Houllier opts for humour over horror

WHEN you have been forced to confront your mortality as recently as Gerard Houllier, the result of a football match is not, despite Bill Shankly’s famous observation, more important than life and death.

Which is perhaps why Houllier was able to garnish Liverpool's 1-1 draw against Aston Villa, their 11th consecutive match without a win in the Barclaycard Premiership, with a splash of humour.

At least statisticians, Houllier claimed, had been kept trying to find fresh historical landmarks to coincide with Liverpool's dreadful run the worst sequence since Bob Paisley's day, the worst since before Shankly, worst since Everest was conquered, that sort of thing.