The Reds put in a very poor performance at Anfield and for the very first time at home lost to Fulham who had to do very little in truth to win the match.
The side was heavily changed from the Norwich win and clearly chosen with the cup final in mind as numerous players were rested including, Suarez, Reina, Gerrard and Agger. Others such as Enrique and Downing were left on the bench but were later introduced in an attempt to rescue a match we never looked likely in.
The final whistle was the ultimate highlight of the night for the Reds as at least I could go home then and Kenny Dalglish rightly commented afterwards that the performance wasn't fitting of a Liverpool shirt.
The whole night left a bad taste for me and a testimonial has more pace to it such was our poor show.
There was one goal on the night and that was a bizarre affair greeted by silence but strangely it didn't really seem to register anywhere. I think with Fulham having such a small following they didn't seem to realise that a cross from the Fulham left hit Skrtel in the area and flew past Doni who couldn't react in time.
With the goal coming so early in the game there was obviously plenty of time to get back in to it but our play going forward was awful at times with passing very sow and when it mattered - wayward.
The Reds did have chances - a few pot shots flying over the bar from Henderson and alike and Carroll heading at least on target.
The best chance we had came in the first half and that was when Carroll beat Schwarzer only for Hangeland to be stood behind him to clear the danger.
Stewart Downing was introduced at half time for Jordan Henderson but it never really changed us - no injection of pace, no sudden though process or support. The ground was well short of capacity and it seemed to show in the atmosphere as well which was virtually non existent but with the rubbish in front of us there was nothing to get excited about - even Steven Gerrard appeared to get off with twenty minutes to go.
The match could have finished worse for the Reds as well in fairness but Doni had a good night thankfully and pulled off a few excellent saves including a couple of one on one's.
The final whistle was greeted by boo's around the ground with the only thing you could cling too was that this was a side with many players who won't get near the Wembley turf. One other positive was another late cameo for Raheem Sterling and that was about one of the few times when the crowd did actually wake up.
Clearly the Reds were always going to mix the side up for this but giving just over half a game to the likes of Fabio Aurelio was criminal but that's likely to be the last we see of him now - unless we're going to re-sign him all over again. The main problem for the side was that it looked like eleven individuals on the pitch and certainly not a team. No-one really shone or saw it as a game to really push for a Wembley place in the game and that was very disappointing.
MotM : Alexander Doni - saved the Reds from a more embarrassing scoreline.
