Red mist no help to Liverpool

Bolton 2 Liverpool 2Liverpool ended this angry mishmash of a contest tearing furiously into wheezing opponents, though it was the ferocity of the emotions generated by a tempestuous afternoon which took the breath away. Amid the accusations delivered after the final whistle, it was easy to forget that the European champions' momentum had been checked. Chelsea are 17 points away this morning, though that only partly explains Rafael Benitez's less than festive humour.

The afternoon ended with the managers attacking the performance of referee Mark Clattenburg while offering withering assessments of their opponents' part in the furore.

Benitez began with a public criticism of Clattenburg, though the inference of his observations was that Wanderers' spiky approach and eagerness to tumble had gone unpunished.

"When you see players diving all the time . . . you know they like free-kicks," growled Benitez. "They like to stop the game. You can use all the tactics you want but it depends whether you are allowed to get away with them or not. But it's easy to see who was diving. Everybody in England knows but someone (Clattenburg) maybe doesn't."

That rather cryptic comment referred to the visitors' principal irritation, El Hadji Diouf. Liverpool already had good reason to revile their one-time £9.5m signing, though the enmity in which they hold the player who was sold at a fraction of the price last summer is much deeper this morning. If Jamie Carragher never saw eye to eye with Diouf when they were team-mates; as rivals he accused the Senegalese of diving in the first half and appeared to clout a loose ball at the striker in his frustration.

Mohamed Sissoko, over-eager in the tackle all afternoon, went further on the stroke of half-time by plunging his foot in on Diouf, prone on the turf, supposedly to regain possession. That went unpunished, though the Mali international was later booked for chopping down his tormentor -in-chief.

Allardyce was more enamoured with the sight of his striker converting Kevin Davies's cross after 72 minutes, which briefly restored Wanderers' lead.

The Bolton boss had been furious at what he perceived to be a stamp from Steven Gerrard on his own captain, Kevin Nolan, as well as the non-award of a first-half penalty. That Gerrard, supplied by a wondrous pass from Harry Kewell, had earned and converted the spot-kick from which the visitors drew level further darkened his mood.

"Kevin Nolan should also have had a penalty when he was tripped by Jamie Carragher because he made no attempt to play the ball, tackling him from behind. Clattenburg is five yards off it and didn't give a thing."

Bolton took an early lead courtesy of a dreadful error from visiting goalkeeper Jose Reina. A Stelios Giannakopoulos free-kick into the area should have been caught, only for the Spaniard to spill under vague pressure from Gary Speed, then fail to retrieve the loose ball. Rahdi Jaidi nodded in from point-blank range.

Liverpool were perhaps guilty of feeling compelled to try to beat Bolton at their own physical game. Even on a quagmire of a pitch, Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia did enough in the last quarter to suggest they might have flourished from the start.

Alonso supplied the winger with a stunning crossfield pass seven minutes from time which Garcia chested back inside Ricardo Gardner before ripping a second equaliser beyond Jussi Jaaskelainen at his near post.

Substitute Djibril Cisse headed against the post as Liverpool chased a late winner. The final whistle saw swirling fog descending on the stadium though, long before the end, the red mist had set in.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, O'Brien, Jaidi, N'Gotty, Gardner, Faye, Nolan, Giannakopoulos, Speed (Fadiga 90), Diouf (Ben Haim 83), Davies. Subs Not Used: Borgetti, Vaz Te, Walker. Booked: Faye, Nolan. Goals: Jaidi 10, Diouf 71.

LIVERPOOL: Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore, Gerrard, Hamann (Alonso 64), Sissoko (Cisse 83), Kewell, Sinama Pongolle (Luis Garcia 62), Crouch. Subs Not Used: Riise, Carson. Booked: Crouch, Carragher, Sissoko. Goals: Gerrard 67 pen, Luis Garcia 82.

Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham).