The Reds fans that made the longest trek of the season to the south coast witnessed the most inept and disinterested performance for some time. Houllier reject Patrick Berger, rejuvenated under Harry Redknapp, condemned us to our third successive league defeat and yet more pathetic excuses from the manager.
I'd been looking forward to this trip for two reasons ever since Portsmouth began running away with last years 1st Division title. The first is that it was a long journey, something that always appeals as it gets me out the house for longer and also demonstrates my support of the club.
The second reason is that it was a rare opportunity to add to my tally of league grounds visited. Fratton Park was my 61st and I was especially excited as I knew it would be a football ground, not a soulless bowl.
I wasn't disappointed as it was a real throwback to the 1980s and earlier, with just four turnstiles being in operation for over 2,000 away fans. The away seating was bolted onto a terrace that had no roof and amenities were primitive to say the least, with very few chancing the toilets or pies.
Behind the other goal many of the home fans were in a nice new stand but on either side they were sat in structures that make Goodison Park look modern. There was a photo in the programme of a game from 1948-9 and the stand to our right was in it. The only difference was that the paddock area had been replaced with seating.
This gave rise to a cracking atmosphere, as only a hardened football fan would brave the facilities at Fratton and there were none of these new wave or corporate fans there.
Liverpool were wearing white for some strange reason, as the only colour clash was with the socks. Some respect and acknowledgement of Portsmouth's passionate support was shown when Steven Gerrard opted to change ends despite our support being behind one of the goal. This meant we'd unusually be kicking into our own supporters for the second half.
We could so easily have silenced the home fans in the first minute. Heskey muscled his way on to the ball to create a shooting opportunity after a pass from Finnan only for his shot to hit the post. From the rebound a Portsmouth defender completely cocked up his clearance, almost finding the top corner with a beautiful curling effort. It would have been the own goal of the season had it gone in but unfortunately that was about as close to we came to scoring all afternoon.
Portsmouth were passing the ball around well and it took them just four minutes to find the net when Berger made the most of some terrible marking to slide the ball past Dudek. It was almost inevitable that Berger would be so fired up and score against us the way he was treated by Houllier.
I do believe he had served his usefulness to Liverpool, but to be behind Cheyrou in the pecking order last season must have hurt. Although his goal won't have the same impact as Anelka's last season, it has twisted the knife just a little further.
Portsmouth went on to dominate the rest of the first half taking advantage of a static Liverpool midfield in which Biscan was awful. It's beyond belief that he was even played there as although he has done reasonably well in central defence he isn't a midfielder. With Henchoz being recalled, someone had to make way and with Houllier not having the balls to drop Hyypia, he decided Biscan had to be accommodated somewhere rather than upset his confidence.
It was a decision that led to us being overrun in the middle as he was a constant liability when it came to keeping the ball. The only half chances we had for the rest of the half were a weak Diouf shot from the edge of the box and a Kewell free kick that was deflected off the wall.
The beginning of the second half brought about a mini revival, with Hislop finally being called into meaningful action on 56 minutes when he had to save a fierce shot from Heksey. Otherwise Heskey put in his usual incompetent performance, failing to get stuck in and staying down far too often when challenged.
Riise also got into a good position soon after the restart only to blaze his shot over the bar. On the whole the Norwegian was awful. He still persisted with his long throws, which I have not once seen come to fruition. He couldn't defend and was regularly exposed, while going forward he offered nothing either.
His crosses either went too far over and out of harms way or failed to beat the first man. Carragher's injury is proving a wicked blow to us and although I wouldn't go as far as saying Traore should be recalled, its frustrating to know that the Norwegian is one of few players currently guaranteed his place.
Although we created a few chances to equalise, Portsmouth could so easily have gone 2-0 up. Biscan came back to help the defence with almost calamitous results, heading against his own post when attempting to clear. This created a frenetic goalmouth scramble but luckily we cleared. We were also lucky not to fall further behind when Yakubu hit the underside of the bar and Faye had a goal disallowed for offside.
Both Le Tallec and Pongolle were thrown on in the last half hour to liven things up. The latter came on for Diouf who was beginning to lose his rag and in danger of getting a second yellow card. Making his first league appearance, Pongolle should have got an equaliser when he skipped through only to screw his shot wide of the post. With two minutes left he hit wide again during a goalmouth scramble confirming it was never going to go in for us if we played all night.
2,200 fans had made the trip and many of them left long before the final whistle to beat the traffic and begin the 250 mile journey home, leaving me with 11 seats all to myself. Those that bothered to remain to the end saw an almost apologetic acknowledgement from the players, many of whom were too embarrassed to come anywhere near us.
Houllier has always maintained that good teams never lose two games in a row. So in an attempt to explain away losing three he told BBC radio that Portsmouth won because they were fresher. It was an obvious reference to us having played a midweek European game and is another example of the shite that he talks on occasions.
Man City and Newcastle had both played away from home in Europe but won their league games, City scoring six in the process, despite playing for much of the game with ten men. Then on Sunday he ridiculously said that half a team was missing. Owen, Baros and Carragher is fair enough, but to say Cheyrou and Diao would have made a difference is an insult to the fans intelligence.
To have lost more than we've won is an unacceptable situation at this stage of the season and the excuses have to stop. Houllier has to get these players performing now, make changes or admit he has gone as far as he can with us and do the honourable thing and resign.
Team: Jerzy Dudek; Steve Finnan, Stephane Henchoz, Sami Hyypia, John Arne Riise; El Hadji Diouf (Florent Sinama-Pongolle), Igor Biscan, Steven Gerrard, Harry Kewell, Vladimir Smicer (Anthony Le Tallec); Emile Heskey:
