Football news now-Pool Be Much Better and REDS DRAW AGAIN

A Draw, But Shouldn't Pool Be Much Better Than That?


Ouch that was poor. Liverpool were, until the final ten minutes or so, second best by a distance to a gritty Brum outfit that would have won comfortably but for awful finishing and fine saves by Pepe Reina. It hardly helped Pool's cause that Fernando Torres looked fed-up throughout, but then again, can you blame him?

BLUES AND REDS DRAW AGAIN


Liverpool were indebted to a superb display from goalkeeper Jose Reina for earning a point from a goalless draw with Birmingham in their Barclays Premier League clash at St Andrews on Sunday.



Reina produced excellent reflex saves to keep out point-blank headers from Cameron Jerome and Craig Gardner to keep out the Blues.



They were also left to regret spurning a hat-trick of clear-cut chances and were the more impressive of the two sides but had to settle for a draw, the seventh successive stalemate in this fixture.

On this evidence new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has plenty of work to do to make the Merseysiders a force to be reckoned with.

Barry Ferguson and Gardner bossed the midfield while James McFadden and Cameron Jerome linked well up front.



Reds skipper Steven Gerrard tried to spark his side into life but Fernando Torres still looks short of full sharpness with Scott Dann excellent at the back for Birmingham.

Blues midfielder Ferguson said: "The goalkeeper was outstanding. He made three or four great saves. I think we deserved to win the game, but the goalkeeper was outstanding."

Team-mate Jerome added: "Pepe is one of the best keepers in the world and it showed. It's one of those things and you take it on the chin."

Blues boss Alex McLeish praised his men, saying: "The players were magnificent. They created four or five chances and we restricted Liverpool and gave some great players very little."



Reds counterpart Hodgson said: "They played extremely well in the first half.

"We started well but the final 15 minutes before half-time they pressurised the ball well and made life very difficult and we were depending on two very good saves from Pepe Reina.



"But I thought we kept our shape well, kept working at what we were doing, and the longer the game went on the stronger we were getting.

"It was a good performance from Birmingham and I'm not too disappointed with our performance either. We kept to our task well."