"Their keeper made a great save in each half, particularly the one from Stewart Downing - it was a great, great save. And then there was the one from Gabby later on. We had two go inches past the post too.

REDS AROUND THE WORLD: MALAYSIA
Jonno Lim, Malaysia 13 January 2009

Meet 32-year-old events manager Jonno Lim, who helps run an independent supporters’ club and gets up at the crack of dawn to catch the Reds in action with hundreds of other fans in a crowded Malaysian bar.
Like most things, my association with the Malaysian independent supporters' club started with a few beers. After meeting on the fans' forum Red and White Kop (RAWK), we decided that as there were a fair number of us Reds in the same corner of the world, the least we could do was watch a game together in a bar.

Liverpool ran home 3-0 winners over Everton at Goodison Park that day in August 2003, with Michael Owen scoring a brace and Harry Kewell getting the third goal just before the final whistle.

Having supported the club from afar for so long, it felt very special to be enjoying a Liverpool victory with a few like-minded people. I had watched the Reds with friends before, but nothing like this. Even the owner of the Boardwalk on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur was a Reds fanatic, so it became known as the closest thing any Malaysian Red could get to the special Anfield atmosphere.

There are so many Liverpool fans in this part of the world, and they all have their own story to tell. Some adopt the Reds because of their history, others simply get drawn in by the miracle of Istanbul in 2005 or the breathtaking 'Gerrard Final' of 2006.





The only reason I can offer for following the Reds is probably quite similar to most people's - all of my family are massive Liverpool fans. It goes way back to the seventies and beyond, so it was a no-brainer for me to be the same as them.

My earliest memory is of Michael Thomas and Ian Rush securing the FA Cup for Liverpool with great goals against Sunderland at Wembley in 1992. I can also vividly remember Neil 'Razor' Ruddock holding his head after scoring a late equaliser in the dramatic 3-3 draw with Manchester United in January 1994.

Nigel Clough scored twice that day, but the look on Ruddock's face will remain with me forever - the ball hit him on the top of his head before going in the net and he seemed in quite a lot of pain while celebrating his decisive goal at Anfield. I couldn't stop laughing.

As time went by, my Liverpool obsession grew. We experienced many joyous Saturday and Sunday nights at the Boardwalk over the years and celebrated many great Liverpool victories there. But our friend, Bala, soon told us he had to sell his bar and we were left with nowhere to watch our beloved Reds during the early hours of the morning over here in Malaysia.

And when the new owner of the Boardwalk told us they would not be opening for the 2007 Champions League final clash with AC Milan due to the fact it would be kicking off at 3.30am over here, we knew that we had to act quickly to find a new venue.

After a long and frustrating search, we finally found a small pub that would open for the match. We got in touch with our friends and fellow supporters to join us for the big game, as we knew that whenever Liverpool was involved in a big European game, it was guaranteed to be something special.





We only really expected about 50 people to turn up at the most, but the bar ended up being crammed full with about 200 fans, all screaming at the screen, willing on the Reds. We were all disappointed that Rafa's men did not win that night in Athens, but a few of us knew right then that not only did we need a bigger venue, but also a proper fan club to bring all of these Liverpool supporters together.

We called our new supporters' club 'MyRAWK', as most of us had met through RAWK, while the ‘My’ stands for Malaysia and also gives us a sense that a certain part of LFC can belong to us individually.

Things were tough at the beginning, but settling on the M Bar as our exclusive home for watching all the games helped us a lot. The owner agreed to open up at all the unsociable hours involved in supporting a club many miles away and laid on a host of generous drinks offers.

What started as a small MyRAWK blog soon turned into a full website, and before long we had Liverpool fans joining us from all over for our match-viewing parties. From local lawyers to homesick expats, tourists to ex players (Ian Rush once even joined us - that was a very special day), the M Bar is now full of fervent fans week in, week out. I usually take up the microphone at each event and am always proud to be the official master of ceremonies.

We even have our futsal team and are also in the process of setting up a full 11-a side side. Our interim team recently won our first trophy, the Christmas Cup and one day we hope to have a proper team which takes part in the local social league.




But due to the exchange rate and distance, not many of us have been lucky enough to get over to Anfield. I am currently saving up to make the pilgrimage one day next season with a few other fans. I'm sure that once we get up close to Liverpool's hallowed home, there will be many of us who will be close to tears, as this would be nothing short of our visiting our very own Mecca.

One of our newer members, Phil, who now lives in Liverpool, always talks about how unbelievable it is that a bunch of guys who have never seen the Reds play up close can wake up in the middle of the night to support a team who are playing nearly 7,000 miles away, only to go back to bed and rise for work less than two hours later.

But none of us at MyRAWK would have it any other way. Witnessing another Liverpool victory make all the long, sleepy days in the office after a match worth it - and believe you me, there have been a lot of those in recent years.

Jonno was speaking to Joe Curran

SOURCE

I would say, if this always happened, this is down to poor management of players' contract then.

You let the contract run down, then for sure, it will be cut price or buyer has more bargain.

One thing, whenever Liv intend to buy or target certain players, seller party always put a higher price.

Last year nearly 40 million spent (Aqualani 20 mil + Johnson 18.5 mil) on 2 players which one didn't play more than 10 games.
I really doubt 50 or 60 million spent can bring a lot of improvement or challenge the title, if the purchase of players like last year.

Yes, money does play major role to attract good player, but you need to buy wisely and utilise fully and bring best the team out with available resources, including some youngster and fringe players that needed occassionally.

MU, Chelsea, Arsenal doesn't consist superstar throughout. There are a few name that doesn't cost much but can gel into the team effectively.
If you bring those players to Liv or other teams else, they can be as average as well.
It is more about building a team, not only limited to individual players alone issue.

lets see ;
Malignant Tumuor <  Malignant tumors are ambitious. malignant tumors have two goals in life: to survive (offers nothing or benefit except feeding of host) and to conquer new territory.

Hicks & Gillett < American duo is ambitious. The duo too have goals, to search & conquer by buying desperate but famous clubs & to feed of $$$$ from profits of the club & milk the sale of the club.
true, but the Lfc current state of turmoil is also the by product of Hicks & Gillett.

the ironic fact that the term 'sink & swim together' doesn't compute in any way with Hicks & Gillett. Lets see a certain blue club was critiqued like hell when the rich owner bought them the title.
But when they weren't doing as well, he wiped out his own loans to the club (loans to buy $$$ players) to stabilise the club or at least be of some stability to continue challenge for league honours.

'sink & swim together'; some owners we have. it's Business they say. We were completely & utterly shafted by the yanks. All the potential good work of the club that began from houllier & the LFc's potential to ever challenge for trophies next 2-4 years has been drown by the greed of the american duo.

look at chelsea & MU, the two has been consistently exchanging honours between then of late because they dip & spend. Look at the millions pound players ON their bench.

Arsenal....only arsenal fan understands why they missed trophies when wenger refuse to spend on squad. exciting & elegant to watch but true gunners will know all they need is to have 2-3 good fringe players to help in KEY players where its crucial. when cesc fabregas or Van Persie is out, arsenal HAS been reduced to almost average team. (opps not accounting of NOT buying a proper keeper). sure arsenal books will be really healthy in long term. (this is a reality, even without hunours they remain profitable, not obese nor fat profit but still well in good health)

LFc, we are dire straits, or at least soon. New owners WILL mean starting again (owners taking risk in huge loans) sorry only a mad russian is willing to wipe off his own debt & roman abramovich potentially looked one-in-a-miilion type of owner.

yeah, lilredridinghood, Liverpool will take a while be among the top again and some say its not the yanks fault. I pray & hope lfc is not plague to be like newcastle or leeds 
Aqualani was a panic buy when we had to sell alonso because the Yanks didnt not sanction to buy an additional guard (gareth barry) to alonso unless we SELL, so sacrificing alonso & thus 'angered' alonso for the NEED to sell him & the saga to real madrid who eventually paid for alonso thus then FUND a crooked Aqualani.

vicious cycle isnt it ?

johnson, oh johnson, well we wrote off Portsmouth owing us (who owned us a lot) & that 18.5 million in truth was just something like half.

so thats it. we never buy big game, big money players unless a freak situation where 30 million for a player we shouldn't have sold & having a dire club in bather trade of what they owe us.

Point noted about the fact that we've got a high turnover on our ranks. I wouldn't be surprised, because when you look at how Jose Mourinho built his entire team, not only the players, but almost the entire backroom had to change. My point here is that, if you take the first eleven of Liverpool with the value BOUGHT (not value sold) versus the value of other teams, you'll probably find that we're not even on the top 5. Or maybe we graced it, but I'm pretty sure if you look at the value summed, we're way behind the giants like Man. Utd, Man. City, Chelsea, and now even the "mid table" teams that we kinda tag them.

My point here that I was trying to stress thorough? Its that despite what people like skeleton202 think that Rafa is crap, I say look at the stats, it doesn't lie and it probably may cast a light on others to show that, Rafa has already overachieved with Liverpool. When I say OVERACHIEVED, I say that we're not even fit to be where we're hovering at this moment. Remember Newcastle? Remember other teams with UCL-reliant economy to balance its sheet? We're lucky that we used not to be there before the effin' Yanks came into the fray. We were lucky to even have won the 2005 UCL. That was one miracle, in all sorts. Goatie or no goatie.

Believe me, if all our fans start to really act like how we're acting now, and if this wasn't LIVERPOOL, Rafa would have been sacked. But do you think any other managers will have want to manage this mess, with no money to 'build' this squad on? Hardly.

Considering on paper that we started (even pre-season) on a L-L-D-L-L form to a more respectable D-D-W-W-D form, I'm not going to complain. If we get to play Europa, we play Europa. If we get to play Champions League, we play Champions League. If we get to play FA, we play FA. Remember, we don't live on just dreams and expectations. Liverpool isn't a team of "must get the win or we'll rage RAWRZOMFGOMGWTFBBQRAGE".

And least not forget, even we may not be winning anything major recently, we're still a 'big club' in terms of overachieving.

We don't really need that much amount of money.. We need the yanks to get out first.. Then we need the new owners to settle the debts and build a new stadium..

With our current players, we definitely can survive in Premiership.. The only thing we need now is another top class striker.. Forget about CL.. Get those stupid yanks out off Liverpool first..

Moores must be regret for the rest of his life because sold Liverpool to stupid yanks.. He should do his homework very carefully and choose the oil-rich guy instead...

Ngog's playing he has good forward runs and great vision for space.
His finishing might suck , but he has that striker instinct .
Come On U Reds!

yea, ngog might have scored one beauty, but he has 2,3 chances to shoot-on-target but he just missed it.

Ngog's goal is classy. For the another 2 goals was pure luck from gerrard. Haha

our goals are from set pieces.. nice win! good for the teams confident! now bring on those Spanish!

but y i still felt 3 lucky goals for us..?...
can c frustrated 20 million man on the bench again..

dont get carried away by the 3-0 scoreline as apart from a few bright moments and ngog's goal and a few dangerous crosses from the gerrard we used to know and adore.. it was a poor performance imo. poor because we were at home.

and where the heck is aquilani ? if he aint fit, he wont be on the bench, i sense lotsa frustration in his part.. having to come to a foreign country, new environment and to prove himself after a huge pricetag.. and limited to cameo appearances..i think if rafa is still in charge next season, aqua is certainly moving back to italy. i'm still hoping to see him with more games during his time here. 

Green was poor today. Not that im taking anything from our great win. 

at this stage, point is important then performance ...

can that poll be changed to check box? there are too many positions that need strengthening.

442 formation is the best !!
anyone doing new jersey bulk ??
im in ..

my vote goes to striker... we need more goals to win matches... if we let in 4 goals and scored 5, still 3 points . so striker is a must addition if Rafa gets the £60mil kitty... Get Bent/Eto

my vote goes to striker... we need more goals to win matches... if we let in 4 goals and scored 5, still 3 points . so striker is a must addition if Rafa gets the £60mil kitty... Get Bent/Eto