Just one of those games...

FOOTBALL will forever and a day throw up games such as the one witnessed at Anfield this evening.

Such is the nature of this sport that the best team over the 90 minutes are not guaranteed to be rewarded with a victory.

When Steven Gerrard saw his well-placed spot-kick pushed away by the imperious Ben Foster in front of The Kop with 13 minutes to go, the writing was on the wall.

And it hardly came as a shock to me when first Gareth McAuley headed in from a corner a few minutes later before Romelu Lukaku tagged on a second for the Baggies as we chased to try and pinch a point from a match where we should have had all three.

It certainly wasn't for the want of trying; this was no gutless effort that the debacle against Aston Villa most certainly was in the run-up to the festive season.

Some 14 efforts on target from a total count of 23, plus 13 corners shows this was a side intent on attacking throughout the contest.

But in West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Foster, we came up against a player who was having one of those "tell the grandchildren" matches.

His stops from Gerrard - twice (including the penalty) - and one from Jordan Henderson's cute flick from a brilliant move created down the right flank were simply incredible.

Just like John Ruddy and Michael Vorm last season at Anfield, Foster produced a string of stops that rightfully earned him the man-of-the-match accolade.

And that tells you everything about tonight's contest. When the opposition goalkeeper is handed that honour, you absolutely know it's been one of those games.

I thought Brendan Rodgers got it spot-on in his post-match comments. He was right - the players did try their best and he certainly couldn't fault them for effort.

I avoided the moan-ins because listening to to the knee-jerk jerks is really a waste of your life.

So two super displays against Arsenal and Manchester City that gleaned just two points have been followed by this disappointing home reverse.

It certainly makes qualifying for the Champions (sic) League a more difficult task and it would require us to go on a remarkable winning streak while hoping other sides above us drop points.

Of course that's possible - anything in football is possible - but for now all we can focus on is the Europa League.

And in my book, I think that should be the primary attention of our efforts right now.

A fourth place finish or lifting our ninth major European trophy in May in Amsterdam?

C'mon, do I really need to answer that one?