Football story by Gareth Bowman, Sun, 11 Dec 2005 13:56:00 GMT


Jose Manuel Reina equaled the Liverpool record of 10 clean sheets on the trot as the Reds dashed Middlesbrough's hopes in a 2-0 win. That record was set way back in 1987 by Kenny Dalglish's team, which went on to win the title.

With this win, Liverpool moved into the second spot on the Premiership and though they are still 9 points behind defending champions Chelsea, the flurry of matches on either side of Christmas could change all that. Rafa Benitez's men played out a dull match for the first 66 minutes with John Arne Riise coming close with a volley from a Gerrard corner. Other than this, Peter Crouch seemed to be dozing off even though his teammates sent a number of high balls in his direction. His substitution and the introduction of Luis Garcia in the 66th minute changed the course of the match and the Reds put in 2 goals in space of 11 minutes to seal the match. Gerard's pass put Morientes through and he slotted in an easy one past Mark Schwarzer to give Liverpool a one-goal lead. Six minutes later, he doubled his tally, but he could have been off-side and Boro manager Steve McClaren was the first to point it out.

For Middlesbrough, Chris Riggot was sent off after collecting two yellow cards in the space of five minutes and despite having strikes of the caliber of Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, they rarely looked like scoring.

After the match, Benitez refused to be drawn on the title race, "We have four games in eight days, and a lot can change in a week. But come back to me in two months and we'll see if we can talk about the title," he said. Captain Gerrard was also cautious, "We've still got a lot of improving to do if we want to win the league. If we keep playing the way we have in the last six months, we'll go very close either this season or next," he commented.

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