Liverpool 6 Hull City 1

The Premier League match report between Liverpool and Hull City at Anfield on Saturday Sept 26, 2009.

No matter how virulent the chants, how iconoclastic the protest or how furious the revolt, actions speaker louder than words. Liverpool’s fans, inspired by the sight of co-owner George Gillett entering Anfield for the first time in months, staged an ad hoc demonstration at his perceived penny-pinching, his alleged desire to make money from the club without spending anything on it.

Around 100 fans from the supporters’ union Spirit of Shankly gathered within earshot of the directors’ lounge, where Gillett was entertaining a Saudi Crown Prince Faisal al-Fahd and his entourage, to express their desire to see the Colorado businessman and his partner Tom Hicks ejected from their Anfield seats of power.

There is a sense of resignation among the fans, though, that such words no longer have an effect. The actions on the pitch of one Fernando Torres, on the other hand, may just persuade Gillett that, in football, you have to spend money to make money. Liverpool’s record signing won this game almost single-handedly, his hat-trick one of stunning eloquence.

His first, just 12 minutes in, saw the Spaniard control the mercurial Albert Riera’s low cross, unbalance Ibrahima Sonko and Liam Cooper with the slightest of shimmies, shift the ball from right to left foot and his body from first to fifth gear and arrow a shot past the outstretched glove of Myhill.

The lead only lasted three minutes – Hull drawing level when their hosts, through Martin Skrtel, kindly presented an unmarked Geovanni with the ball in the middle of the penalty area – but that seemed only to serve as inspiration to the quiet, unassuming Spaniard.

After 28 minutes, he collected Yossi Benayoun’s cleverly disguised through ball, cut inside a flummoxed Sonko with the help of a fortunate deflection, rounded the sprawling Myhill and the recovering Cooper, before tapping home. It was the sort of goal scored on the playground by a boy several years older than his opposition.

He was not quite finished. Immediately after the break, Torres killed off any lingering hopes Phil Brown’s side may have had of preying on Liverpool’s defensive nervousness by latching on to yet another Benayoun slide rule pass, sitting the beleaguered Sonko down as he cut inside and curling the ball between Paul McShane’s legs.

At that, Brian Horton, the Hull assistant manager seated high in the directors’ box and connected to Brown via Bluetooth, threw down his pad and pen in disgust. His disappointment is understandable, yet it is hard to know exactly what he could have told his players to do when faced with arguably the world’s best striker at the peak of his powers.

Steven Gerrard, not to be outdone, mishit a cross into Myhill’s top corner – and looked suitably sheepish when celebrating – before Torres was removed, no doubt to rest those troublesome hamstrings ahead of more exacting challenges in the coming days, to a standing ovation. Even Gillett rose and clapped, almost beaming with pride.

Liverpool’s fans, as they left Anfield celebrating Ryan Babel’s late fifth and lucky sixth, will no doubt hope Torres’s message, at least, has got through, that paying top dollar in football’s free market can be worth every last cent. His actions, powerful and graceful, may help more than their words ever will.