Preston NE 0 Liverpool 2:THE BIG question, as Fernando Torres raced half the length of the pitch to accept a complimentary tap-in in the last seconds of stoppage time, was whether Steven Gerrard would have passed the ball had it been Robbie Keane bursting to get on the scoresheet.

The answer is probably yes, the Liverpool captain being the caring, sharing type, though whether Keane would have accepted the opportunity is another matter entirely.

From a couple of yards out he could hardly have missed, yet so shot was his confidence after an agonising 73 minutes on the field it would not have been a total surprise to see him trip over his feet or bobble the ball over the bar.

By the 93rd minute it was academic anyway, Keane having been hauled off to ponder his latest setback from the stands as Torres gingerly felt his way back to fitness on the pitch, but the fact that Liverpool were hanging on grimly so late in the game will weigh heavily on the €20.9 million striker's conscience.

Had Torres been on the pitch from the start, or had Keane shown a fraction of the speed of thought that persuaded Rafa Benitez to buy him, Preston might have been looking forward only to their upcoming grudge match with Burnley by half-time while Liverpool could have been three or four goals to the good and thinking about the short ride home.

Preston were resilient but forgiving opponents. "We're good at getting back into games; as long as we're hanging in we have a chance," Alan Irvine, their manager, said.

But Liverpool cannot harbour hopes of Premier League rivals being so easy-going if they continue to squander most of the opportunities they create.

While Torres's return can only be good news, those who thought Keane had turned a corner were confronted by the reality that he remains stuck in a maze.

There were other less than clinical finishers in red; Ryan Babel wasted a glorious chance to seize a second goal shortly after Albert Riera's solo incursion from the right had opened the scoring and Torres's first effort missed the entire penalty area.

Yet what will haunt Keane is that each of his four clear-cut chances in the first half were set up to be scored with a single touch. Other players had done all the work - Riera, Xabi Alonso and Gerrard, respectively - and each finish was progressively worse.

Tellingly, when the tireless Gerrard presented Keane with perhaps the best opportunity of the lot on the stroke of the interval, he meekly surrendered responsibility by passing square to the less well-placed Riera.

"We know what Robbie can do. The main thing is to continue creating chances," said Liverpool's assistant manager Sammy Lee, with the air of a man repeating a mantra. Perhaps if everyone crosses their fingers and believes hard enough Keane's Anfield career will take flight, though the test will come against teams with more to offer up front than Preston.

"There were a couple of scares near the end. We always seem to find it hard against lower league teams," Jamie Carragher said.

The defender was being generous. Preston hardly created anything, and, when Liverpool's goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri was beaten, Sean St Ledger's header was correctly disallowed for a foul on Carragher by Jon Parkin, even if the home team felt a penalty might have been given when the tussle began seconds earlier.

"I was happy to see Torres on the bench, but I was happy to see him come on as well," Irvine said. "It's great for my players' development to play against all Liverpool's stars, a fantastic education for us."

But Preston were also lucky to escape a lesson they might have found hard to forget.