Full time: Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0

Glenn Roeder said:

"We were disappointed to come in a goal down at half-time.

"For all Liverpool's pressure I thought we defended well but their goal was a shocking one for us tactically."

On Harper:

"Steve is distraught, because he is a top-class pro.

He thinks he has let the lads down, but he hasn't. If Alonso wasn't so wonderfully technical skilled, he wouldn't have hit the target. I don't think the average supporter would appreciate how difficult that is — a marvellous strike.

"It was a brilliant bit of skill but having said that if Steve hadn't slipped it would have been a great long pass into his arms."

Coach Terry McDermott spoke later about his post-match tunnel spat with Bellamy:

"I was upset that we had lost the game in the way we did. I was talking to the referee at the edge of the tunnel when Bellamy appeared on the scene and suddenly started calling me names.

"I thought he was just joking and I put my arm around him, but he kept calling me names and that’s when it all kicked off. I had my say and when he got to the top of the stairs he started shouting at me again, but, of course, he had security guards around him. I was talking to the referee. It had nothing to do with anyone else and I take exception to little upstarts like him.”

"I do not like it when people like to think they are bigger than clubs. When he was at Newcastle, he thought he was a big cheese. When he went to Blackburn, he caused trouble there. Everywhere he has been he has been in bother and it is all starting again at Liverpool.”

Rafael Benitez said:

"We showed that we can play good football, we can create chances and score some goals.

"Maybe we deserved one or two more goals but at the end of the day we got one very good score and one amazing goal.

"I think he (Alonso) played well but I was thinking of telling him off because I was watching Gerrard running forward out wide.

"He could have passed it but in the end it was great vision and congratulations. He practises it all the time and I am always telling him to be careful when shooting from distance.

"I am pleased with the number of chances we created and defensively it was another clean sheet as well. It is important to have clean sheets, like last season. Clean sheets are not just for defenders they are for the team.

"We created many chances and I think our supporters enjoyed the game tonight."

Out of everything that went on here tonight, the moment that this game will forever be remembered for was almost the least important part of proceedings.

Steve Harper may have fallen victim to a long-range strike, but only the most optimistic of Toon fans would have believed that him saving it would have helped us earn anything out of the game.

The only late United revival here in living memory here came in 2002 and was inspired by two Newcastle players who were present here almost exactly four years after.

However, Alan Shearer was sitting in the Director's Box, while Craig Bellamy was in the colours of the home side. 

And by the time Alonso doubled Liverpool's lead, their replacements in the black and white were well on the way to emulating our habitual Anfield underachievement: having failed to collect 34 of the last 36 possible points up for grabs here.

Comparing this game to our Sunday success, the two main factors that differed were the better quality defenders placed in the path of Martins and more significantly the backup and service he received from his own midfield.

Quite simply Duff and Emre were missing in action, meaning Parker was too busy fighting fires to think about any forward forays. 

We've found it hard enough to scrape anything from this place with eleven men - having more passengers than the Shiel Road Circular here was never going to result in a satisfactory conclusion.

That said, we did at least try to make a game of it and although we got nothing from our three penalty shouts, that did mean that we'd got as far as the Liverpool box on those occasions - something we hardly threatened to do in last season's Boxing Day surrender.

We also ended this game with a full complement of players for a change - although that was due to the referee failing to see Babayaro's first half run-in with Kuyt, for which he later received a three-match ban after video evidence was studied.

So often in these matches we seem to start reasonably well and hold our own (whatever that means)  before conceding a relatively soft goal which we never look remotely like coming back from.

Unfortunately this was to be yet another one of those occasions, with Liverpool moving the ball across the field more rapidly and precisely, but never quite coming up with the end product in the form of a defence-splitting ball - Gerrard especially looking off-colour and not as dominant as might have been expected.

On another night, at another ground and with another official we could have been handed a penalty, the conversion of which could have radically changed the complexion of the match and dented what seems to be a fragile confidence in this team.

However in the absence of gifts of that nature, we proved unable to put together anything that tested the suspect Reina between the posts - despite some good work by Shola in dealing with high balls under pressure and Milner's efforts at making headway down the right flank.

For Martins though this was a step backwards from his previous game.
 
From a neutral perspective, the comparison between the strikers that United looked at and then bought was obvious - a look at the scorers list the most tangible.

Kuyt profited from a modicum of service and could have scored at least once more - while Martins barely featured and looked slightly overawed. 

The real strength of Liverpool though came in the closing stages when they had the luxury of bringing England's current goalscoring sensation Peter Crouch off the bench - and not evening selecting Fowler in the 16.

By contrast we could only call upon Sibierski and the borrowed Rossi - who was predictably booed for his affiliation to the side down the East Lancs Road. And don't forget that we can't even utilise the latter in our next away game at the Theatre of Nightmares.   

Had we been offered two draws from trips to West Ham and Liverpool on the back of the Fulham home defeat, then we'd have not in a position to refuse. As it is we're a point better off thanks to a win and a defeat.

Losing here never gets any easier, but we'd be lying if we said we were particularly shocked - a situation that is likely to be repeated a week on Sunday.

We now move on to the home meeting against the other half of the Merseyside duo, needing points and a performance to reassure those who didn't witness the good points of the West Ham display. 

Goalkeeping isn't a concern, but defending against Johnson and battling in the midfield against Cahill & Co. most definitely is.  

Biffa

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