Owen fails to hide the dearth of passion

Liverpool 2 Bolton Wanderers

The Worthington Cup was not on show at Anfield yesterday, the club having decided not to parade the trophy in front of the supporters before kick-off. And that was not the only thing missing from Liver-pool. For a team who had just won some silverware by defeating their greatest rivals, Gérard Houllier's men were desperately short of confidence against lowly Bolton Wanderers.

Forget the scoreline. Their passing was poor, their tackling half-hearted, and, most worrying of all, their passion non-existent. Houllier does not like to be criticised, but what excuse can there be for playing five midfielders in a must-win game on home soil against Premiership strugglers? Lifting cups is one matter, but securing titles, particularly the Premier-ship, needs adventure. The fans know this, and they made their feelings quite clear when they booed the team in the dying seconds of the first half. Winning, it would seem, is no longer the be-all and end-all for such aficionados of quality.

If Houllier was unhappy with the performance, he was not showing it after the game. Then again, this was Liverpool's first win at home since 2 November. "We were strong mentally and beat a good team," was how the Frenchman summed up the day. "The boys want to get back into the top four as soon as possible and that was the first step."

Poor Bolton. Their manager, Sam Allardyce, has long bemoaned his team's lack of good fortune, and he has a case. The visitors were excellent yesterday, passing the ball crisply and defending well. Their only problem is that they cannot score. And the only problem with that deficiency is that teams who cannot find the net suffer more than those who cannot keep clean sheets. "Liverpool had the quality to take the few chances there were," Allardyce said. "That was the difference between the teams."

Following 20 uneventful minutes, Bolton nearly took the lead when Jay-Jay Okocha's shot from 25 yards bounced off a defender and fell kindly to Salva Ballesta. The striker, on loan from Valencia until the end of the season, played a delightful through-ball into the path of Simon Charlton, but the latter could not quite reach the pass and the alert Djimi Traore cleared. Two minutes later, Bernard Mendy outpaced John Arne Riise, and then forced Jerzy Dudek into a smart save.

Liverpool were simply dreadful, and it tells you everything about their lack of ambition that their best chance of the opening half-hour came courtesy of a botched short corner. Riise and Danny Murphy made a mess of their well-rehearsed routine, and the ball seemed to be lost when Dietmar Hamann popped out of nowhere to swing a dangerous right-foot cross into the box. The Bolton defence were caught out by the German's surprise delivery and Sami Hyypia was allowed to drift into space at the back post, but his header went sailing wide.

Hyypia then made a terrible mistake at the other end, but his miscued clearance was not punished by Ricardo Gardner. Bolton were outplaying Liverpool at their counterattacking game, and it required a defensive slip-up for Michael Owen to be presented with his first chance of the game. Mendy's back-header fell to the England centre-forward, but he took an age to pull the trigger and allowed Jussi Jaaskelainen to get an important hand to the ball. Vladimir Smicer was in the right place to smash in the rebound, but his effort failed to get past the resolute Bolton defence.

There looked to be no way through when, on the stroke of half-time, Liverpool took an undeserved lead. Only seconds were left to play when Riise fired a good cross-field pass to Owen who, having skipped past Charlton, then fired in a cross-cum-shot. Jaaskelainen failed to gather and the ball fell invitingly on to El Hadji Diouf's head. The Senegalese international might have looked offside, but his header was rightly allowed to stand.

Bolton should have been level four minutes after the restart. Youri Djorkaeff's legs may be tiring, but the Frenchman's vision is as sharp as ever. His clever low cross from wide on the right presented Ivan Campo with an excellent chance, but the Spanish international ballooned his shot over from the edge of the area.

Liverpool were still not finding their rhythm, while the supporters were still struggling for their voice, when the home side produced the second goal. With 66 minutes on the clock, Steven Gerrard won possession near the Bolton box, fed Diouf down the side of the area, and watched the African Player of the Year set up Owen for a tap-in at the near post. Owen's goal, his fourth in four games, looked a formality, but owed everything to his clever running off the ball.

Owen then showed good vision when he played a neat ball into the path of the onrushing Riise, who forced Jaaskelainen into a good, low save. That, though, was that in terms of attack from the home side.

The table says Liverpool are now sixth and three points behind the Champions' League places, but this display suggests they are a long way from the top.

Liverpool 2 Bolton Wanderers 0
Diouf 44, Owen 67

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 41,462