Anfield steps back in time

Liverpool - 1 Blackburn - 1:English Premiership: For Liverpool, with self-doubt stifling their style and the derision of those on the Kop still ringing in their ears, the gloom simply deepens. Gerard Houllier awakes this morning with his club's worst league sequence for almost half a century weighing heavy on his shoulders. It is 55 days since Liverpool tasted Premiership success, when victory over West Ham established a seven-point advantage at the top to stretch their best Premiership start to a season.

Such heady optimism is a fading memory. Nine points adrift of Arsenal with a pitiful three to show from eight matches, Liverpool wallow in bitter under-achievement. Back in 1953, their slump saw them tumble out of the top flight; such ignominy will not be repeated this time but, undermined by Andy Cole's late equaliser, abject frustration engulfs one half of Merseyside.

"I thought this was going to be the scruffy 1-0 I was looking for to shrug us out of this run, but there you go," muttered Houllier, his side's advantage gleaned early on through John Arne Riise's deflected strike. It was surrendered because of his team's tentative showing after the interval.

"It's a fair result because we sat back. It's frustrating and that's affected the morale. You get stronger or you sink in a run like this, but I trust my team, I believe in them, and trust will replace the helplessness that we feel at the moment. We have to be patient."

Yet trips to Arsenal and Newcastle loom large, so a 10-match winless streak could become grim reality. Time is against the Frenchman. For once, though, luck was not.

Blackburn opened with some pizzazz, and, though that slowly dissipated, their midfielder Tugay Kerimoglu was increasingly influential and the visitors should have equalised before Cole collected Stephane Henchoz's attempted clearance and dispatched a 30-yard volley that dipped over Chris Kirkland for parity.

That was his fifth goal in six games, though he should have had others. Early in the second half, the striker chested Martin Taylor's pass into the path of Egil Ostenstad only for Cole to slice his shot crudely wide. Seconds later, Taylor crossed and the former Manchester United striker flicked a header over the bar with Kirkland grounded.

"Over the last five or six weeks, Andy's been outstanding," said a delighted Graeme Souness. "He's now fully match fit in terms of sharpness, and that's everything for a striker. To come here and get something is great, but we bossed the second half and showed some resilience."

Not that they had been as convincing while Liverpool swarmed forward in the opening half-hour. With Steven Gerrard buzzing, the English Football Association's video panel's imminent verdict on his two-footed lunge at Gary Naysmith not playing too much on his mind, the home side had been irrepressible.

Their urgency earned them the lead when Danny Murphy dispossessed Taylor and fed Michael Owen, whose pass was gathered by Riise and hammered, via Lucas Neill's involuntary touch, beyond Brad Friedel.

Yet that breathless start was not maintained, the chances choked thereafter with only the substitute Milan Baros mustering an attempt to force Friedel into action. Indeed, only once the lead had been overhauled did the home side stir again.

Some 96 seconds into stoppage time, Riise wriggled beyond a trio of panicked challenges down the left and fired across the area where Owen, presented with his only clear-cut opportunity, was ill-prepared in the six-yard box. Such is Liverpool's lot these days, few of those

meandering towards the exits seemed surprised.

Guardian Service

LIVERPOOL: Kirkland, Carragher, Henchoz, Hyypia, Traore (Diouf 83), Smicer (Biscan 65), Murphy, Gerrard, Riise, Heskey (Baros 59), Owen. Subs Not Used: Diao, Arphexad. Booked: Traore. Goals: Riise 17.

BLACKBURN: Friedel, Neill, Taylor, Short, Johansson (Ostenstad 52), Thompson, Flitcroft, Tugay, Duff, Cole, Yorke. Subs Not Used: Kelly, Todd, Curtis, Danns. Booked: Neill. Goals: Cole 77.

Referee: N Barry (N Lincolnshire).