Spurs the morning after

We've not had a single flake of snow in Liverpool but there was a real threat of freezing fog before last night's game and there were plenty who came with their flasks of hot tea to offset the cold.

It's perhaps as well they did because there was very little on the pitch that really set the temperatures soaring. Indeed each time there was a foul of note the aggressors seemed at pains to show their concern. It was mainly that sort of game, with the one exception perhaps of Gareth Bale, who for all his undoubted ability would do well to audition for Pinehurst Studios. A pity really, but since he's English (well okay, Welsh!) it's unlikely he'll ever receive the bad press for his acting skills that any jonny foreigner will get, especially one who plays for Liverpool.

Before the game I joked that since Joe Jordan would be in charge of the team, you could expect to see nine men behind the ball. It might have been said tongue in cheek based on past history of the Scottish coach, but it turned out to be very prophetic. Spurs, even allowing for their three significant absentees, were most disappointing and showed only limited adventure. Perhaps that's a touch unfair on Spearing in particular, who completely nullified Modric, the man who would ordinarily be the initiator of most Tottenham attacks.

One of the best moments came when a tabby encroached onto the pitch and took a few minutes to be persuaded away. "A-cat; a-cat; a-cat, a-cat, a-cat" chanted the Kop, then followed that with "We're not racists, we only hate cats!"

That was early on but already there were signs that this was going to be a generally sterile game. We knew that the centre back pairings at both ends would take some breaking down but with Liverpool having the bulk of the possession they rightly tried to get round the outside. This Spurs' right back Walker is the real deal though and the man with the ultra perm Ekotto wasn't far behind him on the other flank. There was simply no way to beat either for speed on the outside.

With Johnson at left back, he and Walker, his rival for the England spot, regularly collided and there was clearly a touch of tension there. The Liverpool player had an excellent game but for one failing -the perennial one that seems to have infected the whole Reds' side -the inability to weight a cross properly. In the final seconds with four men up Johnson had all the time in the world to hit the area of the penalty spot yet contrived unforgivably to land the ball into the Kop first bounce.

I watched the Manchester equaliser the other night and saw how clinically Giggs found Hernadez with a measured chip. And at that very moment I tried to envisage a Liverpool player in the same situation. What would any one of Downing, Enrique, Johnson, Kelly, Kuyt, Bellamy, even Suarez have contrived at such a moment? On the basis of statistics, hit the first defender, methinks!

And therein for me is the tale of Liverpool's season. Much is made of the team's inability to convert chances, but that criticism, for all its merit, should rate second to our inadequacy when it comes to playing the final ball in.

Rushy once said that to convert one in six chances was good going. Well, there might have just been that many in the whole game last night and not one was put away, but seeing as I'm in something of a philosophical mood, we cannot forget that we have Pepe to thank for some magnificent positional play in preventing Bale late on. To end on this positive note, contrast his superb angle to that of De Gea for Kuyt's winner in the Cup. Not dissimilar situations. Our keeper wasn't flying through the air, so that the press box will simply look to blame Bale for a monster miss, but it doesn't need me to tell anyone here what a fantastic goalkeeper Liverpool has got and in that one little five second cameo last night we all saw why he's one of the very best in the whole world.

Mike Hopper