Rickie Lambert’s goal could not save Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool from despair…
Liverpool dropped to within four points of the relegation zone after another morale-sapping afternoon of football, which saw us well beaten by a determined and hard-working Crystal Palace.
Two late goals gave the south London club just their third victory of the season, and ensured a second successive turnaround against Liverpool, following last season’s dramatic comeback.
The afternoon had started in near perfect fashion, with Adam Lallana the provider for Rickie Lambert’s first ever Liverpool goal, less than 90 seconds after the kick-off.
But unperturbed, Palace fought back. Dwight Gayle – the scourge of Liverpool last season – grabbed the equaliser, while Yannick Bolasie played the role of tormentor in chief.
Joe Ledley then slotted Palace in front before Mile Jedinak converted a free-kick from 25 yards to ensure Palace walked away with an unrealistically lopsided scoreline in their favour.
That’s not to say we deserved any more than what we got from an afternoon in which we only served to exaggerate all the issues which we have endured this season – lots of possession but no creation, calamitous defending, and a lack of fighting spirit.
An organised and disciplined Palace did everything they needed to do to put themselves in the position to get the result, and you’d struggle to deny that they deserved their goals when they came late on.
The look on the faces of the Liverpool players after the third goal was reminiscent of that night in May when we threw away a three goal lead, a result which effectively ended our title hopes.
We have now lost three consecutive matches and have only won once in five. We are 18 points behind leaders Chelsea, and at the moment Europe, never mind the title, seems to be a distant dream.