Rooney drew a cheap foul from Ronny Johnsen on the edge of the penalty area from where Ferguson’s free-kick wrong-footed

Rooney drew a cheap foul from Ronny Johnsen on the edge of the penalty area, from where Ferguson’s free-kick wrong-footed Thomas Sorensen but flew over the bar. “We knew they would come at us in the second half and we didn’t deal with it. We’re not good enough to turn up and play like that and expect to come away with anything from the game.”For David Moyes, the Everton manager, it illustrated the value of being able to call on substitutes who can change the course of a match. “We’ve got strikers who are capable of doing different things, and they can all win us games,” he said.The recent form of Wayne Rooney and Duncan Ferguson meant that Radzinski, along with Kevin Campbell, again had to start on the bench. Thomas Gravesen added a second shortly later to send Villa home with nothing to show from a game in which they appeared the more purposeful team for long periods.
Surprisingly, David O’Leary, the Villa manager, was quick to criticise his players “Everton had more hunger and desire than us,” he said. Pretty it was not, but Everton duly eased away from the bottom three of the Premiership yesterday with a hard-fought home win over Aston Villa.

Almost 80 minutes had expired before Tomasz Radzinski, introduced as a substitute midway through the second half, set his team on their way to a first win in eight League games. And only three days later comes a tricky second leg in Whathaveyou.HOULLIER’S LIVERPOOL RECORD PremiershipFA CupLeague CupIn Europe 1998-997th4th rd4th rdUefa Cup (3rd round) 1999-20004th4th rd3rd rdDid not qualify 2000-013rdWinnersWinnersUefa Cup (Winners) 2001-022nd4th rd3rd rdChampions’ League (Quarter-finals) 2002-035th4th rdWinnersChampions’ League (Group stages) Uefa Cup (Quarter-finals). “It’s not been nice,” the present incumbent says of recent criticism “But I’ve got absolute belief in what we’re doing It’s fight or it’s flight, and we fight. When your house is attacked, you make sure you stay together and be strong. The main thing is whether you have faith or not in yourself and your players.”Having those players fit for the season’s last lap removes one enduring excuse about injuries. The others, bad luck and refereeing decisions, Liverpool will have to live with like everyone else.

(Leeds might even remind them today about Jeff Winter controversially allowing Danny Murphy’s goal to stand at Anfield in September.) “It will be a good result,” the ever-obliging Houllier promises of this afternoon’s game It needs to be. Going 3-0 down to Basle by half-time meant elimination from the Champions’ League; later Crystal Palace knocked them out of the FA Cup 2-0 at Anfield, Celtic won there by the same score to end the Uefa Cup run, and a rare victory over Manchester United in the Worthington Cup final was poor consolation for a season of promise.Worst of all, in the last Premiership match Jesper Gronkjaer’s goal at Stamford Bridge meant that Chelsea, not Liverpool, took the fourth Champions’ League spot It was to be the “bloody Uefa Cup” again. In his annual report the club chairman, David Moores, lamented a “disappointing season” and insisted that finishing in the top four was the “minimum acceptable target”, then took umbrage when this was understandably construed as a warning to the manager.On Friday Houllier insisted again and again that what matters is his relationship with the board and the players, and that both are rock-solid. Managers from Shankly to Dalglish might have included the supporters in a holy trinity, but Souness seemed to break that bond, and it has never quite been repaired. “He will think that he is doing an all-right job now.”When the definitive story of Houllier’s time with Liverpool comes to be written, it may be that the turning point is not a home win over modest Bulgarian opposition, but the first week of November last season, almost exactly four years after Roy Evans’s departure following the ill-fated experiment with joint managers.

It would be the middle of January before Owen scored another Premiership goal or the team took three points, by which time Arsenal were 14 ahead and even Everton were above them in the table. Fourth, third and second in consecutive campaigns, Liverpool were apparently on course to continue the progression: a 2-0 win at home to West Ham left them unbeaten after 12 Premiership games and seven points clear at the top, with Michael Owen in unstoppable form.From that day, Liverpool’s season and Houllier’s reign went into decline. And when the Liverpool Echo ran a double-page spread of letters last Tuesday, the sports editor, fair-minded man that he is, could not find a single supportive one in his postbag to set alongside 18 critical ones.The morning after the Levski win, it was not only the Kop singing a different tune. “You people calling for boycotts and mass demonstrations hang your head in shame,” one supporter wrote to the paper “I am sick of all this sniping at GH,” added another. A third picked up on the subtly changed nature of Thursday night’s crowd, in which many disgruntled season-ticket holders had stayed at home, replaced by younger enthusiasts who can only obtain tickets for cup games.Not that the manager has yet won over his critics, who continue to point to an incomplete transformation from counter-attacking football to something closer to the Liverpool tradition, and the undeniable failure of several players who seem to have been bought with only the longer term in mind. “The result against Levski changes nothing in the eyes of any fan who has watched us over the last few years,” insisted Joe from Belfast “Why oh why did they have to chant his name?” demanded Mick.