Houllier fails to see the joke as prank falls flat

Questions will be asked about United's touchline security, says Guy Hodgson

There was a moment yesterday when Manchester United were seriously uncomfortable. The jaw of Old Trafford's communications director Paddy Harverson dropped like the Footsie and the 67,639 crowd watched with some disbelief. Needless to say, it had nothing to do with Liverpool.

Ten minutes before one of the pivotal and potentially explosive fixtures of the season, a group in red shirts took to the pitch, posed for a picture in the centre circle and then acted out Jerzy Dudek's infamous faux pas in the last Premiership encounter between the clubs. Then, with United officials' faces going white, the pitch invaders mocked a vigorous and gloat-fuelled celebration in front of the Liverpool fans.

The outcome could have been serious if the visiting supporters had not been too astonished to react violently, and there is certain to be an inquiry into United's touchline security. But you can be assured that its earnestness will be matched by Liverpool's own inquest.

There have been many passionate meetings between these clubs – the most recent in the Worthington Cup final last month – but the common thread in all these is that two teams turn up. Liverpool began the day looking for a place in the Champions' League, by the end of it they were searching for excuses for a supine performance that led to their heaviest defeat to United for half a century.

The most obvious will be the sending-off of Sami Hyypia after four minutes. Any team would miss the presence of the brooding Finn, and Liverpool certainly did, but that did not fully explain the way they seemed to accept their fate. To play 90 minutes without a single shot on goal is a miserable return, even for 10 men.

"It hurts," was Gérard Houllier's reaction although the Liverpool manager's response to going down to Ruud van Nistelrooy's penalty hardly sent a message of defiance reverberating round the Theatre of Dreams. To remove a striker for a central defender when you are 1-0 down looked to be the thinking of a man looking to avoid a serious hiding. A mental white flag was waved.

When Emile Heskey has the best striker in England alongside him, his contribution is often questionable. Without Michael Owen, who had a back injury and played no part, and with Milan Baros withdrawn to accommodate Igor Biscan plugging the hole left by Hyypia, he had a thankless task.

For the tactic to work Heskey had to hold the ball up to allow his colleagues to join him from midfield. With his heavy touch, and with the numerical odds stacked against him, he had as much chance of being successful as a dray horse has in the Grand National. Eventually Liverpool succumbed to fatigue as much as United's performance.

There was just a 10-minute period before half-time when Liverpool threatened to snatch an unlikely equaliser through Dietmar Hamann's long range shooting, but that apart, the match had an air of inevitability about it. Without Owen's pace to mask the lack of flair, Houllier's team look wholly predictable.

Just as inevitable will be the banning from Old Trafford of Karl Power, the serial prankster whose previous includes appearing in a United line-up before a Champions' League match and taking to the pitch as a batsman in an England Test match. Those were mildly amusing antics that harmed no one, but the episode he performed yesterday could have had serious consequences. It was not a laughing matter.