THE journalist who boldly sought to swim against a prevailing tide by asking Roy Evans what he thought of Blackburn Rovers' claim for a penalty kick fared no better than had the Liverpool forwards. They ended up with nothing more than a berating, so did he, it was just that sort of day.
The Liverpool manager, rather like one of his predecessors, Bob Paisley, does find it exceedingly difficult to mask his emotions. For good or for bad when asked a straight question, he responds with a straight answer, something which he invariably punctuates by way of a constant shrugging of the shoulders.
"Not to have scored after creating all those chances - maybe 15 good ones - is crazy," he said. "We just didn't finish the job. You can't really do any more than create loads of chances."
Well, you could take them. For once this was not a case managerial hyperbole or callous over exaggeration; this was no smoke screen. It was the truth, Liverpool did actually squander chance after chance, from first minute to last, when Matteo set the cross bar rattling with a venomous header, Blackburn clung on by their fingertips, fearing that the slender thread which bound them to an undeserved point would fray at any moment.
Liverpool couldn't even use the traditional excuse that the better openings fell to the wrong feet for whether the cross was delivered from left or right, by Bjornebye or McAteer, the ball slipped obligingly into the path of Fowler. "I doubt Robbie will ever miss that number of chances in one game again," groaned Evans, shoulders rising and falling rhythmically.
At least in twice striking the woodwork Fowler had the good grace to break sweat, something his partner Collymore never once threatened to do. Still, lest we should forget, big Stan had scored twice against Leeds United earlier in the week and to expect him to come up with two significant contributions in the space of three days was to ask for too much.
You don't get much for £8.5 million these days. Ironically, the journalist was right to invade Evans's private grief with his indelicate question for Blackburn probably should have had a penalty just before the hour when Liverpool goalkeeper James clambered all over Gallacher in his haste to collect the ball.
"Yes, we could have had a spot kick but I don't want to say too much because, after all, the referee did give us a couple of throw ins during the 90 minutes," said Tony Parkes, Blackburn's caretaker manager and the premiership's most amusing raconteur.
Those Blackburn fans who arrived at Anfield armed with leaflets demanding that their club's hierarchy either shape up or ship out may find it difficult to resists the temptation to pick up a telephone this morning. The man enveloped by their vitriol on Saturday was chairman Robert Coar, a decent enough bloke but too trusting by half.
Coar, you may remember, is the one who spent much of last summer telling the world Alan Shearer would definitely be remaining at Ewood Park and much of the last month telling those who would listen that Sven Goran Eriksson would be arriving at Ewood Park.
Well, Shearer went and Eriksson isn't coming. A call to Coar's office this morning may confirm that Blackburn did in fact win this game.
