Liverpool 1 Sheffield United 1: Warnock raises glass to vintage return while Benitez whines

The Sheffield United manager savoured his team's 1-1 draw but his Liverpool counterpart was left seeing red over international friendlies, writes James Lawton

Beautifully clad and mostly adhering to his wife's firm instructions that he should portray himself as something other than Yorkshire's answer to Bart Simpson, Neil Warnock had plenty of reasons to congratulate himself as he poured himself a glass of good wine and settled down to watch Match of the Day.

It is true that hardly before the rest of the Premiership had broken sweat, Liverpool were issuing an indignant statement that the Sheffield United manager had completely "fabricated" the opinions of Robbie Fowler and Jamie Carragher that their team had been rescued by an unjust penalty, but then long after the spat is forgotten he will be able to take pride in the honesty and effectiveness of his team's arrival at the top of the English game. For how long Warnock's men will be able to maintain such competitive vigour is a different matter but they could scarcely have started more impressively; their technique was a tribute to their manager's best values, which include the belief that professional respectability is invariably achieved by the things that you do rather than merely say.

A frustrated Rafa Benitez said that he had expected an ordeal by fierce and intelligent desire and he had not been disappointed. The greatest nag for the Liverpool manager, however, was that reports of the new depth and competence of his squad may have been exaggerated.

Not in question certainly was that whatever the legality of the referee Rob Styles's penalty award when the United skipper Chris Morgan lunged at, but apparently missed, Steve Gerrard, the team spoken of as serious challengers to Chelsea were fortunate to get away with a point. Players like Bolo Zenden, Jan Kromkamp and Daniel Agger - a bystander when Warnock's £2m extravagance at the front of his team, Rob Hulse, headed in the free-kick that enabled the manager, as he put it, to preen himself at the top of the League for 22 minutes - seemed so surprised to be on the field that their efforts never stretched beyond the negligible.

Benitez vigorously denied that he had downgraded the status of his opening Premiership shot in favour of preserving strength and freshness for Liverpool's problematic Champions' League second-leg qualifying game - against Maccabi Haifa, of Israel - in Kiev tomorrow night, but that did not square with the picture of Peter Crouch sitting on the bench and Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia not even in the match squad.

Benitez, who is now without John Arnie Riise and Carragher in Kiev through ankle injuries expected to keep them out for two weeks, was still plainly simmering over what he saw as crass interference in the opening statements of the new season by last week's international friendlies.

"I was thinking about both games, and now we may lose Carragher and Riise - two important players," he said. "We've had four games to think about, two in the Champions' League, the Community Shield and this one ... which is more important. It is very difficult to decide, and then we had another problem.

"After the friendly international games, so many of our players were playing for 90 minutes and spending a lot of time travelling and you have to be careful. OK, you decide to use two or three big- name players who were playing in the internationals and then in the end they are tired.

"It's impossible in one way because if you ask the players, 'How are you?' they will say, 'Oh fantastic'. But you must decide how you think they are. For me to use the players who were training with us in the week was most important."

Impeccable managerial logic, perhaps, but less than optimum performance - much less. Gerrard, one of the big contributors to England's improved pace against Greece, was not denied a place in the launching of a new campaign but for most of the time he might have been without great loss.

His biting break into the box in the 70th minute provoked Morgan's costly lunge, and gave Fowler the chance to stroke home one of his trademarked subtle penalties - a rare moment of relevance in a tepid performance marked by a shocking miss from a easy chance created by an equally anonymous Craig Bellamy.

Liverpool, we know, can play so much better than this. Can the Blades? Their dogged captain, Morgan, said: "It was a massive day for the club, we worked damned hard to get here and we played well today. We proved to ourselves that maybe we don't give ourselves enough credit at times. But we're only one game in, there's a long way to go - we have to do that week in, week out. If we start strolling, we'll soon get knocked back down to earth." Strolling will not be an easy option when Warnock has served out his touchline ban and returned to those working clothes that will never be mistaken for the suit of a diplomat.

After a relatively measured critique of the referee's penalty gaffe - "95 per cent of the people who have watched the replay of the incident say it's not a penalty, unfortunately the referee is one of the five per cent, but then football is all about opinions" - he returned to his favourite subject: a pro's obligation to grab any opportunity.

"I think some of my players surprised themselves today. Michael Tonge started off like a house on fire and I've been telling him that he could be playing in Liverpool's side tomorrow. So could [Phil] Jagielka and so could some of the other lads. People like [Derek] Geary have been playing against Stockport Reserves and he's been asking to go for the last three or four months and then I put him in the team and you see him perform like that."

Also suited and booted on a day of grit and magic was one of the most fervent of Blades, the actor Sean Bean. Recently filming in Hollywood, he swopped Californian dream-making for what so long had seemed like the fantasy of big-time football. For one day at least, it came vividly true.

Goals: Hulse (46) 1-0, Fowler (pen 70) 1-1.

Sheffield United (4-5-1): Kenny; Geary, Bromby (Leigertwood, 75), Morgan, Unsworth; Ifill (Gillespie, 59), Tonge, Jagielka, Armstrong, Webber; Hulse (Akinbiyi, 86). Substitutes not used: Sommeil (gk), Nade.

Liverpool (4-4-2): Reina; Kromkamp, Hyypia, Carragher (Agger, 34), Riise (Gonzalez, 26); Gerrard, Sissoko, Zenden, Aurelio; Fowler (Pennant, 83), Bellamy. Substitutes not used: Dudek (gk), Crouch.

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).

Booked: Sheffield United Morgan. Liverpool Sissoko, Kromkamp.

Man of the match: Sissoko.

Attendance: 31,726.