English FA Premiership: Rafael Benitez, optimistically viewing Liverpool's season, said that "after the storm, there is always the sun". That was before the manager experienced sleet driving across the ground and a Birmingham team revelling in the wintry conditions.
After watching his side so badly fluff their lines in their 10th Premiership defeat of the season, Benitez more understandably faltered over his English, though he seemed to have the hang of "very bad" and "disappointed". But the Spaniard's grave countenance did the work of the dictionary for him.
Incoherent would be the most polite description of their wretched display, one that almost matched the supine performance at Southampton three weeks earlier but had the army of Liverpool media experts vying for the most catchy critical soundbite.
Jerzy Dudek "didn't think it was that bad", but it was a pretty close-run thing. The crestfallen visiting supporters may be heartened to know, according to the Polish goalkeeper, that "there is a very big anger in the team. We'll be on our toes for the next game".
That is at home to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League a week tomorrow, one of three challenges remarkably still open to Liverpool's masters of inconsistency this season. Then, the following weekend, comes the League Cup final. The small matter of pursuing Everton and fourth place goes into cold storage.
Dudek, somewhat optimistically, pointed out that Liverpool "still have Everton at home, and we have many games to catch them". But one of those opportunities to cut the five-point gap on their city rivals passed away here in a haze of confusion.
Steven Gerrard's frustration was palpable. It was as if Liverpool had not heard of James Beattie's lunchtime gift to Chelsea.
Steve Bruce's side seized the opportunity, to the extent that the manager trumpeted it as the best of Birmingham in his two -and-a-half-year reign.
Just as Liverpool mocked their ambitions of fourth place, so Birmingham confounded their ranking in the 2005 Premiership form table - bottom.
In the context of Jermaine Pennant's off-field trauma - he is to be sentenced on March 1st after admitting drink-driving and other motoring offences - the winger's sparkling performance was startling.
Less surprising was the relish with which Emile Heskey confronted his former club and, in particular, Sami Hyypia, a player who looks to be in decline.
It is difficult to gauge what Liverpool will be like at the height of their powers. Because of injuries and suspension, Benitez started with 10 survivors of the Gerard Houllier regime. Managers come and managers go but the Liverpool muddle remains, helped here by the Spaniard's curious formation.
Gerrard, overburdened destructively and creatively, led by example at the start but received little support in his advanced central position, with Dietmar Hamann and Igor Biscan stationed in the deep distance. Milan Baros made little impact in his wide-right position. Fernando Morientes increasingly looked like a man used to playing in better company.
In the adversity of a 2-0 half-time deficit, Benitez progressively changed to 4-4-2. But not until injury-time, when Jamie Carragher's header was cleared off the line by Damien Johnson, was Maik Taylor seriously bothered.
The damage was long done. Heskey, maximising the impact of Hyypia's shoulder pull, went down for the penalty, which was dispatched confidently and fiercely by Walter Pandiani. Seven minutes later a beautifully flighted cross from Pennant was volleyed in at the far post by Julian Gray, his first Birmingham goal.
So they completed the double over Liverpool, an achievement that Heskey admitted he would not have believed last summer. "I hope they get the Champions League place," he added, "and I think they will." It was a charitable assessment.
