They're tough at the top, but tougher at the bottom

I took in two matches at the weekend, ranging from the foot of the football league ladder to its summit.

On Saturday, I watched Wrexham, who only preserved their league status on the last day of last season, play a Morecambe side who were playing the first ever away league match in their history.

Then the following day it was to a soaking wet Anfield for the sixteenth meeting of Liverpool and Chelsea in the last three years. From Brian Carey to Benitez, McIlroy to Mourinho, the contrasts were obvious.

Both games were entertaining, both produced good goals and many talking points, and while the gap in quality between League Two and the Premier League was as wide as you’d expect it to be, none of the 5,504 hardy souls who made it to the Racecourse Ground (some by boat no doubt, given the weather) could feel short-changed at what evolved into the classic ‘game of two halves.’

The home side were dominant from the kick off, their team a mixture of homegrown talent and journeyman pros who’ve seen better days. Michael Proctor, who once scored a winner for Sunderland against Liverpool in the Premiership, soon had them in front, glancing in a cross from Welsh international Chris Llewellyn.

Proctor looked sharp, quickly adding a second goal when he raced into a gap in the Morecambe defence that was big enough to drive several team buses through. Nevertheless, he produced a smart finish to put his side 2-0 up and seemingly on the way to a convincing victory.

The way Morecambe reacted after the break deserves huge credit though. It would have been easy for the league new boys to lie down and let their more established opponents walk all over them, but substitute Jon Newby’s strike early in the second half, Morecambe’s first ever goal in league football, was just reward for their new attacking attitude. Newby is a former Wrexham player, and his goal seemingly reminded the locals of his uneventful spell in North Wales. He was booed for the remainder of the match.

Wrexham clung on to their 2-1 advantage for dear life, throwing bodies at any visiting player who approached goal, and their eventual success was deserved for their first half attacking display alone.

It was perhaps no coincidence that both sides were so inept going forward in the half that they were attacking Wrexham’s Kop end. Rebuilding work meant that the entire population of the old stand consisted of two hard working ballboys and, lets be honest, who wants to score in front of an empty stand? It’s a problem that Middlesbrough’s forwards face every home game.

The Kop at Anfield was full to the brim though, as Liverpool took on Chelsea in the first of the meetings between ‘The Big Four’ this season.

Ever since these two clubs appointed new managers in the summer of 2004 the fixtures between them have taken on a new meaning, and arguably the fiercest current rivalry in English football was born. Chelsea usually get the better of Liverpool in the league, but it is the Reds’ ability to get under the skin of Mourinho by winning the really big cup clashes that so irritates the Portuguese. In turn, the Chelsea manager’s reluctance to bite his lip when discussing all matters Liverpool ensures that whenever the Blues come to town (which is incredibly often with these two) then Reds fans aren’t afraid to air their views.

That is the case here again, as early Chelsea touches are greeted with a chorus of boos from the Kop, and indeed the other three stands, which rarely get any acknowledgement.

Liverpool look a cut above their opponents though, and duly take the lead with the kind of goal that shows just why Rafa Benitez decided to splash between £20m and £27.5m (depending on which newspaper you read) on Fernando Torres. The Spanish striker controlled Steven Gerrard’s pass and glided past Tal Ben Haim embarrassingly easily before producing a perfect finish. It was a moment of quality that underlined just why the ticket price for this clash was exactly double what I’d paid at the Racecourse Ground a day earlier. This was genuine world class football.

After the goal, the game descended into the usual midfield battle that occurs each time these two face off against each other, with Chelsea testing the resolute Liverpool defence to the fore. Millions of pounds worth of talent attempted to cancel each other out, shown none more vividly than when Gerrard’s fantastic last ditch lunge on Didier Drogba prevented the Ivorian getting a shot in. Two of the best players in the world going toe-to-toe.

These two teams really don’t like each other, and tempers flared as Essien clattered into Arbeloa and Pennant shoved Ashley Cole. John Terry felt the need to give Torres a lecture on how you are not allowed to challenge the England captain; not surprisingly the Spaniard disagreed. He could be forgiven for wondering who was supposed to challenge him when he scored his goal.

It is here that the main difference between the Premier League and the lower divisions can be seen. There is no ego in League Two. Give a decision against Wrexham or any of their counterparts and they more or less get on with it. Give a decision against Chelsea and be prepared to have Terry sprinting 50 yards to scream abuse in your face, Frank Lampard will probably pick up the ball and threaten to take it home, Drogba, if he’s not on the floor, will also lead the protests with hands gesticulating wildly.

But there are some decisions of course, that are simply too awful to take lying down. Step forward Rob Styles, the only man inside Anfield who spotted a foul by Steve Finnan on Florent Malouda. The rest of us, Chelsea’s players included, simply saw Malouda jump into the Irishman, who had turned his back, and fall over. Even he knew it wasn’t a penalty.

Quite what was in Styles’ mind only he knew, but the pressure put on him by Chelsea’s players all afternoon might have had a bearing on his thinking. Needless to say, Lampard scored from the spot, and Chelsea proceeded to defend for the remaining half an hour, even bringing on man mountain Alex as an extra man at the back.

For a moment it appeared as though Styles had capped his audition to never referee a top flight match again by booking Essien twice and not sending him off. As it transpired though, he was simply wafting the card in the Ghanaian’s direction, never intending to caution him at all. What’s next Rob? Blowing your full time whistle after 12 minutes just to hear what it sounds like?

Chelsea celebrated the draw like it was a win, underlining their ambitions, and while Liverpool didn’t play to their potential they’ll know that they should have won. But for the referee they would have.

To compare the Premier League and League Two is like Rob Styles’ decision making, it just doesn’t make sense. The money floating around England’s top flight mark it out from any other country, and when two of its superpowers meet much of the world is watching. That of course creates pressure, a pressure that some can live with and others can’t, but if you want a good honest game of football then you can do a lot worse than League Two.

It would be easy for me to bang on about how League Two represents the game in its purest form, when men were men, jumpers for goalposts and all that, but that would be patronising it. The lower leagues in England have their own identity, their own clubs and their own passionate fans. It might not be the place where multi-millionaire footballers clash every weekend, and you won’t see images of Morecambe players screaming out from your newspapers and magazines, and maybe that’s for the better.

It is football without egos, and as such the game flows much better than some Premier League fixtures. So even if you don't support a team in the lower leagues, go along now and again, and while you’re there say hello to Rob Styles for me.