Liverpool pay for lazy ways

Charlton 3 Liverpool 2: As expected, one man's speed, opportunism and incisive finishing decided yesterday's match here. Yet the player concerned was not Liverpool's Michael Owen but Kevin Lisbie of Charlton Athletic.

When the relative qualities of Premiership strikers are discussed the name of Lisbie is unlikely to jostle for attention with the likes of Owen, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer or any one of Chelsea's expensive marksmen. Yesterday, however, the 24-year-old completed a hat-trick with the aplomb of a seasoned international.

Before this victory Charlton had won only once at The Valley in seven months and when the game moved into the last 10 minutes it looked as if their chance of ending the barren sequence had gone. Having recovered to lead at half-time after Vladimir Smicer's early goal, Charlton conceded a needless penalty from which Owen gave Liverpool a platform for victory.

Lisbie, however, simply refused to leave centre stage. Having scored twice he had the confidence of a forward who suspected this was his day, a suspicion which was not unfounded.

The Liverpool centre-backs Sami Hyypia and Igor Biscan, a midfielder filling in for the injured Stephane Henchoz, became mesmerised whenever Lisbie ran at them. And they looked glassy-eyed when his most spectacular dash decided the contest eight minutes from the end.

Having gained possession just inside the Charlton half, Lisbie set off for goal with the defence retreating. As he approached the penalty area Claus Jensen was available to his left but Lisbie had only one aim in mind. Again his aim proved true, a well-struck shot placed beyond Jerzy Dudek into the far corner of the net. "I've been practising those," said Lisbie. He has now scored five times in three matches, having previously averaged one goal in 10.

Charlton's fans are generally fair-minded but earlier this season they had been taking out their disappointment at the team's indifferent start on Lisbie. "Fans look for a scapegoat," said manager Alan Curbishley, but it is safe to assume that Lisbie is no longer the fall guy.

When Smicer put them ahead on the quarter-hour, timing his run to perfection as he gathered a through pass from Harry Kewell and surged through a large gap to flick the ball past the advancing Dean Kiely, another comfortable win for Liverpool seemed likely. Certainly Liverpool felt so and this contributed to their undoing. Their football became leisurely. Too often they gave the ball away in their own half and growing evidence of Lisbie's capacity for causing problems on the break was ignored.

On the half-hour a vague square pass from Hyypia was smartly intercepted by Graham Stuart, who sent Lisbie clear. Keeping his head and his balance the striker lifted the ball past Dudek, who had raced towards the penalty arc to meet the danger, and Charlton were in the match for the first time. There they stayed. Four minutes before half-time, following Jensen's corner, the ball bobbed from the heads of Emile Heskey and Mark Fish to Shaun Bartlett, whose shot was blocked by Dudek only for Lisbie to put Charlton in front from the rebound.

The Valley was still rubbing its eyes when Liverpool drew level six minutes into the second half. As Heskey went for Steve Finnan's centre, Chris Perry, who had been allowing Owen few glimpses of goal, grabbed the bigger man's shoulder and Rob Styles's penalty decision brooked no argument.

Neither did Owen's penalty and as Liverpool at last shared the urgency which previously only the busy Kewell had provided, Charlton's hopes of repeating last season's victory over Gerard Houllier's team started to fade.

Kiely was now the more active goalkeeper yet the unbalanced state of Liverpool's defence and midfield still threatened to be their undoing. Lacking Dietmar Hamann, they played Steven Gerrard in front of their back four, which cost them attacking momentum when they needed it most without providing an answer to Lisbie's pace.

This is what ultimately cost them a match they needed to win to strengthen their credentials as serious title contenders. On Saturday, Arsenal visit Anfield for a match described by Houllier as "make or break for us after what happened today".

Houllier was clearly disappointed with yesterday's performance. "As a team we could have done better defensively," he said, "and we owed it to our fans to get a better result." Certainly Kewell did his utmost, hitting a post in stoppage-time, but the day belonged to Charlton - and especially Lisbie.