot. Kelly finally whips in a dangerous cross and it gets to Carroll whose immediate half volley is way over the bar. He should be doing better than that.

75' - Skrtel yellow card. Controversial call. He gets the ball off Bale but he uses his studs and Bale goes flying. It really looked bad live. Skrtel is lucky to still be on the pitch. I'm an unbiased Liverpool fan and I'm telling you, we're lucky to still have 11 men on the pitch. That was rash.

77' - Suarez nicks the ball and starts a counter attack! He puts the ball square to Carroll who has to go wide and his cross is headed away. Nice combination between the strikers, but it could have been more. 


80' - Steven Gerrard whips in a strong cross that Friedel palms away, taking a Skrtel set of studs to the chest in defence. The ref calls for a free kick for the American, who questions it as he palmed the ball away. Brad Friedel has balls for taking that kick from Skrtel, who in turn shows his admiration as well. Absolutely awesome from Friedel.

83' - Last 10 minutes or so, including added time. We need to score soon.

84' - Bale's clear! One on one with Reina and Reina wins! It's not dealt with though! Eventually a Agger clears the ball out to the left wing.

85' - SUAREZ! Straight at Fridel. A Stevie G free kick is inch perfect for Suarez who heads it straight at Friedel. That was quite poor from Suarez, a header either side and its in. 

87' - Tottenham Substitution: Danny Rose comes on for Niko Kranjcar, who's also had a game of very little effect. 

89' - A cross to Carroll who heads it to Suarez who's in the box! He tries to turn and shoot but he hands the ball and it's a free kick. Scott Parker does another excellent block to deny him anyway. In honesty, not that I've mentioned it enough, Scott Parker has been brilliant today. Man of the match. 

90' - Four minutes of added time. 

90+2' - Three crosses into around the penalty box in about 20 seconds and all three crosses are deflected by Scott Parker. Story of the match I'd say. 

90+4' - Full time.

7 draws in 9 games for Liverpool at Anfield. It's a problem. It's the problem. We're so hard to beat this season but we just can't score consistently enough. The effort is there. The chances are there. But the story of our season simply is we haven't made the most of scoring opportunities. We've been scoring more recently than we were in the start of the season. But it wasn't enough today. But it's not all doom and gloom. We have a fully fit Gerrard and Suarez back, and Carroll has been a bit better recently. Hopefully arguably the three important players in our striking force can start playing together. It's a fact - Gerrard, Suarez and Carroll all together have never started a game. Never. We've had Suarez and Carroll a full year now. Get those three in tandem, and hopefully goals will flow. That's the idea anyway. That's why Suarez and Carroll were £55 million between them. And Gerrard is to support them. Let's see this happen! Hopefully good times are ahead for Liverpool. We're not out of the race for the Top 4. We just need to continue this decent form with some goals. Goals! That's all we need. Hopefully this is the beginning of a free scoring run.

That's it from me, have a good evening!

For the latest updates on my work, 'like' me on Facebook here!

My Winter Wipeout Experience - Part 3

Note: This is part 3 of 6. I'm posting one part a day. The total word count exceeds 31,000 words so it's going to be a long read. If you missed part 1 you can read it by clicking here, and part 2 here!

I left Portsmouth on Saturday morning, the 29^th October. It was an odd feeling, walking towards the station with my suitcase. I was about to do something that I would remember for the rest of my life. It was nearly a week without my wife and daughter, and while I’ve spent that amount of time away from them before it’s not nice, but I knew that it was more than worth it, and that hopefully overall, it would be one of the best experiences of my life. I got on the train to the London Underground, and it was relatively straight forward. I wanted to bring a Nintendo DS, or a Game Boy Advance (retro, yo!) but I couldn’t find either. I ended up bringing The Beatles Authorised Biography by Hunter Davies, a great book if you’re interested in the legendary band from Liverpool. It’s a huge book in size and length, and that’s why I chose it. At a WHS Smith in London I bought a copy of Kerrang! Too, but that was crap. I remembered why I never buy that magazine anymore.

I got to the Underground and took the fast track train to Heathrow. All the time I spent in London I kept looking around, seeing if there were people taking the same route as me. I didn’t see any of the contestants on the way there. I got to Heathrow, and we were all to meet there. We had to board for Madrid for 4pm if I remember correctly, but my train times got me to Heathrow for around 11am! The times I was given by Endemol were incredibly early and I was definitely the first to arrive. I spent over an hour there, impatiently, looking around at people who looked like they were waiting for other people. I waited outdoors, and once in a while explored indoors to see if any group of people were waiting there. It was passed 12pm when my wife called. She asked if I saw anyone yet, I told her I didn’t. I did get a little worried, maybe I was in the wrong place. I was at Terminal 3, did I go to the wrong terminal? I checked my instructions provided by Endemol and I was in the right place.

Terminal 3, Heathrow, the Winter Wipeout meeting point. Exciting.

It was getting close to 1pm when I noticed a young couple sitting across from me. The girl was ginger and clocked me too. I didn’t say anything to her and vice versa, I didn’t think it was a definite contestant or anything so I kept myself from doing anything. I once again went indoors. It was probably nearly 1:30pm by then. I went up to the first floor and used the toilet. I didn’t actually check the first floor previously, and checked the area out again. Once again, no gathering. So after relieving myself in the lavatory, I went back downstairs. I saw a small young lady with a clipboard, she had dyed red hair and an orange top. She looked at me and I her, but once again, I didn’t want to say anything just in case it wasn’t someone I was supposed to meet up with. I went outside before I heard a man call “John!”. I turned around and saw this big man, in his late forties or early fifties, with big frizzy blond hair. He asked if I was John and I said yes, and he pointed indoors. I went in and saw the redhead again, who welcomed me, and there were a few other people there with her.

The 'ginger' lady was Sarah, who looked amazing after just recently having a baby.

This redhead is Frankie, or Francesca, another researcher who was who we were meeting at the airport. It was her job to gather us there, look after us in London, on the plane and to get us to the hotel. She’s in her mid twenties and a great looking lady, and saw us all as her children, in a funny way. She was absolutely brilliant. I also saw the ginger girl I mentioned earlier, who was with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend soon left her and we talked about how we noticed each other earlier. This was Sarah, a contestant on the show. She’s the same age as me, and had only months before had a baby, but she was in absolutely fantastic shape. Sarah and I got on very well; she seemed to like my sense of humour which is good as I’m usually hit or miss with it. The big guy with the frizzy blond hair? That was Simon, who is you watched the episode you’ll distinctively know him as the husband of the couple of caricature drawers. Simon, and his wife Sheba, were there. Sheba was really nice too, and her caricature drawings are as awesome as Simon’s. I remember spotting Sebastian, the stylish clothes shop owner from London, and we looked at each other and had a little joke about the fact that we were disappointed that we found someone else with a beard. He’s another ginger, and I have a ginger beard, but naturally mine was much much bigger than his! Sebastian was cool, we got on quite well, my favourite thing about him was his hat, I have a picture of me posing with it on my Facebook! Another person that I remember seeing early on was Natalie, the Ukrainian dancer, who I have a mutual friend in common with. This mutual friend went to sixth form with me, and to university with Natalie. Natalie is absolutely gorgeous, a beautiful lady, but is a proper Mancunian lass with a hard attitude when she wants to. She’s lovely though and I mean that affectionately. I can’t remember who else was there already, but slowly over the next half hour to an hour, the other nineteen contestants made their way to the meeting point at Terminal 3. My wife called not long after meeting my fellow contestants, and I told her I was in the right place. That was the last time I was to speak with her for another five days.

Simon and Sheba, the couple. They do awesome caricature drawings and fought to draw me!

After most people arrived, Frankie told us that we were to go in pairs, or as she put it, buddies, and that our buddy would also be our roommate for when we got to the hotel. The two buddies in each pair would have to look out for each other so no one gets lost. As I said before, my roommate was generous enough to pay for my deposit for the hotel room, so I was paired with a really awesome guy. His name is also John, and he and I are two of three John’s on this episode of Winter Wipeout. My buddy, John Glass, or Scottish John, or Whiskey John, or Whiskey in the John, was a really cool guy, we hit it off straight away and talked about music and a little about video games. He, if you didn’t watch the show, was the whiskey blender, or, as Wipeout put it, the whiskey taster in the show. It’s funny because Scottish John doesn’t drink too much and he didn’t like the fact that Wipeout were making him out to be the stereotypical Scottish drunk! He took it well though and it’s all a laugh. Another person I hit it off with straight away was Jody, definitely the smallest person in the group, who was the grave digger on the show. She was dressed all in black and had what looked like New Rock boots on, and lots of tattoos. She looked very gothic, and I do love that look, so it’s natural I hit it off with her straight away.

Jody and I hit it off straight away, she's a really sweet lady, not the angry gravedigger she portrayed on TV!

Frankie gave us our plane tickets, our 300 peso and also some instructions and information about who to call in emergency, and some local travel information. We all got through the ticket checks, the passport security and into the shopping section. Along the way I started to slowly get to know the nineteen people I’d spend the next five days with, and attempt to compete with on the Wipeout course. I’d just like to say that overall, the 19 contestants I spent my time in Argentina are amazing. I could not have asked to be with another set of 19 random strangers from Great Britain. I got on with everyone, of course to different degrees, but I can’t say I disliked anyone, or had a falling out with anyone there. My Winter Wipeout experience was marvellous, and they definitely had a major contribution in that.

I can’t remember who I sat next to on the plane there, if anyone. But the flight to Madrid was nice and short and when we arrived in Spain it was very dark. After the short stay in Spain, we headed off to Buenos Aires in our huge 13 hour flight. As I said, I really can’t remember much of the journey there for some reason. I remember struggling to sleep, which is an oddity for me. That being said, I’ve never had a 13 hour flight before! I had an issue sleeping backwards with my head up, it made me feel sick, but resting my head on the chair in front of me made me, intermittently, get sleep. I also remember having my first taste of Argentinian cuisine. In the early hours, probably three quarters of the way there, at around 5am, I got woken up with a sandwich. It had meat and a liquidly sauce in it, and didn’t look too pleasant. But I was so hungry, and promised myself that I’d have to adapt to new cuisine in a different country, so I tried it. It was actually a salami and cheese spread sandwich, and while the bread itself was dry, it was quite nice. A bit later on, around 8 to 9am, a few hours before we landed, we had a breakfast. The breakfast was a similar sandwich, with some dry cereal and milk, yoghurt and some tea. It was okay, plane food isn’t supposed to be the best so I was satisfied. We landed at around 10 or 11am and the long flight was over!

Landing in Madrid.

When we landed, we all walked out and went through customs, to the other side where we were greeted by lots of protestors. I don’t know much about Argentinian culture but it seems like politics are very important over there, probably more so than in England. I didn’t know why they were protesting and what about, nor with all due respect, did I care. I’m not that big on politics in my own country never mind someone else’s. We arrived and quickly noticed Nick, the guy from the audition waiting for us. Nick welcomed us to Argentina and basically outlined our next day, Day 2 of 6. We were to get on a bus to the hotel, and leave our things there before having a little wonder about the city of Buenos Aires, and arrive back at the hotel for 3pm. So that’s basically what we did!

Buenos Aires is a beautiful city, albeit run down, especially in comparison to a lot of English cities. The locals were very friendly for the most part. Quite a lot of us separated when we went to explore Buenos Aires, and there were around five or six of us that wanted to relax at a café. Some of us ordered food and drink, while most people just wanted to sit down and chat. I had a Pepsi or two, but didn’t want to order food, primarily because I only had my 300 peso and couldn’t afford to take out much more money, so I wanted to use it sparsely. Besides I wanted to have a decent meal later on. We did a bit more walking around but it was just passed 2pm when we decided to risk going back to the hotel earlier to check in. Thankfully the hotel people were okay and prepared early enough for us to check in then.

  

John W, Lawrence, Simon, Sheba, Ben and myself chilling outside a bar. Cheers Ben for this picture!

The hotel was a complete contrast to the rest of Buenos Aires. As I said the city was striking but in poor condition, when compared to English cities, but the hotel was a modern building in excellent form. I mean there were cracks in the walls here and there but it’s hard to criticise it because the rooms were great. Before we actually went to our hotel rooms Nick asked us to get out our Winter Wipeout outfits and put them on, for a photo and so they were happy with the outfits we had. So the two bathrooms in the hotel were packed full of random Brits putting on odd costumes, it was hilarious! I put on my outfit, which everyone loved. Nick liked it too, and I had my photo taken, and then that was it, it was off to the hotel rooms!

Mine and "Whiskey in the John"'s hotel room. Pretty nifty.

The hotel rooms were very pleasant. There was nice space, although the bathroom was tiny, but otherwise it was a really nice room and it was nice and cosy. Me and Scottish John plonked our stuff on our beds and just relaxed for a bit. We had a decent widescreen TV there, the first hotel I’ve been in that has one, and there was a Premier League match replay of Tottenham’s 3-1 win over Queens Park Rangers. Having a quick look through the channels showed a lot of sport, especially football, and some Argentinian chat programs that I understood nothing about, and some random American shows with subtitles or dubbed Spanish acting. I remember Scottish John and I relaxing later on when they put on Scary Movie… at 4 or 5pm in the afternoon. They edited a lot of it out, naturally, having lots of sex, violence, drug use and gore, but a lot of it was kept in, which was ridiculous! There was a scene where a character gets stabbed over and over again and won’t die, and it was completely unedited. The swearing for the most part was edited out. The sex scene with the huge ‘climax’ at the end was cut short thankfully, and the bathroom ‘peephole’ scene was also edited. But lots of it, especially the violence, was kept in. It was ridiculous!

We were next door to two other contestants Sharn and Sam. I didn’t speak much to Sharn in the entire time I was there, but she was cool, and had an epic night out on the final night in Argentina. Sam, the pet detective, was really nice and you could tell she was having a ball the entire time and was pleasant to everyone. They heard us from next door and told us that at the top of the hotel was a pool, a sun bathing area and a sauna. I’m telling you, we had some awesome luxury in Argentina and it was times like these I really realised how lucky I was to be given this opportunity. Scottish John and I got ready and headed upwards to the pool. Only we two Johns and then a little later, Lawrence, went in the pool. All of the ladies were relaxing and sunbathing. Lawrence is the guy who unfortunately broke his leg. He took the news very very well; he finished the qualifier in 5^th place and was one of two ball crossers on the episode. He was a major contender to win Winter Wipeout in all honesty, he was in great shape despite being one of the bigger contestants, and had a lot of energy on course. He has an amazing lifestyle; he does some form of Spanish ballet and is also a driving instructor, and really loves his Japanese wife and their two kids. He was a true pro and had a great sense of humour to boot.

Sharn, Ben and Sam in the tent. Note the TV that they put pirate copies of Total Wipeout on!

So Lawrence, Scottish John and I were swimming in the pool, just relaxing really and trying to discretely practise our swimming for the big day, which was the next day by the way. We soon moved to the balcony, which was the sunbathing area, and it was incredibly hot. As I said it was spring in Argentina, and their spring was a little hotter than our summer, which is incredibly hot in my standards. I sunburn very easily and don’t do hot weather in general, but I felt I had to make the most of this opportunity to relax and enjoy the sun because we had some hard work to do after. On the balcony were Sarah, Amy, Ben and Aarron I believe.

I spoke of Sarah earlier, but Amy was just amazing. I didn’t really pay much attention to Amy when we all met up, but soon that would change, as she kicked ass in Winter Wipeout more than anyone I say. No she didn’t win but she was the toughest cookie there, and worked her absolute butt off to get to the top three. Amy and I say this affectionately, was an emotional rollercoaster. She hated flying; she was so scared of flying. I noticed how nervous she was in England and Madrid, and consoled her a little, explaining my wife also despised flying. So she was scared and upset, then when we arrived in Argentina she was nice and bubbly, then when it came to doing the qualifier she was focused and hard as nails, then when she made it to the Ski Lift she was crying and doubted herself, but then she held on long enough for the Ski Lift and was happy. Then she was crying again and doubted herself about getting to the final three when she did Winter Blunderland but then was absolutely magical then, and made it through to the final. She had a very good time in the final too, and would have won a few of the other episodes. I loved Amy, she was amazing to watch and such a lovely person, all I did the entire time was want to hug her whenever she was upset!

Amy was awesome. So was Sebastian. At photobombing pictures!

Ben was pretty cool too; he also works for the NHS as an ambulance driver. He’s a really sweet guy and has an awesome sense of humour. He and Amy were really close and have kept close contact since Winter Wipeout. Aarron who was the runner up, was someone else I didn’t speak to as much but he’s a pretty cool guy. He was trying to win Winter Wipeout so he could afford the engagement ring he felt his girlfriend deserved, which was really sweet. He was very focused and determined the whole way, right to the end and was a true fighter and congratulated the eventual winner, John Woodfield like a true sportsman. You could tell Aarron was gutted but he took it very well and was very respectful to Woody.

Everyone was relaxing and it was just amazingly peaceful. It gave me a few moments to truly appreciate what I was doing. I looked over the balcony to the city of Buenos Aires. It was absolutely spectacular. I soaked it all in and it was then I thoroughly realised how far away I was from home. I’d never left the isles of the UK and Ireland. All of a sudden I was on the other side of the world. I missed my wife and Vivi but was having an absolute blast at the same time. I knew I had to make the most of this because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, at least for me anyway.

The view from the hotel balcony. Completely in contrast to the nice hotel.

That Sunday, day two of the six day trip, was the official relaxing day. Day three, Monday, was the day we did the qualifier. We knew that at that point and knew we had to make the most of the evening to come. We all went to a restaurant suggested by Nick that was about a block away from us that purportedly did arguably the best Argentinian steak in the city. The twenty of us decided that it was the place to go. We relaxed for a few hours before the evening, when we left for the restaurant. There was a slight snag however, not many of us knew how to speak Spanish! The only person that could speak a decent amount of Spanish to communicate on a low level, was Mark, and he got the basics right enough for us all to buy food relatively accurately. Mark was the guy with the amazing moustache and he is truly awesome. Musically, he was the guy I had most in common with and he has links in the music industry, as does his girlfriend. He’s a truly awesome guy with an amazing moustache, and he was probably the most chilled guy there, he didn’t take it seriously at all and was there for the ride, which got him to fourth place overall in the competition. I asked Mark how he felt being so close to the finals and for the second opportunity in the champion of champions edition but he said along the lines of “that’s enough for me, I’m shattered and happy with how far I’ve got”. Mark sprained his finger in a bad way anyway, so probably couldn’t have competed if he wanted to.

The contestants chilling the night before the qualifier!

So Mark communicated as well as he could. Luckily we all wanted steak, and while there were different types of steak there, most of us weren’t fussed about them. We all ordered two variances of the steak and it was absolutely beautiful. I had mine medium rare and it was a huge piece, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was also given a pretty damn huge knife to cut it with, a huge knife especially when compared to the fork it came with! So we all ate that night and had a great time, and we all did random sweepstakes for the winner of Winter Wipeout. Ironically Mark and I had each other in the sweepstake and in banter told each other that we’re depending on the opposite to win! After the meal, we all pretty much went to bed. I think it was around 10pm at that time. Why? Because the next day was the qualifier! And worse yet, we’d be leaving for around 5:30. IN THE MORNING!

Mmmm... EPIC steak!

So that morning Scottish John and I got up at around 5am if I remember correctly, and we had our breakfasts that were left in the fridge, and showered. Our breakfast consisted of yoghurt, an apple, and a pastry I believe although it’s a bit of a blur now. Relatively plain food, but it was all good for the energies we needed to do this course! We most importantly, had our outfits on, and would remain in them until we finished the qualifier, more than twelve hours later! We had a very big day ahead of us and it was all about to begin!

We went downstairs were everyone was gathering, ready for the bus that would take us to Benavidez, on the outskirts of the city of Buenos Aires, where the Winter Wipeout course was. The bus arrived and we all crammed on. I think it was on the bus, that I met Maisie again for the first time since she gave me my audition and she was basically behind the producer, the lady in charge of this episode. Andy, the producer naturally has to make sure everything is running smoothly but he usually lets one researcher take the reins in each episode for experience and to take some of the load of himself. That was where Maisie came in. She filmed a lot of the actual television you saw on my episode, she got us in order, she gave out instructions and was there for any questions. Maisie and I however, are enemies! She’s a Scouse, but the wrong kind, she’s a Bluenose! Everton! Urgh! Just teasing of course, we got on very well actually and spoke a lot about Liverpool, while keeping the Liverpool/Everton banter going along the way. Maisie is really cool actually, and she has a passion for what she is doing. She’s also very good friends with Amanda Byram herself, and went on holiday with her after the season of Winter Wipeout ended.

So Nick and Maisie I believe, gave us the official countdown of what we were about to do. This was day three of six, and was the most important day of the experience. Basically, the run down of the day was arrive, get settled, and then the 20 contestants would branch out to groups of five. All four groups of five would rotate to do one of four things. First is basically waiting in the tent that was set up for us, that had pastries, drinks and a television that had, you guessed it, episodes of Total Wipeout on DVD. Can I just say that these DVDs were pirated! Terrible! Blasphemous! Illegal! The BBC need to be informed of this! What it’s actually the BBC committing these pirating acts? Hypocrisy! Just teasing of course! Secondly, we were to do some posing and skits outside of a house decorated in wintery things. All the running around, waving and growling on camera, that type of thing, was all done here. Thirdly, we had the rotator table posing. Last, was the interview with Amanda Byram herself. This interview is often shown on television as I’m sure you’re aware. Most of these things are cut out but all usually have a part in the total introductory package for your appearance on the show. Doing all of these things was weird yet wonderful. It was just amazing to get the opportunity to see how the show is created from start to finish, and also to take part in it. All the things that they do take a while to sort out, so you have to admire the effort and work that goes into the show, and having seen these people from Endemol Argentina and Endemol UK do their stuff is brilliant. I wouldn’t quite say I felt like one of the stars of the show but it was something that was sometimes said to us, so that was nice for them to say that. In my eyes, they were the stars, they worked so hard to make us look as good or as silly as possible, so they deserve so much credit for what people see on TV.

Getting ready in the Wipeout tent.

So my group of five was myself, Scottish John, Jody, and Simon and Sheba, the caricaturists. First up was the posing by the house. Jody went up first, and she was absolutely brilliant. They made he pretend to dig with a spade into the ground, and made her growl at the TV. She was excellent and really went for it, and set the tone for all of us to do our posing. Simon and Sheba went afterwards and did individual posing, and posing together, as they’re married. They did some funny stuff like going into the house itself, before Sheba kicked Simon out and stuff like that. Simon was an awesome growler. Scottish John was up next and they made him look like every stereotypical Scottish drinker, something he was concerningly good at playing. He couldn’t growl to save his life though! He kept losing his voice and it was funny. I was last and this is where some of the magic happened. I’ve always been quite decent at roleplay, so I found what they wanted me to do quite easy. They wanted me to pose like a wrestler, growl a lot and stomp in and out of shot, growling. But most importantly, they wanted me to giggle like a little girl.

Now, if you know me personally, I can reach a high pitch quite easily, and almost too well. At my wedding reception, I sung “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen with the highest pitched voice properly, and everyone loved it. So, when they asked me to giggle like a little girl, I knew it would hopefully become TV magic. Sadly (for you!), they never put it on the episode so you'll never see it! Simon, Sheba, Jody and Scottish John were absolutely killing themselves off set when they saw me laughing like a little girl and running around in a camp fashion. I knew I looked an absolute prat but that’s exactly what they want! They want sillyness and I hope I gave them just that!

Thankfully, they didn't put my giggling like a little girl on TV!

Next up was the rotator table posing. I’d like to say that this was not done by a machine, but was done by some poor little Argentinian dude, sitting down, spinning this plate to turn you round and round! Poor guy! We got there before the other five contestants had finished, so we all spoke about what we did and what we had left to do. At that point we were getting so thirsty so we found a nice stash of water and diet coke to drink. Once again, I was last to do the posing. I told you that it’s a common theme that I was either first or last in everything that happened! The posing on the rotator table was quite simple, just smile and keep still while being spun around slowly. There really wasn’t anything else to it. One thing I will say is that Scottish John brought out a whiskey glass and some whiskey to pose on the rotator table with, and he looked like he was in his happy place when he smelt the whiskey while posing. It was excellent stuff.

John II and Whiskey in the John posing on the rotator table. Spun by some little Argentinian dude, poor guy!

Next up was the interview with Amanda. Want to know what happened and more? Come back here tomorrow to find out in Part 4 of 6 of My Winter Wipeout Experience!

If you haven't seen it yet you can see my performance, which was edited by Episode 5 contestant Gemma Murdock below!

You can read part 4 here, part 5 here and part 6 here!

For the latest updates on my work, 'like' me on Facebook here!

Live Thoughts: Tottenham vs Liverpool (Premier League)

I covered this match live. Here are my unedited thoughts of the match.

Welcome back to another live thoughts blog from myself. We take on Tottenham Hotspur today, our second away fixture in a row, and we're hoping that we can make up for the defeat against Stoke last week. As I said last week, I believe we played very well against Stoke but they were world class in defence. I'm hoping for a similar performance, but with the goals today. The Spurs are not as good in defence as Stoke on the whole anyway, so fingers crossed we can get under their skin and get our goal(s).

Here are the teams:

Tottenham: Friedel, Walker, Kaboul, King, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Parker, Modric, Bale, Adebayor, Defoe. Subs: Cudicini, Pavlyuchenko, Van der Vaart, Giovani, Bassong, Corluka, Livermore.

It's not going to be an easy time to dissect but we definitely can do it. Adebayor and Defoe are both clinical on their day and they've both scored recently. Their weakness is their defence, if we can cause a bit of mayhem there we can score. We have to be careful though because they are very strong in attack. Thankfully they're not in form at the moment, but let's not give them the incentive to start a surge today.

Liverpool: Reina, Skrtel, Enrique, Agger, Carragher, Lucas, Downing, Adam, Henderson, Suarez, Carroll. Subs: Doni, Maxi, Coates, Kuyt, Spearing, Bellamy, Robinson.

The diagram below is unlikely as I reckon that Carragher will stay in the centre and Skrtel will move to the right but we'll see. So one change, Carroll in and Kuyt out. Interesting. It's got to be a tactical decision, surely. Carroll, as much as I'm not as worried as some about his form, still hasn't been as effective as Kuyt so far this season. But his height and presence around their box has to be a factor. With Downing and Adam whipping balls from both the flanks and the centre of midfield, and the link-up from Suarez, Carroll can be, on his day, deadly. Let's hope today is that day.

2' - Adebayor! Close. Straight from the off Tottenham take control.

4' - They've really started well Spurs. It's not good at the moment for Liverpool. 

5' - Spurs have won four out of the last six games against us. Concerning statistics. 

6' - GOAL! Luca Modric! An absolute belter. Some brilliant passing, from Gareth Bale who whips in a cross from the left to the outside of the box to Defoe, who sets up Modric perfectly who slams the ball from a good 20 yards into the top right corner. One of the best goals of the season so far.

7' - They've just been all over us so far Spurs. Deservedly in the lead. Oozing class at the moment. 

9' - Agger is down at the moment. Hopefully he's okay. We'll see soon enough. 

10' - Agger has come back on thankfully. 

11' - Charlie Adam is given a yellow card, a tackle on Luca Modric. He did vent his frustrations out on the ref, which probably cemented the card. 

13' - Awful. Just awful. Spurs should have scored. Skrtel is lost, Bale takes the vall off him with ease and they just dominate our defence, with Defoe and Modric taking shots. Thanksfully we clear it. 

17' - GOAL! NO! Offside! The flag was raised for Suarez' goal. Carroll prods the ball into the penalty box and it ends up with Suarez who clips it round Friedel, but Suarez was offside at the time. Gutted.

21' - Adebayor... over the bar. Some good movement from Tottenham ends in Adebayor taking his chances from the outside of the box but he couldn't keep his shot down. 

22' - Free kick from Adam finds Skrtel towards the right post but he was offside. 

23' - Yellow card for Adebayor for a tackle on Carroll. He's done a few fouls in the match and the build of all the fouls earned him the card. 

25' - Agger can't continue, he's not right. He's going to get subbed.

26' - Liverpool Sub: Sebastian Coates comes on for his debut, replacing Daniel Agger. 

27' - RED CARD - Charlie Adam gets a second yellow. He sticks his leg out at Scott Parker. It didn't look intentional as he was concentrating on the ball in the air, but it was dangerous. It's hard to say if its the right decision as it was unintentional. Free kick for Spurs.

29' - After the delay the kick is taken and it hits our wall. This is looking extremely bleak for us, a goal down, a man down and Agger off injured. Lets hope Coates is ready. 

32' - Not much to report at the moment, Spurs have lost possession a bit recently, especially in comparison to earlier in the match. 

33' - Free kick in a VERY dangerous position. Enrique takes Defoe down a few yards from the penalty area, in the centre of the pitch.

34' - Bale takes it but it goes nowhere. 

35' - Another yellow card for us. Skrtel this time. Bale storms down the left flank and Skrtel can't keep up with him, so he blocks his path. Not good at all. 

37' - For probably the fifth time so far, we have the ball, can't penetrate forward and end up passing the ball back all the way to Reina. It's the story of the match so far for us, we are just the second best team on the pitch on all fronts. 

39' - ANOTHER yellow for Liverpool. Adebayor vs Coates. Coates tackles Adebayor from behind and could have potentially got a red for that. It wasn't dangerous, but a tackle from behind isn't often tolerated nowadays. 

40' - I say it wasn't dangerous but Adebayor has had to take a time out. Another free kick in a dangerous area, it goes for a corner. 

41' - Another corner. Kaboul misfires but it gets to Defoe, who takes a swing that we clear back for a corner.

42' - Kaboul again! And it's wide. 

43' - We get a bit of possession and Suarez gets it on the right and whips the ball to long for Carroll and it goes for a goal kick. 

45' - Four minutes of added time is announced. 

45+1' - A lovely pass from Modric to Kyle Walker cuts out three defenders and Walker dances into our box from the right and earns a corner. A beautiful bit of football from Modric. 

45+3' - Coates hoofs the ball forward to clear it and it goes for a goal kick for Tottenham. He's definitely not ready for the first team. He's looked incredibly nervous and inexperienced. I'm surprised as I thought he would be.

45'+4' - A yellow card for Suarez and he's not calming down! He's still having a go! Thankfully it's gone for half time.

My assessment? We've been pretty damn awful. All over the pitch we've been dominated. We haven't had luck, that's fair, but we deserve to be losing based on this performance. We've been awful. Has the referee waved his cards a bit too much? Probably. But it's no justification at all, we've been bad. The good news? We're only 1-0 down. The bad news is that we need to improve dramatically in the second half, and we're down a player with Adam off, and Coates really doesn't look ready. Let's hope we can get something out of this match. I'm usually the optimist, but it doesn't look good, even from me.

45' - Tottenham Sub: - Kranjcar comes off for Van der Vaart. 

45'-  Defoe! Just past the post. That was great football from Spurs from Adebayor to Defoe in the end. It doesn't look like things are going to change soon.

48' - Thankfully things have calmed down a bit, we just need a bit of luck, it's something we haven't had so far.

50' - Suarez chips the ball to Carroll in the box and Carroll appeals about a tug in the box. It doesn't look like it was anything worth claiming a penalty for. But we're playing a little better, emphasis on the word little. 

53' - Bale takes a shot and its wide. We are playing a little better though as I said. 

55' - Free kick for Tottenham around the right wing area. Enrique brought down Walker. Nothing comes of it thankfully. The commentators are talking about maybe Bellamy coming on, I do agree with that. I think he could be a nuisance for Spurs.

58' - Adebayor wasted a fabulous chance. Skrtel loses the ball in a dangerous place and Defoe and Adebayor have plenty of time to score but Adebayor thankfully for us wastes it. Skrtel has had an awful game today, he's not a right back. Carragher needs to swallow his pride and play there I say. It's frustrating that we're wasting Skrtel out of position, and Bale has wiped the floor with him today.

60' - Free kick for Liverpool in a dangerous area! Finally. We have to make the most of this. 

61' - Suarez takes it and it was poor. He tries to chip the wall and it's just well over. 

62' - RED CARD - Skrtel is off. This is just pathetic. Two of our players are now off. Skrtel is late tackling Bale and brings him down. I think it was rash but not deserving of a yellow. It's the story of his game though.

64' - Downing takes a shot from way out and it's comfortably saved by Friedel. 

65' - GOAL - Defoe. Our defence was ripped apart and Defoe turns out Enrique and slots the ball into the bottom right corner. Simple for them. You could easily see the influence of losing two players there as we just had no one back. 

67' - GOAL - Adebayor. They just take a few shots at us and Reina does his best but there's just not enough players back to deal with the deflections, Adebayor just slots it home after the third shot. 

69' - Liverpool Subs - Luis Suarez and Stewart Downing are off for Craig Bellamy and Jay Spearing. We're probably saving their legs as we're not going to get back into this really are we?

70' - Hand ball from Scott Parker on the left wing. Free kick to us. 

71' - Bellamy takes it and it goes nowhere. 

72' - Tottenham are just playing with us now. They're passing the ball around and the fans are cheering each pass. Always a great feeling when it's your team doing it but when it's the opposition it really grinds on you.

74' - Free kick to us in our box as Reina gets fouled.

77' - It's just time wasting all round now, the game is pretty much over. 

80' - The positives as the commentators are saying is that we were much lower in the table at this point last year, and that there's still a long way to go. Very true. 

82' - Spurs are piling our box with their players, thankfully we defend well enough.

82' - Tottenham Subs: Jermain Defoe and Ledley King are off for Geovanni dos Santos and Sebastian Bassong. Both teams have used all their subs now.

85' - We break through slowly and Lucas and Spearing exchange a few nice passes in the centre of the pitch. Eventually Spearing takes a wild shot at goal but it was nice to see us just juggling the ball a little bit at this stage of the game. 

88' - Gareth Bale just takes a shot from around 30 yards out and its way over the bar. 

89' - Shots on target - Spurs 14, Liverpool 2. Says it all really. 

90' - Van der Vaart... good save by Reina. He tries to chip Reina but he saves it well. 

90' - Three minutes of added time. 

90+1' - Carragher tackles nicely against Adebayor and it's gone for a corner. 

90+2' - GOAL! Adebayor. It's just simple really, he is given the ball in the box by Bale and he rockets it into the top of the net. There's nothing we could have done about that with 9 men.

90+3' - Full time.

The full time analysis is that this was an awful game by us. Yes, decisions went against us that were debatable, yes we lost Agger early on and had Coates who is most certainly not ready yet to take his place, and yes, we did have two red cards and were down to 9 men for a good half hour. But that doesn't justify anything. We were bad. Really bad. But the good news is that we have a Carling Cup tie and two home games to look forward to. We need to win these three games. We had two difficult away games and we performed badly today. But the worst is over... for the time being. Unless we continue to screw up anyway! But let's not go down that road, let's be optimistic, this is hopefully a blip, and let's show our class against Brighton on Wednesday, before taking on Wolves on the weekend. That's it from me today, have a good day.