Crystal Palace ... 0 Liverpool ... 0: Again Liverpool are seeking solace in the cups for their disappointments in the Premiership. Already in the final of the League Cup and the fourth round of the UEFA Cup, they should now reach the last 16 of the FA Cup by beating Crystal Palace in a replay at Anfield following yesterday's scoreless, guileless tie. From David Lacey at Selhurst Park.
To do so, however, Gerard Houllier's team will need to show considerably more inventiveness and imagination than they achieved against a Palace defence which, while it rode its luck at times, was soundly and sensibly organised and, in Hayden Mullins, possessed the game's outstanding player.
The 23-year-old was asked by Trevor Francis to operate as a libero on the right-hand side of a back three, keep a weather eye out for Michael Owen and deal with anything else that came his way. This he did to such effect that Owen turned past him only once while Emile Heskey's best shooting chance was smothered by Mullins's slick interception.
Had Steven Gerrard and Danny Murphy managed to find Owen and Heskey with more profound, more penetrating passes then even Mullins might have been outrun and outmanoeuvred. Liverpool's football, however, still lacks the width and the wit to break down opponents who hustle them in midfield and deny them space in the approaches to goal.
Their wide men yesterday were El-Hadji Diouf and Bruno Cheyrou, neither of whom was able to stretch Palace sufficiently to create the spaces that Gerrard and Owen are so adept at exploiting. Diouf's insistence on moving inside to take on opponents when he might have centred to better effect simply added to the crowded middle while Cheyrou's crosses often lacked quality.
The result apart, the best thing Liverpool took from the match was a sign of Jerzy Dudek regaining his confidence in goal after a series of howlers had persuaded Houllier to replace him with Chris Kirkland. Not that the Pole reappeared in the happiest of circumstances.
Dudek's unscheduled return followed an ugly collision between Kirkland and Dele Adebola midway through the first half. The burly Palace striker pushed the ball past the Liverpool defence then hurtled after it and was only thwarted by Kirkland's courage in throwing himself at Adebola's feet. Sami Hyypia cleared off the line after Andrew Johnson had reached the loose ball.
The Liverpool goalkeeper was taken to Croydon's Mayday Hospital with injuries to his head and, more seriously, his right knee, which will be scanned for possible cruciate ligament damage today, but he was back in time to catch the Liverpool coach home.
If Palace hoped that the substitute would continue to regard the ball as a ticking bomb they were disappointed. Dudek caught everything with aplomb and when Tony Popovic met Tommy Black's corner with a firm downward header at the start of the second half he made a nerveless save.
Had Popovic achieved better direction with a similar header five minutes from the end Liverpool might now be out of the FA Cup. This time the chance was set up by a free-kick from Danny Granville, one of the Palace substitutes, and again Popovic glanced the ball down only to see it ricochet over the bar off Heskey's foot.
Francis clearly believed that Tommy Black's close control and his willingness to take the ball past opponents would disrupt Liverpool. But the days when small, one-trick footballers like Black can pull rabbits out of hats against Premiership defenders are long gone.
Liverpool did come closer to taking the lead but only after a mix-up in the Crystal Palace defence just before the hour found Julian Gray beating the advancing Alex Kolinko with a back-pass that rolled a fraction wide of his own left-hand post. That would have been a poor way for Liverpool to win - though infinitely preferable to the chore of a replay.
Guardian Service
CRYSTAL PALACE: Kolinko, Fleming, Symons, Popovic, Butterfield, Mullins, Derry, Gray (Granville 81), Black (Routledge 65), Adebola (Akinbiyi 74), Johnson. Subs Not Used: Berthelin, Borrowdale. Booked: Fleming.
LIVERPOOL: Kirkland (Dudek 25), Carragher, Hyypia, Traore, Riise, Murphy, Gerrard, Cheyrou (Diao 90), Diouf (Biscan 85), Owen, Heskey. Subs Not Used: Baros, Mellor. Booked: Carragher, Cheyrou.
Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).
