Benitez believes title challenge still on course

SOCCER: Liverpool threw away more points at home last night but boss Rafael Benitez still maintained that their title challenge was on course.

Everton's deserved 1-1 draw at Anfield in the 209th Merseyside derby means the Reds have now drawn five matches at home this term, dropping 10 points in the process.

And the draw means that Manchester United are still top of the Barclays Premier League, equal on points with Liverpool but with a game in hand.

Tim Cahill's late headed equaliser stopped Liverpool going top, and stopped them completing a league double over their bitterest rivals for the second season on the trot.

Benitez said: "We are not feeling the pressure, and we must look at the positives.

"We are disappointed we did not win. But we are equal with Manchester United in January, we are still in the Champions League and we can make amends for this draw if we win the FA Cup tie against Everton on Sunday.

"And the players still believe they can mount a title challenge."

Liverpool felt they were on the way to victory after captain Steven Gerrard's 14th goal of the season 22 minutes from time.

Benitez said: "You are not suffering from pressure after leading until three minutes from time and controlling most of the second half.

"It is not pressure to be level on points with Manchester United in January.

"We are disappointed with how we defended against that late free-kick, and disappointed with giving a free-kick away at that stage so close to our box. It could have been avoided."

Yossi Benayoun had needlessly conceded that free-kick for a foul on Victor Anichebe.

"I will have to look at that incident again, but we had talked about not conceding free-kicks in that sort of area because Everton's set-plays are good,” added the manager.

"But we are still level with United and we know we can play better. We will improve as we get more of our injured players back, we still believe we can challenge for the title."

Everton boss David Moyes believed that his side deserved their goal and the hard-earned point.

It extended Everton's run to seven games unbeaten, and Moyes said: "We showed what we have been doing now for a few weeks. We played with confidence and a draw was certainly a fair result.

"Maybe we could have had a penalty just before they scored, that was disappointing. We were still appealing for the penalty when Liverpool broke away and we allowed Steven Gerrard to walk into midfield and score.

"We turned off at that moment. We lost our concentration after not getting the penalty, and Liverpool took advantage."

Moyes refused to condemn referee Howard Webb for the decision not to award a spot-kick for Martin Skrtel's push on Anichebe.

Moyes said: "The referee had a very good game. There was a couple of penalty shouts at each end he didn't give them. I am more concerned with how we turned off at the moment we were denied a possible penalty rather than with the referee's decision."

But Moyes hailed his players for their spirited performance. He said: "Liverpool have been buying players to win titles, we are not in that league.

"But we have showed the stability there is at our club, and how far we have come in the last few years. We were able to give Liverpool a really good game on their own pitch and we deserved the point, we earned it."