I thought Liverpool were very unlucky not to claim all three points in the derby. Just as we used to do when Rafa was in charge, we played Everton off the pitch in the first half.

It should have been more then one at half-time as Torres was very unlucky when his shot crashed against the post with Howard beaten. The tone was also set when Phil Dowd missed an obvious penalty as Torres was fouled in an off the ball incident. How the ref didn't blow for that I will never understand.

Liverpool's Jay Spearing was handed a surprise start and performed very well, never giving up and giving us the energy we required in the middle of the park. Kuyt was also a lot better as he had at least three goal-bound efforts, one of them falling to our Portuguese midfielder, Miereles , who hammered home past Howard for his first goal. Maxi should have been much better in the first half as a rebound fell to him but he blazed high over the top. Even Johnson looked good in the first half clearing one of Everton's only crosses with his head. Kelley, was again, very impressive. It was also nice to see that Daglish had Pachecho on the bench. At least he has the potential to play when he is on the bench!

Everton really couldn't have been much worse in the second half and Moyes must have really had a go at half-time. Everton were handed a life line into the match but some horrible defending by Martin Skrtel and the referee. The ref gave a corner when it was a goal kick, Phil Dowd was only yards away but got it wrong, once again.. Once Everton scored we looked a bit lost and once again the referee played a large part in the 2nd goal. Everton's striker jumped with Kelley and gave him a forearm to the face but Dowd allowed play to go on and Everton scored. I don't agree that Dowd should have stopped the game for an injury but surely he should have stopped the game for a foul. Every time Torres flicked an Everton defender it was a foul, this was an assault and Phil looked the other way. Reina was correct to get booked in the aftermath.

After the 2nd goal we settled down and started to play football again but we didn't' look as comfortable with Agger having to go off. Maxi was clearly taken down by Howard (I was surprised he didn't book Maxi for diving) and Kuyt dispatched the pk. Liverpool didn't have many great chances to win it but did play better than we had done in weeks.

The first half was as good as any we have played all year.

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