Liverpool do just enough to take points

As any self-respecting scouser will tell you, reminiscing is a pastime warmly embraced by the good folk of Merseyside, a region of engaging vibrancy with an inherent fondness for using its recent past as some form of shield against the raft of problems that blight its present and threaten its future.

Even before Liverpool decided to mark so lavishly the 40th anniversary of Bill Shankly's arrival at Anfield from Huddersfield Town, it had already been a fine week for the misty-eyed romantics.

After the renaming of a large ocean-going vessel amid much back-slapping, Paul McCartney reappeared on Mathew Street for a cynical exercise in album-promoting that prompted those in the Cuban heels and collarless jackets to mutter about the dawning of new eras.

It is unclear who was responsible for Saturday's pre-match ballyhoo that saw lauded players of yesteryear marched into the centre circle as the Kop belted out You'll Never Walk Alone, but rest assured the current manager Gerard Houllier had nothing to do with it.

Houllier's team did well to keep their concentration just long enough to see off opponents who would not have been accused of pickpocketing had they lifted a point.

"When you have that sort of celebration beforehand you always run the risk that it will prove to be a distraction," a relieved Houllier said afterwards. "The best way for my players to pay tribute to Bill Shankly was to win the game. They did and everyone is happy." Well, not quite. The Coventry manager Gordon Strachan would question the purity of an angel, but his theory that his team deserved at least a draw held almost enough water to mix with a down-market scotch.

"We were never really out of it," he said. "In the second half we controlled things nicely and dictated the pace." That they did, but dreadful misses by Noel Whelan and Carlton Palmer ultimately determined the outcome of a rather poor game. Liverpool's finishing was altogether sharper, a point underlined by Michael Owen deep into first-half stoppage time.

Owen still lacks the graceful touch that would make him an extraordinary striker, but after turning Gary Breen inside-out with one dip of a dainty shoulder he was away to score smartly from no great distance.

Unlike Owen, Titi Camara rarely delivers anything remotely orthodox and his ferocious, looping drive from 25 yards provided an otherwise tawdry afternoon with a moment of jaw-dropping drama.

The tragic events at the Heysel Stadium and Hillsborough may have served to ridicule Shankly's assertion that football is more important than life and death. But you suspect he would be content to see his old club prospering once again.

LIVERPOOL: Westerveld, Gerrard, Henchoz, Hyypia, Matteo, Thompson (Smicer 36), Hamann, Carragher, Berger, Owen, Camara (Heggem 86), Smicer (Murphy 88). Subs Not Used: Song, Nielsen. Goals: Owen 45, Camara 74.

COVENTRY: Hedman, Telfer, Williams, Breen, Froggatt, Chippo, Palmer, McAllister, Hadji (Normann 74), Keane, Whelan (Roussel 70). Subs Not Used: Eustace, Ogrizovic, Gustafsson. Booked: Keane, Breen.

Referee: A D'urso (Billericay).