Liverpool were unable to halt their alarming run of poor form at Anfield, when they drew with Aston Villa in a game that put the nail in the coffin of their Premiership dreams.
The Reds have not won a Premiership since early November and despite the return of Michael Owen, they were unable to end that run against a battling Villa side. Villa started the brighter and put Chris Kirkland's goal under pressure early on with Dion Dublin scooping over from close range on four minutes and Hyppia clearing off the line from a Lee Hendrie free-kick three minutes later.
The Anfield men soon found their stride though and Enckelman was called into action when Salif Diao's 20-yard drive sent him scrambling. Michael Owen should have perhaps opened the scoring on 24 minutes when Danny Murphy played him through on the left side of the Villa penalty area. Owen moved inside to create an angle for himself, but was only able to find the side-netting when he looked odds-on to score.
Murphy and Gerrard increasingly saw more of the ball and as a result, Liverpool found themselves taking control of the match. Owen broke the deadlock seven minutes before the break when Diouf charged into the penalty area from the right wing, and his low cross was deflected into the path of Owen. The English striker, has not scored for ten weeks, but he showed no hesitation in blasting the ball low and into the left hand corner of Enckleman's goal, to send his side in leading at the break.
Graham Taylor made a half-time change, taking off the largely ineffectual Darius Vassell for Stefan Moore and after just four minutes of the second half, Villa were back on level terms.
Gareth Barry broke free in the box and knocked the ball ahead of himself and seemingly into touch, but a late lunge from Hyypia saw the referee point to the spot. Dion Dublin, who was a thorn in Liverpool's side all afternoon stepped up to take the penalty and slid the ball sweetly under Kirkland as he dived to the left. Dublin should have then given Villa the lead on the 53rd minute when he somehow managed to head over from a free header six yards out.
Liverpool, desperate for all three points pushed on in the closing stages, but despite Danny Murphy twice going close from free-kicks, Houllier's men lacked the creativity to make anything happen in front of goal and are now, barring a miracle, out of the Premiership race.
Filed by Rob Wright
