 BEFORE anyone says it was only Wrexham in the first of week of
July remember this Jermaine Pennant can perform on the big stage too.
Its easy to forget that he was Liverpools man of the match in their last
competitive game, his sterling efforts in the Champions League final quickly eclipsed
by the result and Rafael Benitezs instant demands for upheaval.
But after he stole the show in the far more low-key surroundings of the Racecourse
Ground, it became obvious that the first-half havoc Pennant caused Milans ageing back
four just hours before that emotion-fuelled press conference in May is still safely stored
in his managers memory bank.
That performance, however, doesnt seem to have spared the winger being part of
his overhaul just this week Benitez announced that wide men are still his priority.
Yet on Saturday Pennant served a quick reminder that hes ready to pick up where
he left off from that long overdue starring role in Athens.
Like the vast majority who were involved in Saturdays opening pre-season
friendly at Wrexham, Pennant only played 45 minutes but he crammed more into his than
everyone else aside from hat-trick hero Besian Idrizaj.
The 19-year-old Austrian still had Pennant to thank for all three of his first-half
strikes however, the pace and uncanny knack to squeeze in a cross under pressure coming to
the fore in fine style.
Benitez does, of course, need wide cover because Pennant remains the only natural
winger, certainly on the right-hand side, in the senior squad and its no disgrace to
him that the manager is keen to furnish the flanks with more quality. But if that policy
is Benitezs idea of a kick up the backside for the ?5.5million signing from Birmingham
last summer, then he certainly got up off it and went to work on Saturday. All three
Liverpool goals came in a 19-minute spell in a first half that was the only worthwhile 45
minutes of action in this all-too-early resumption of the football season.
Wimbledon was still going on, the Summer Pops are in full swing and theres not
even been a heatwave to indicate that summer has arrived.
And yet all that didnt matter to a crowd that gave Wrexham their second
successive five-figure attendance in succession the first, at the end of last season,
was only because defeat would have meant it being a historic last league game.
Perhaps this lowly status of their opponents means that whatever happened would
have been somewhat irrelevant and the overall analysis would tell Benitez little with five
weeks still to go to the Premiership kick-off.
Indeed, the second half was only useful as an indicator that the junior Anfield
contingent many fresh from FA Youth Cup glory arent quite ready to graduate to
big school yet given their rather timid 2-0 loss in this period.
And it was only really the performances of Pennant and Idrizaj that promoted the
game to the tier above training ground kick-about.
First-team experience was rare in Benitezs opening line-up, non-existent with
the exception of Moroccan Nabil El-Zhar in his second-half team sheet.
For Steve Finnan, Alvaro Arbeloa, Jack Hobbs and Gabriel Paletta it was a case of
easing themselves back in gently, which is exactly what Wrexhams toothless first-half
forward line allowed them to do.
Of the other senior players who returned ahead of the international contingent,
Momo Sissoko was the most recognisable but a lack of real midfield combat meant this
wasnt the battlefield for him to thrive on. |
For Pennant and
Idrizaj it was a different story, especially for the latter, who went from unknown
quantity to genuinely promising potential by the 24th minute.
Before the 19-year-old Austrian gets too carried away by his goal-scoring exploits,
however, it might have been a good idea for him to wander round and take a moment of quiet
contemplation in front of the gravestones scattered around the Racecourse.
This was, after all, the ground where Bellamy marked his first Liverpool appearance
with a goal in his homeland 51 weeks later and hes off to West Ham.
And three years ago Benitez kicked off his Liverpool career in this town with a
victory thanks to a double strike by another promising forward from the continent
Anthony La Tallec, whose subsequent assertion that two goals against Wrexham should be
enough to make him an automatic pick on the new managers team sheet was as empty and
laughable as his subsequent Anfield career.
Things on that score looked more promising for Idrizaj when he was spared the
half-time cull and remained one of only three players not to be substituted at half-time.
This changed 16 minutes in when Hungarian duo Krisztian Nesmith and Andras Simon
entered the fray along with Danish goalkeeper Martin Hansen, who did himself no favours by
setting up via a weak clearance and unconvincing punch both Eifion Williams goals
that made the final score more bearable from Wrexhams point of view.
But Idrizaj did do enough to suggest that he has more about him than just the one
goal in seven appearances on loan during Luton Towns descent into League One towards
the end of last season.
He finished all three of his goals extremely well as, despite Pennants excellent
wing work, the finishes were by no means foregone conclusions. His first came via a neat
lay-off from Dutch strike partner Jordi Brouwer after five minutes, which set Idrizaj up
for a volley into the top corner.
Pennant had time to set up a chance for the lively Scot Adam Hammill before picking
out Idrizaj for his second, the signing from Linzer ASK two years ago lunging at the cross
and powering his diving header into the corner.
He emphatically nodded in his third seven minutes later, although the easiest
opportunity he had, after yet another assist from Pennant, he wasted by taking far too
long to decide what to do after rounding goalkeeper Anthony Williams.
Fernando Torres neednt worry about having to fight for his place up front just
yet on that evidence.
Idrizaj further displayed his prowess in the air by forcing Williams to tip over
another towering header early in the second period but the opening half and to that
effect the day belonged to Pennant.
Its clear hes been itching to build on his Athens display in the 45 days
since that final and he showed how much in the space of one exhilarating 45 minutes.
WREXHAM first half: A Williams; Spender, Pejic, S Evans (Hope 30), M Williams; Mark
Jones, Llewellyn, Murtagh, Done; Roberts, Carvill. Second half: Mike Jones; Valentine, G
Evans, Hope, Taylor; Makin, D Williams, Fleming, E Williams; M Williams, Proctor.
LIVERPOOL first half: Martin, Finnan, Hobbs, Paletta,
Arbeloa; Pennant, Peltier, Sissoko, Hammill; Idrizaj, Brouwer. Second half: Martin (Hansen
59); Darby, Huth, Roque, Threlfall; El Zhar, Flynn, Spearing, Hamill (Nemeth 59); Idrizaj
(Simon 22), Lindfield.
REFEREE: Mike Jones.
ATT: 11,210
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