Honours were even, but the moral victory certainly belonged to the blue third of the city after a tense, hard fought Merseyside derby at Anfield.
Neither team did enough to win, but the visitors came closest to claiming all three points when substitute Rooney (more on him later) turned Sami on the edge of the box before seeing his goalbound shot deflected onto the bar by a last ditch block from the dilligent Henchoz.
Had that shot been a couple of inches lower, then this would have been the most miserable Christmas in a long time. There's still not much to be cheerful about right now, particularly when the table sees us looking UP (!!!!!) at Everton. Don't know when the last time that happened was, but I'm guessing it's at least ten years.
No true red would admit that the blues are a better side than us, and you won't get me saying it either. However, they are above us in the table because they deserve to be, and to say otherwise is wrong. Few would expect them to stay above us of course, but the table doesn't lie and at this moment in time they deserve to be where they are, and we deserve to be where we are. Fair play to them, they've done well, and never looked in any trouble during this game.
And that is what we should be concerned about. We failed to seriously test a defence consisting of the ponderous duo of Stubbs and Weir. Both were outstanding, but given their distinct lack of pace and mobility, surely the superquick strike partnership of Owen and Baros should have had a field day?
That they didn't is partly down to a lack of service, and partly their own doing. It's easy to excuse the strikers by pointing out the lack of through balls, but if they're not getting that kind of service, it's up to them to go looking for the ball, pick it up and start running at their markers. Even the Faroe Islands managed to expose David Weir for God's sake! Baros tried, but was marked very closely, and Owen seemed to lose his footing every time he tried to run with the ball.
It wasn't all bad however, and we did have some bright moments, especially early in the first half, but the longer it went, the more comfortable the blues looked.
Steven Gerrard was the only shining light for the reds, although John Arne Riise was lively in the first half and provided our biggest goal threat. One volley from a well worked corner was simply stunning, and if he'd struck his other opportunities half as well he could have been celebrating a hat-trick.
Gerrard was behind everything good which we put together, and it's lucky he was on form, as there was precious little else on offer from the reds. The tactics were somewhat predictable, and the long ball for Riise to flick on was in evidence far too much. With the blues adopting similar tactics it didn't make for much of a spectacle.
Campbell and Radzinski were anonymous, and had they not been persistently conceding free-kicks by backing into Sami and Steph, few would even have known they were on the field.
Radzinski was involved in the most contentious moment of the first half, when he shoved Henchoz in the back as he challenged for a header. To those blues whinging about why they didn't get a penalty for Steph's handball, THAT is why you didn't get it, and Graeme Poll got it right (not a statement you'll hear me making very often that one!).
Wayne Rooney made more of a contribution to the first half's entertainment than either Campbell or Radzinski, and that was just by warming up on the touchline. He jogged down to the Kop End to a chorus of jeers, and the kid was loving it. I can't remember ever seeing anyone as cocky as Rooney, but to be fair, I found his antics pretty funny. Imagine how we'd feel if it was one of our young lads doing that at the Pit? We'd fucking love it.
Radzinski's anonimity meant that it was only ever a matter of time before the chubby youngster entered the fray, and in truth the game needed something like that to give it a spark, as chances were few and far between.
Just prior to Rooney's arrival, GH made a couple of changes of his own. The game had completely passed by Salif Diao, and Djimi Traore had struggled too, so it was no surprise to see those two derby debutants replaced. On came Heskey and Smicer, and it did make a difference.
Well, Smicer did anyway. Emile contributed little, and this persistant using of him on the left has to stop now. If GH insists on using a striker on the left, then it should be El Hadji Diouf. 'Dioufy' does things which Emile CAN do, but for whatever reason doesn't.
Heskey is good enough, quick enough and strong enough to be able to play on the wing and go past players, and we've seen him do it to great effect in the past. When was the last time though? This season he has been shocking, and simply blaming that on the fact he's been played out of position is letting him off the hook far too easily.
Diouf does all his best work out wide, and deserves a chance to show he can do a better job on the left than Heskey (could he do any worse?). Riise remains the best option, but may be needed at left back, particularly if we want to be more attack minded (which let's face it, we need to be), whilst Stephen Warnock may even get a chance when he regains full fitness after his hamstring trouble.
Riise had been doing ok in midfield against the blues, but Traore's edginess meant that a change had to be made, and the Norwegian was needed at left back. The change stifled him, but at least the defence looked better as a result.
There was more riding on this derby than there has been in a long time. We were desperately in need of a win here. Firstly to end our horrendous run of league results, secondly, to stop the gap between us and the leaders getting any wider, and thirdly, to avoid going into Christmas behind Everton in the table.
For the blues, the incentive of staying ahead of us meant that they'd be putting everything they had and more into this game, so I suppose that it was somewhat inevitable that it would end honours even.
Rooney's introduction sparked the game into life. Within seconds of his arrival he was involved in a clash with Kirkland. Both players chased a through ball, but 'Kirky' just got there first and cleared the ball before colliding with the stocky youngster. Surprisingly, the 6ft 6 keeper came off worst, and was still shaken up when he flapped at a cross about a minute later.
Then there was the moment which could have haunted us for years to come. Rooney created space for himself on the edge of the box, and struck a powerful shot which was destined for the bottom corner until the timely intervention of the lunging Henchoz.
It was only a slight deflection from Steph, but it was enough to divert the ball onto the crossbar, and prevent a certain goal. That's one of the many great thing about Henchoz, whenever there's a block to be made, he's in there flinging himself at the ball. As the song goes, "When they attack, he's always back."
The best the reds could offer in response was a header from Heskey which he put wide. The shirt was being ripped off his back, but he still got there comfortably and should have scored. Then he miscontrolled a glorious through ball from Gerrard because he was more concerned about being clattered by the keeper.
Heskey should have headed that ball, but kept glancing towards Richard Wright to see if he was coming out of his goal, and took his eye off the ball. In American Football, the term for this is 'hearing footsteps' and if Heskey had simply concentrated on the ball and headed it goalwards, chances are he'd have scored.
Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on Emile, but my patience with him has finally run out I'm afraid. I've always tried to defend him, and have gone on record numerous times to state how good I think he COULD (and indeed SHOULD) be, but the player we have now is a pale imitation of the one from the treble season.
He's been linked with Spurs, and be honest, how many of you would turn down any bid of around £10m? Not many, I bet. I wouldn't, that's for sure.
But I digress. It says a lot about how little incident there was in this game, that the main talking point was Stevie G's reckless challenge on Naysmith. I had a great view of it from my seat in the Main Stand, and my initial impression was that Stevie tried to jump over the sliding Naysmith, but misjudged it and landed on him.
Gerrard's reaction seemed to concur with this, as he attempted to explain his innocence to irate Everton players. Having seen the replays, I have to say it was a lot worse than I initially thought, but when Steven says he tried to pull out at the last moment, I believe him. Had he followed right through, Naysmith would not have finished the game.
But nevertheless, it was a bad challenge, and given the FA's history of punishing our players, Gerrard will be lucky to escape a ban. I'm not condoning the challenge, but at least it showed that Stevie has rediscovered that bit of 'devil' again.
He seemed to go into his shell a bit following all the media criticism of him after the Charity Shield (after Wenger's ludicrous outburst), and he had lost some of that competitive edge. Then the rest of his game also went in to decline, but in the last two games we've seen the 'old' Stevie G, and that was pretty much the only thing we could take heart from following this derby stalemate.
Merry Christmas? I'll tell you on Boxing Day!
