Excuses wearing thin for Houllier

WHEN you have England’s first-choice strike force and they cannot score a goal between them in three hours against a First Division side, you know you have problems.

Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier said before Wednesday night's disastrous FA Cup exit at the hands of Crystal Palace that he had spent a lot of the season trying to overcome problems he had not expected. But he felt Liverpool had turned the corner, that the constant crisis had ended. Now he knows there is one big, big problem that just will not go away.

Neither Michael Owen nor Emile Heskey could hit a barn door from six inches against the Palace upstarts and Liverpool went out 2-0 after two long, painful cup ties. And when the manager starts talking of defeat "being a blessing in disguise", he seems to have misunderstood the mood of the unhappy Anfield fans who wanted to "go to Cardiff" twice in the two domestic cup finals again.