Vivid attacking play was never going to characterise this game and, for almost its entirety, there were few chances or strikes on goal to break up the morass of midfield to-and-fro. When a goal came it was a carbuncle.
Given that Birmingham had started the day knowing they could slip into the relegation zone by tea-time, and had not won away from home in 11 months — not at all at Anfield since 1978 — Steve Bruce could not care less about the manner of victory. Anderton’s goal was the team’s first in close to eight hours of football and Bruce was beaming afterwards about “commitment” and “luck turning”.
The manager waxed lyrical about Julian Gray and it was fitting the corner that produced Anderton’s goal came after another raid down the flank by the left-back.
“I’ve just said this in the dressing room, and I don’t usually make such statements, but Julian can be anything he wants to be, given his athleticism and talent. He played for me at wing-back for Crystal Palace and can play anywhere on the left side,” said Bruce.
With Sven-Göran Eriksson about to pick his England squad for the friendly against Spain in ten days’ time, Bruce suggested the 25-year-old could be in the reckoning. “He’s only played nine games in the Premiership, but I think England have already been looking at him. There’s a dearth of them (left-sided players) isn’t there?” Gray apart, only Muzzy Izzet, in the early stages, showed any subtlety for Birmingham but Liverpool were too laboured to take advantage. Xabi Alonso endured his worst 90 minutes since arriving at Anfield and, as Bruce observed, they were handicapped by their lack of forwards. With Milan Baros suffering from a muscle strain, manager Rafael Benítez had to improvise an attack from Harry Kewell and Florent Sinama-Pongolle, who is notionally a striker but seems to have stalled in his development. Yet Benitez refused to use this as an excuse. “We had clear opportunities for (Dietmar) Hamann and (Luis) García to score and they’re not strikers,” Benítez said. “Maybe it was hard luck.”
Liverpool were unfortunate, perhaps, that Uriah Rennie decided not to award them a penalty when García’s shot struck Izzet’s elbow as the Birmingham player guarded the near post after a corner.
The misses perpetrated by García and Hamann, however, were due to nothing more than the common phenomenon of a midfielder panicking when placed suddenly in a striker’s position. After half an hour, a pass from SinamaPongolle ricocheted to García 15 yards out. Instead of stroking the ball past goalkeeper Maik Taylor, he tried to score with a flourish and spooned it into the stand. Ten minutes into the second half, Hamann shot straight at Taylor, after Kewell had thrown the Birmingham def-ence with a beautiful dummy.
Moments of opportunity, however, were rare. With Kewell often dropping deep and Birmingham playing a 4-2-3-1 formation that became 4-5-1 when they had to defend, midfield was a crowded place.
Prolonged passing movements were impossible and chances tended to arise from mistakes.
Djimi Traoré played an obvious pass from the edge of his own area and Damien Johnson intercepted to feed Izzet, who crossed early to the near post, where Heskey, attempting to divert the ball past Kirkland, sent it spiralling high into the stand.
Another mishap, this time involving Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia, allowed Izzet in on Kirkland but the goalkeeper raced out to block. Moments before Izzet defended García’s shot with his elbow, the midfielder also blocked a shot from Carragher on the line, but it was Liverpool’s only real attempt to equalise. “Steve Bruce has got a big, fat head,” the Kop had chortled while Birmingham struggled earlier in the game, but they had long since stopped laughing by the end.