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When called upon to attend to his primary job of defending just before half-time, however, the Norwegian was suddenly found wanting, and Leeds had an equaliser. Jermaine Pennant, previously anonymous but blessed with pace and a trick or two, twisted away and left him for dead before delivering a low cross that Alan Smith turned in with the glee of a man scoring his first goal since August.Leeds did not quite deserve to be level on the balance of play, though Viduka was looking more interested than of late, and David Batty’s old legs were making life uncomfortable for the Liverpool midfield. Early on he had whacked Vladimir Smicer, who never quite recovered and had to make way a few minutes after half-time for Murphy, another England international making a welcome return to fitness. Igor Biscan floated a pass to the right of goal and the aggressive John Arne Riise did well in heading back towards Owen, who allowed the ball to sit up before hooking it into the top corner of the net.There had been seven or eight good strikes at goal before then, keeping up the Liverpool average, though the move best illustrating their positive approach did not necessitate a save: Steven Gerrard, an inspirational captain, clipped an immaculate skimming diagonal pass to El Hadji Diouf on the right touchline and Riise, racing forward again from left-back, headed the cross over.Harry Kewell, predictably abused by the visiting supporters, shot narrowly wide, and Riise hit three other decent efforts.

“The ref was right, though I’d have been disappointed if it had happened to us,” he said “Sometimes you need a bit of luck. It might not have appeared our best game but I think we deserved the points.” Things had gone Liverpool’s way even from before the kick-off, Owen having declared himself fit for an unexpectedly quick return following his shin injury sustained at home to Arsenal. Before that bad blow, he had scored seven goals in five games, which became eight in seven after 35 minutes play. “We work for hours on the training ground perfecting getting people offside. The linesman’s done his job but the ref’s said they weren’t interfering.” But Reid was honest enough to admit the crux of the matter, which was that Robinson had added to the recent crop of goalkeeping howlers.Houllier, for whom this fixture two years ago ended in hospital with life-saving heart surgery, tries these days to keep such things in perspective.

“But from my position the view was that the ball was going into the net and the players weren’t interfering They didn’t affect the outcome. Oh, and if the decision turns out to be wrong, my name’s Uriah Rennie.” Good for him; for favouring the attackers, punishing Reid’s obsolete offside tactics and publicly explaining his thinking.Naturally the Leeds manager, desperate for a result or three, did not see things quite that way. There was, however, noticeably greater desire and cohesion, at least until the two turning points of the game early in the second half. With the score at 1-1, Mark Viduka missed when clean through, and almost immediately Liverpool were allowed a second goal when Robinson fumbled Murphy’s free-kick into the net with three players in an offside position.It was a difficult but correct decision. “The sooner he’s on Superstars permanently the better from our point of view,” he said with a thin smile.