Murphy on spot to punish United
'It was a great performance and a great result against a great team,' Gérard Houllier said. He was only about one-third right, but no one was quibbling on a day when Liverpool displayed a greater desire than United. Houllier was on safer ground when dedicating the victory to the supporters. 'We all needed this. We have felt a bit sad and sorry for our fans in the last few weeks,' he said.
This might have been the first game between these two clubs to kick off at three o'clock on a Saturday since the FA Cup final of 1996, but regardless of title aspirations or television interest there will always be an edge to the North-West derby. It is not mere parochialism, either; London dominance has been the exception rather than the rule in the past three or four decades and for most of that time the top dog in this rivalry has been the best team in the country. So while United fans enjoyed chanting 'Fourteen years' at the visiting supporters, reminding them how long it has been since a title went to Anfield, Sir Alex Ferguson was big enough to admit in the programme that Liverpool's former excellence was the main reason why Old Trafford endured 26 years without a championship.
As long as Liverpool continue to play Michael Owen on his own up front, there is little chance of them recapturing past glories and arguably they prospered here only because Ryan Giggs had another off day and Louis Saha was effectively alone up front for United. Owen notionally had Harry Kewell in support, although these days support from the Australian can be very notional indeed. Owen escaped in the 14th minute to catch out Tim Howard and roll the ball across the face of goal, but neither Kewell nor anyone else in a white shirt was near enough to take advantage.
Lacking Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Scholes, United did not offer much more of a goal threat. Giggs ran purposefully past Sami Hyypia and then Stéphane Henchoz, only to see his shot on the run sail into the crowd, then Saha used his pace to get behind the Liverpool defence but chose the wrong option when checking to square a pass to the marked Darren Fletcher.
The home side briefly looked better when Ronaldo was restored to his rightful position on the right wing in the second half, though the youngster's urgency was in marked contrast to the lethargy of his team-mates. Perhaps sensing United were not over-interested, Liverpool stole an unlikely lead. Vladimir Smicer replaced the anonymous Steve Finnan and immediately began finding space and linking with his front players. United had the briefest of warnings when Howard hesitated under a Danny Murphy cross and had to be rescued by Roy Keane, but there was nothing he could do a minute later when Steven Gerrard stormed past him into the penalty area to be floored by a clumsy tackle by Gary Neville. United's complaints about the penalty were token and Murphy scored with surprising calmness from the spot, considering Liverpool had missed their last three penalty kicks, to become the first visiting player to do so in the league since Ruel Fox 10 years ago.
Cue a United reshuffle and an increasingly desperate assault on Jerzy Dudek's goal. But though Giggs struck a post and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Saha went close, there was no late face-saver. United are supposed to be at their best when chasing a game; Liverpool weren't falling for that one either. 'It wasn't a great performance,' Ferguson said. 'We had the chances to win, but we couldn't make the goalkeeper work and that was disappointing.'
