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Liverpool hand a debut to 16-year-old attacker Rio Ngumoha. At 16 years and 135 days, he’ll become Liverpool’s youngest-ever starter. Trent Alexander-Arnold is given an opportunity to play himself back into form – he was decent coming on as a sub in the League Cup semi at Spurs, to be fair – but fellow contract negotiators Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are both rested. Eyebrows may be risen at Ngumoha getting in ahead of Federico Chiesa, who is on the bench, though the young man was one of the Guardian’s Next Generation talents of 2024.
Accrington Stanley name an unchanged side following their 2-0 win at Colchester United. Captain Shaun Whalley scored both goals in that match, plus another in Stanley’s previous game, a 3-2 home win over Grimsby Town. Striker Josh Woods is a Liverpool supporter whose boyhood idols were Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.
The teams
This feels a bit too on the nose, putting a hat on a hat, but today is National Milk Day in the USA. A national holiday second only to Thanksgiving, it’s observed to mark the day in 1878 when milk was first delivered in glass bottles sealed with waxed paper, and to celebrate the crucial role the United States Department of Agriculture plays in ensuring US milk is the best in class. Can’t help thinking Accrington Stanley and the FA marketing bods have missed an official-partner trick here. Make America Lactate Again?
Preamble
During the 1970s, nearly all sales of milk in the UK were handled by independent neighbourhood milkmen. The friendly face of dairies across the land, they would do the rounds each morning in their cart, leaving pint bottles full of delicious creamy goodness on every doorstep. It was an environmentally sound system too: the bottles were reusable and the milk cart was electric. Great! But now those days are long gone. What did for poor old Milky? What happened to him? Mr Sainsbury, Mr Morrison, Mr Tesco, Mr Asda, Mr Tesco Express and Mr Sainsbury’s Savacentre, the big bullies, is what happened, with supermarkets and other stores now accounting for over 95% of milk sales. And so, upon watching this fondly remembered and oft-quoted old advert, several generations of calcium-and-micro-economics fans can be forgiven for innocently asking …
… “Unigate Dairies? Who are they?” Exactly. Meanwhile in other nutrient-rich-beverage-related news, the football club once slandered by the Milk Marketing Board travel to Anfield for a proper old-school David v Goliath third-round FA Cup tie. Kick-off is at 12.15pm GMT. It’s on! Watch out!