Westerveld, heavier, taller and with a stronger reach, seemed shocked at his audacity but returned enough fire to justify a red card as well.With Liverpool having used three substitutes, Staunton had to go in goal. He made one superb save, from Abel Xavier, but the heroics came from Gerrard who made stunning saves from Meijer’s deflected shot and Redknapp’s free- kick in the closing five minutes.Gerrard was not the only Blue hero. Gough and Weir were outstanding in defence and Hutchison and John Collins effervescent in midfield. Chasing a half-chance with 13 minutes left he was tackled cleanly, but continued his movement to clatter into Westerveld. The goalkeeper, who had earlier accused Jeffers of being a “cheat”, responded roughly and Jeffers reacted with a series of punches. Would their minds and bodies hold out? In Jeffers’ case, the answer was no.

Everyone was aware that the next goal could be crucial.Fowler might have claimed it but drilled his shot at Gerrard. Short of fitness, he then made way as Liverpool made changes Everton stuck with their first XI. Instead, the 18-year- old rolled the ball just past the far post. In a mere five years or so, Romance will doubtless already seem comically tame and old hat – and, if you don’t believe me, try to cite a single once-controversial title from the cinema’s past that now does not – but, for the moment, even in its more liberal country of origin, Romance remains an extreme case.
No, I mean the fact that (from an inventory that makes no claim to exhaustivity) a prime-time TV soap, Queer as Folk, can show an underage boy being sodomised by an older man and provoke so little media indignation that its producers were probably a teensy bit disappointed. Doohan, who will sit out this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island in Victoria, has 54 race victories – 14 behind the Italian motorcycling legend.He would like to surpass Agostini’s race win record but the thought of an earlier-than-expected retirement holds no fear for him “Every year I think about stopping.

Even back then, to be sure, there was an element of exaggeration in the joke, but the punchline must have had an authentic ring to it, since otherwise it would have fallen utterly flat.
Nowadays such a joke, if understood at all, would be regarded as intolerably lame. For, almost without our noticing it, a seismic social upheaval has occurred in this country, particularly in the last decade. Pornography – or what used to be defined as pornography – is ubiquitous.
Come now, you’re thinking, let’s keep matters in perspective. That pornography is more widespread than used to be the case, granted.