A drab 0-0 draw at the Riverside was further proof that Liverpool have sunk into the realms of being 'just another Premiership club' over the last 12 months. In an instantly forgettable encounter we could hardly muster a shot on goal as we remained firmly entrenched in the depths of mid table mediocrity.
It's extremely difficult to get enthusiastic for a trip to the Middlesbrough, one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on earth. Go by car and it involves a long walk through a barren wasteland to the stadium and if you go by coach, the police are about as welcoming to outsiders as the Iraqi people are to US forces.
In a throwback to the 1980s, away coaches are kept outside the city for a while before being escorted straight to the gates of the stadium, meaning I was only ever going to drive. But I'd have been grateful for the police escort at 2.30pm as I struggled to park in the town centre after a family crisis had delayed my departure from Liverpool till 12 noon.
After stumbling on a multi storey I made it to the ground with ten minutes to spare and was instantly reminded of just why I and so many other Reds fans hate Middlesbrough so much. It's irrational for us to have such contempt for a club whose only professional trophy is the Anglo Scottish Cup, but I haven't met anyone with a kind word to say about them.
Aside from the arrogance of the club, there is that awful pre match atmosphere, which we were being charged £28 to experience, £10 more than two years ago. A mascot dressed as a lion danced about on the pitch and the fans all 'did the Boro' when the teams came out. And just in case any of the home fans forgot why they were there, the stadium announcer reminded people of how long there was till kick off, as well as of the score at half and full time.
The biggest talking point in terms of team selection was the omission of Jerzy Dudek. Although Chris Kirkland is an excellent keeper and will be our number one for years to come, I felt very sorry for the Big Pole. His run of poor form started at the Riverside last year and it would have been nice for him to go back there and put in a sound display.
There was no indication that wouldn't happen given that Houllier refused to blame him for the United defeat and even in the day before the game was saying how well he's doing. But in a complete about face, Dudek was consigned to the bench.
The first half really was the biggest non 45 minutes of the season so far, even worse than Villa. Neither side had a shot on target nor do I recall us creating a single chance. Michael Owen looked dangerous but the Boro defence knew that if they could crowd him out there'd be precious little support for him.
For the home side, Mendieta and Juninho were promising but superbly kept in check by Sami Hyypia, who has been outstanding since getting his arse kicked when he was stripped of the captaincy.
Rickett's did have couple of shooting chances for them but they were way off target and I could see why the ex Bolton man is the Boro fans' version of H*****.
We started a bit brighter in the 2nd half and had a good chance after 47 minutes. Some nice work by Owen set up Kewell who played the ball into the box along the ground. But rather than attack the ball, H***** just let it run through to their keeper. Kewell then put in an excellent cross that was just too high for Diouf to get a powerful header on to.
There was an enforced early substitution when Finnan went off injured to be replaced by Diao, then on 67 minutes Owen came off and Pongolle was sent on. Owen had shown individual sparks during the game but didn't have the quality around him to bring them to fruition.
What was most alarming though was that for the third successive league game he has started he was taken off with some time remaining. He clearly hasn't been fully fit for any of them and it begs the question, just why isn't Houllier easing him back? When you look at how many reserve games Henchoz and Hamman are having to play, there is a clear case of double standards being applied.
Pongolle immediately added some fire to the Reds attack and could have scored with his first touch, but his acrobatic effort from the edge of the six yard box went just over the bar. With 10 minutes remaining he was put through and was brought down by Quedrue when he looked certain to score, but the referee waved play on. It was an incident that Houllier would blame for us failing to win, but I'd rather talk about the ineptness of the previous 80 than one bad refereeing decision. There were no other things of note and the booing from both sets of fans at the end said it all.
The draw leaves us 15 points off the top and the manager and captain are both admitting that 4th is the best we can hope for this season. But at least Gerrard is unhappy with our current 9th position, whereas Houllier had another deluded rant on lfc.tv saying he doesn't know why we're so pissed off.
The next 2 games are against teams also hoping to finish there and will give us a realistic answer as to whether we can take challenging for 4th or even 5th for granted. On the basis of Saturday I don't think we can and the descent from greatness to an also ran who wins the odd cup is almost complete.
