True, Liverpool retain the upper hand in the race to secure Champions League football next season, but that is largely because their rivals have a tendency to fall at almost every obstacle. With the jockey on board Newcastle United once more jumping off at the Reebok Stadium yesterday, Liverpool were able to nudge towards the final furlong of a desperately inadequate season with a little daylight between them and their pursuers.
Without Michael Owen and his infamous hamstring that was tweaked in France on Thursday night, the visiting team were devoid of pace. Liverpool’s next game, against Blackburn Rovers, has been delayed by 24 hours because of the Grand National; that might give Owen, the thoroughbred, sufficient time to recover and join colleagues who resembled tired old hunter chases against Leicester.
“Playing with ten men (Igor Biscan was sent off against Marseilles) for over an hour on Thursday told against us today,” Houllier said. “Leicester are a physical, imposing side, but I thought we controlled the game and should have won.”
Such blinkered vision is perhaps necessary, although even the blind faith of the most devoted supporter could not fail to spot the deficiencies in this Liverpool squad.
Bruno Cheyrou flitted in and out of the game with occasional glimpses of intent, a fitting testament to Liverpool’s laboured efforts since August. He had Ian Walker flapping at a tame volley before half-time and then saw a rasping drive skim the angle of crossbar and post just after the interval, but when he was replaced by Danny Murphy in the 71st minute, it was a mercy substitution for the out- rageously overvalued £3.7 million France midfield player.
In fact, Murphy’s first touch, a neat back-heel to Milan Baros, was the most incisive move from the red shirts, dulled only when the Czech Republic forward fluffed his finish and allowed Walker to save with ease. In contrast, Jerzy Dudek, the Liverpool goalkeeper, needed to be alert to save a shot by Muzzy Izzet in the 51st minute and to deal with the rebound as Paul Dickov prepared to pounce. Still later, the Poland player punched away a powerful free kick, delivered by Ben Thatcher, and was called upon to repeat the task in the 89th minute.
“It was a good point and I was pleased to keep the unbeaten run going (six games now),” Micky Adams, the Leicester manager, said. Leicester are still in with a fighting chance of survival and with the likes of Dickov and Les Ferdinand to lead the line and chase every lost cause, there is optimism in the camp.
“The Paul Dickov we saw today was the Paul Dickov we all know,” Adams said. Only in the dying seconds did the game finally muster the passion that the teams’ disparate ambitions merited. Steffen Freund found time and space on the right and measured a cross that invited Izzet to score the winner in time added on, but somehow the normally clinical Turkey player screwed his volley wide of the target from six yards, thereby depriving Leicester of a first home victory since November 2.
Other than that, the tedium factor hardly relented. Rarely can the Boat Race have been so eagerly anticipated as an antidote to boredom in these parts.