Final whistle was the sweetest sound in weeks

As long as a gift is nice, it doesn’t matter if it’s a day late.

The rain fell during a second-half nearly as woeful as the first, but a solitary goal meant so much, particularly to a beleaguered boss.

It’s beginning to look familiar; soft quotes; the bony finger of blame pointing at everything and everyone but him; the artless deflection of a manager that sees it all going wrong but can’t see a solution.

Add a gaggle of acolytes willing to pretend all you say is pure gold and not the pyrite piffle it actually is and the Brueghelesque picture is almost complete.

You needed x-ray vision to see the ‘performance’ at Old Trafford and selective myopia to ignore the defensive frailties in that and the Arsenal match. The loyalist screech that’s meant to stifle dissent never works but it never stops. This is not an attempt at justification for us Scrooges.

If we see good football, we’ll say so. If we see bad football, we’ll say so. If we see more bad than good, we’re not going to stop because it’s repetitious.

When a manager comes out with horseshit like “Brad Jones has done very well” you’re duty-bound to block your nostrils from such ordure and ask the man responsible to stop spreading muck.

It must lead to a quieter life when you don’t get asked why you’ve kept such a player as your number two (ahem) for the third season running, nor to be asked why you declared Mignolet’s absence “indefinite”.

That deflection, and silence, over Lovren to name but one, contrasts sharply with the repeated assertion of how unsuitable Balotelli is to the master-plan. Such slipperiness begets more puzzles, who bought who etc, but ultimately it isn’t welcomed by the majority. The bigwigs definitely don’t like it either; Mario’s not the only one “not a team player” etc.

At least Rafa had a maelstrom in the background he could point at and some masterly transfers during his halcyon years. Then we saw the same manipulation that was supposed to save his job too.

Remember when “Aquilani was forced on him”?

That spewed from the same mouths that, after Liverpool’s previous trip to Burnley, tried to mark the boss-eyed Italian down for three assists as proof of what a genius buy it was! You excuse such loyal hypocrisy if you want.

The rest of us will focus on what’s best for the whole club and leave them to it.

Everyone’s got to check the pitch now in case it’ll hinder our “outstanding” football which would be even more “outstanding” if the grass wasn’t slow. Not a readymade excuse, no sir.

In a shocking first-half, even by current Liverpool standards, Burnley played all the football. If they could finish, Rodgers might well be finished too. Jones watched as a shot hit the post. No, honestly…

Mignolet’s absence finally became finite but doesn’t seem to have helped. One second-half dalliance led to a corner and a swearword count off the scale. His head’s wrecked by the looks of it. So much for being taken out of the line of fire… Other performances were shoddy, most played like Bambi with rickets. Burnley were all over us. Kudos to Sakho, Sterling and Coutinho for sticking to their guns while Lallana provided skill, work-rate and composure once an undeserved goal went in. Can came on for Toure, perplexing at the time but making sense in the end as he certainly improved things.

Lambert emerged to continue his personal battle with the offside law but Burnley had begun launching it by then and their moment was gone. Our defence always gives you kittens so the final whistle was the sweetest sound anyone had heard in weeks.

We’ve blown a few leads this season so thank God this wasn’t another. Brendan especially can sing hosannas to the Highest. The angels were on his side for once.