What a pity it was that Glenn Hoddle chose not to attend the one fixture which would have served to confirm that his pre-Christmas debunking of Liverpool's Michael Owen was even more nonsensical than it might first have seemed. Owen didn't play on Saturday and that's the point.
The teenage striker whom Hoddle chose to publicly admonish for having the temerity to say he hoped to win a place in his country's squad for next summer's World Cup Finals in France, succumbed to food poisoning shortly before kick-off. Owen should have attended.
He would have felt right at home for Anfield was awash with bad tastes in seething mouths as the sunlight slipped away behind fast-emptying stands. Could it really be that an unpolished gem who has only recently celebrated his coming of age and who did not place a shaving kit on Santa's list, is now the pivotal figure, the most trusted component, at a club of such enormous stature? Quite possibly.
It is an illogical conclusion to draw but, in fact, a compelling argument to proffer as an excuse for a disgracefully inept performance which, even in these days of outrageous inconsistency, almost beggared belief. The Coventry City manager Gordon Strachan tried damned hard not to gloat afterwards but he was last seen being ferried towards Liverpool's Royal Hospital to have the smile removed form his face.
Strachan delivered his postmatch analysis attired in track suit and trainers. A stickler for excellence in sartorial matters, the wee man looked rather embarrassed.
"I brought my club suit with me but forgot my shoes" he said. So did Liverpool. Of course, as Roy Evans's reign crawls - on its belly - towards its inevitable end, the surprise is that this really was no surprise at all. Many still cling to the belief that everyone at Liverpool is an immortal, a hero, but now is the time to wake up and smell the coffee.
If Evans could trust his players to perform when asked to so do, rather than only when it suits them, they would not be readying an office for him in some quiet wing of a club, the well-being of which he holds so dear. Some, indeed, on this evidence, most of his players are just not good enough.
The agony is that, you suspect, Evans knows it too. The prize for worst contributor was eventually taken by hapless defender Bjorn Tore Kvarme, but it was a mightily close run thing with all manner of contenders until very late on.
Liverpool play Newcastle United in a League Cup tie on Wednesday and Evans could safely remove five, possibly six, of this lot from the team he will usher out on Tyneside and still, surely, find himself overwhelmed by the improvement in attitude and application. As usual, Paul Ince turned nasty and competitive when it was too late.
As usual, Jason McAteer took absolute delight in reminding us all that footballers have IQs to match their boot size. As always Karl Heinz Riedle fell about like - well, like ageing German strikers do. Evans probably thumbed through the official "FA Cup upset excuse book" before wisely going for the Honest-Joe-betrayed-by-others approach. "No complaints at all; we never got a grip on the game even when a goal in front," he said, his commendable honesty in stark contrast to the traitorous antics of those who were truly responsible.
"We were poor today and we were careless. It's back to the drawing board - again," he added. Good on you, Roy. Now, do the decent thing. Drag the principal offenders into a darkened room and welcome them to the wonderful world of Pontins League reserve football.
Coventry actually deserved far, far more than a win of great comfort for they were magnificent in recovering from the early setback of seeing Jamie Redknapp drill in a low free kick.
Darren Huckerby and Dion Dublin tore through Kvarme and his fellow incompetents impressively and often, and it was their goals, on the stroke of half time, and midway through the second period, which removed the joint favourites from this season's competition.
Paul Telfer added a third as the clock ran down, but by that point the shameful surrender of the Liverpool players was all but complete and the desertion of their supporters well under way.
LIVERPOOL: James, Kvarme (Murphy 81), McAteer, McManaman, Leonhardsen (Berger 62), Fowler, Redknapp, Harkness, Riedle, Ince, Matteo. Subs Not Used: Babb, Carragher, Friedel. Booked: Leonhardsen, Harkness, Ince. Goals: Redknapp 7.
COVENTRY CITY: Hedman, Shaw, Burrows, Williams, Breen, Huckerby, Whelan, Dublin, Telfer, Boateng, Hall. Subs Not Used: Ogrizovic, Soltvedt, Boland, Haworth, Shilton. Booked: Telfer, Burrows, Williams, Whelan. Goals: Huckerby 45, Dublin 62, Telfer 87.
Referee: M A Riley (Leeds).
