Liverpool fail to work the oracle at Oriel

PATIENCE may be a virtue, and a valuable one to possess in football, but, let's face it, once in a while we can all have too much of a good thing. Here was a game in which, until two minutes from the end, there was virtually nothing between the teams and while in normal circumstances most people like nothing better than a local success story, the majority of the 6,000 spectators at Oriel Park had clearly come yesterday in the hope of seeing the visitors make a spectacle of their part time hosts.

To be fair, however, after 10 minutes or so of the second half even the most diehard Red would probably have settled for a spectacle of any sort, but what we got instead was a lot of prodding the odd break into the box and alas a great many square balls around a midfield which neither side showed much interest in pressing forward from.

Liverpool did have the lion's share of the possession but what they did with most of it would hardly have inspired much awe in any of their major Premiership rivals and in a first half almost entirely devoid of excitement it was only really when Phil Babb pushed up from the back and sent Stig Bjornbye towards the corner, that Roy Evans's side ever seemed likely to threaten.

On the rare occasions that they did come within shooting distance of Les Fridge's goal Stephen Napier did particularly well to smother the danger, while the Scottish goalkeeper himself looked solid enough when called on to gather whatever half hearted attempts on goal bobbled his way.

Lee Jones did little to further his pursuit of a regular first team place but, with Stan Collymore not quite fully fit and Mark Kennedy still a couple of weeks off his best, Evans persisted with him to the end and, for his trouble, got to see the youngster squander far more than his fair share of the chances his side enjoyed.

Speaking afterwards, Evans put his side's lack of success up front down to Dundalk's tight defensive work and there was no doubt that with the likes of Bobby Browne, Declan Roche and player manager John Hewitt all prepared to drop back very deep to give a dig out, there was very little room to move but there was always the suspicion that, even a couple of weeks before the season is due to get properly under way, Michael Thomas, Robbie Fowler or Steve McManaman could have given their supporters a good deal closer to their money's worth by turning on a bit of style.

Of the three it was McManaman who did produce the occasional spark, showing a willingness here and there to take on players and look for the chance to shoot. With his usually sharp understanding with Fowler still some way short of being back to telepathic after the summer break, though, there was rarely much support there to help him on his way.

Just before the interval McManaman did test the Dundalk goalkeeper but the shot was so long in coming that the English international might as well have advertised it in the Echo prior to his departure for Ireland and well placed as it was towards the bottom right hand corner, Fridge got down well to push it wide.

With Brian Byrne causing, for a while at least, Mark Wright problems down the left in the second period, Dundalk began to enjoy a couple of strong spells and while Roche's 49th minute effort was wildly off the mark, Byrne did well himself to get into the box before pushing the ball a yard wide of the right hand post

Better was to come in the form of Joe Gallen's strike in the 68th minute when the Dundalk striker robbed Thomas and forced a decent save from Tony Warner but, realistically, even then an upset never seriously appeared to be on the cards.

In fact, a draw seemed almost inevitable until McManaman picked up his very late winner. But if the well taken strike from a dozen yards spared a few blushes on his own side it angered some of the local players with Hewitt insisting that the opportunity had originally been created out of a body check on Napier by Jones.

The dispute, like the match itself, mattered little in the end and the goal at least sent a few more home with smiles on their faces than might otherwise have been the case. They had seen a Dundalk team do well but, as usual, looked as though they could be out there for a month without scoring.

When it matters a bit more there seems no doubt that Liverpool will do plenty of that, but for those who yesterday paid more than it costs to get into Anfield for a competitive tie, it was certainly a pity that they didn't feel this was a good time to start getting in some practise.