LIVERPOOL BOSS Kenny Dalglish rued a number of refereeing decisions after his side’s 1-1 draw with Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday.
Villa went ahead in the 10th minute thanks to a goal from Australian Chris Herd, and Liverpool had to wait until eight minutes from the end to level through a Luis Suarez header.
The home side had a number of penalty appeals turned down, with Herd appearing to handle the ball just minutes after he sent his side ahead when tangling with Liverpool’s Dirk Kuyt.
Suarez was booked late on for diving after he was challenged by Barry Bannan and Dalglish maintained the referee got both decisions incorrect.
“I’ve never heard a penalty not be given by a referee saying that the boy (Kuyt) was unlucky,” Dalglish said.
“Suarez’s booking (for diving) – the guy trod on him. It’s a joke because you can imagine the headlines tomorrow, but the guy’s trod on him, he’s lucky he’s not broken his foot.
“It’s a coincidence, even if you take just the last three games, they (refereeing decisions) haven’t gone our way. Maybe we’re too polite. I thought they showed great character and commitment to come back,” he added.
Villa boss Alex McLeish, meanwhile, was pleased with the effort of his injury-hit squad. Front man Darren Bent and centre-half Richard Dunne are among those sidelined, and the club also had the shock news of captain Stilian Petrov’s diagnosis to contend with.
Despite a tough run – which has seen them win just once in their past eight league games – McLeish said he does not regret making the move from bitter rivals Birmingham City in the off-season.
“It’s not been easy and I knew it wouldn’t be,” McLeish said. ”I thought it would be tough, especially when you look at the comparison with the two squads from this year to last year. But it doesn’t mean to say that we can’t finish another three or four places up the table.
“I’ve never wished I didn’t make the move. I never, ever look back and regret anything. It is probably the youngest squad I’ve ever had to work with. At Rangers we dabbled in a lot of free transfers, guys at the end of their careers, to try and augment the squad.
“But we’re going to go with the youngsters here. It can make or break players but a lot of them have got so much confidence. This is a learning curve for them in all aspects, life as well, in terms of the importance of the situation.”
