Blackburn 3-1 Liverpool: Rovers unlucky not to secure a point

If both managers had smiles on their faces after a grimly fascinating contest, then it was for very different reasons.

Rafa Benitez offered a wry grin as acknowledgment that his side have played much better this season and lost.

His opposite number Paul Ince left with a similarly wry expression, but that masked the pain of a result that was perhaps a little unjust.

Blackburn are a team without confidence after a string of poor results and yet for almost 70 minutes they more than matched Liverpool and were certainly good value for a point.

But then Ince knows that if he didn't have bad luck he wouldn't have any luck at all.

As speculation mounts about his Ewood Park future, Ince can rightly claim that the table, for once, does lie.

For a start, Rovers have endured a daunting fixture list in recent weeks, games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Aston Villa and now Liverpool hardly conducive to a healthy position.

Yet even in the middle of a run that would tax any side, Blackburn have shown some of the spirit Ince specialised in as a player, their performance here against Liverpool typifying a resolve that doesn't yet suggest a relegation haunted team.

For Ince that spirit, and the fact that Rovers probably should have led before Xabi Alonso's 68th-minute goal put Liverpool in front, was enough to put that wry smile on his face as he fielded yet more questions about his future.

"Yes, there has been pressure, much of it unwarranted.

But I don't worry about that.

There is always pressure in football and you have to deal with it," he said.

"I've had plenty of it in my career and I'm still smiling. I'm smiling because I can't fault my side's performance today.

"I could give you a list of reasons why we're in this position but I don't want to sound like I'm bleating. And I think if we carry on playing like that, then we'll be alright."

Ince may not want to dwell on some of the reasons why Rovers have come unstuck this season, but the fact that he was given barely £2million to spend when he accepted the job has to be a factor.

He is no Roy Keane. He didn't spend £80million on new players - in fact he lost two of last season's most influential performers in David Bentley and Brad Friedel and got precisely nothing of the millions their sale generated.

Add a painfully long injury list and that unbalanced fixture list, and perhaps you begin to sense that the outcry about his management is just a little over the top.

That said, Rovers did collapse alarmingly once Alonso scored, and only rallied when Yossi Benayoun put the match beyond their reach with a second goal 10 minutes from time.

It is hard to preach patience when Premier League status is so vital financially, but it is over the Christmas period that Ince must be judged, when he has key players back and pits his wits against some of the sides around Blackburn in the table.

If he can get results against the likes of Wigan, Stoke, Sunderland, Fulham, Newcastle and Bolton over the next month or so, then Rovers will be fine, and Ince will emerge wiser for the experience.

If not, then that is when he should be in trouble. Not now, because 16 games is a ridiculously short time in which to judge anyone.

Not that Benitez would mind being judged over that period.

The visitors had a hairy period when Roque Santa Cruz replied for Blackburn five minutes before the end, but when Steven Gerrard added a third in stoppage time, it allowed the Reds a swagger that has been surprisingly missing from a team that has been at the top for so long.

For the Reds boss this was an important result, not least because it will allow his side to start believing in themselves after a run of just two wins from six in domestic football.

"Look, we know we can play a lot better than we have been, but what gives me confidence is that we can come to places like this and get results, even when we are not at our best," Benitez said.

"We know players likes Mascherano and Gerrard can improve, that the likes of Riera, Keane and Benayoun can improve, and that soon we will have important players like Torres and Skrtel back, so all that is good if we can maintain our position.

"I am confident we can stay here. We have to fight, we have to keep winning over Christmas which will be important, and if we are still there then we will get better, and we can take that into the rest of the season."

The way Liverpool were transformed by Alonso's goal from a nervous side lacking in confidence to one that passed the ball with crisp intelligence suggests that they can still change people's opinions even as they are being written off.

It is something that Ince would no doubt agree with.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Xabi Alonso (LIVERPOOL) - His goal could be crucial to Liverpool's season

VILLAIN OF THE MATCH: Keith Andrews (BLACKBURN) - Booked and struggled to make his mark

Blackburn: Robinson 7, Ooijer 6, Samba 6, Nelsen 7, Warnock 7d, Derbyshire 6 (Treacy 90), Emerton 6, Tugay 7 (Vogel 85), Andrews 6d, Pedersen 7 (McCarthy 82), Santa Cruz 6. Goal: Santa Cruz 86

Liverpool: Reina 7, Arbeloa 6d, Hyypia 7, Carragher 7, Insua 7, Alonso 8, Mascherano 6 (Lucas 83), Benayoun 6 (Riera 87), Gerrard 7, Babel 5d (El Zhar 63, 5), Kuyt 7. Goals: Alonso 69, Benayoun 79, Gerrard 90

Referee: Andre Mariner

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