LIFE is full of little mysteries. Yesterday offered another: just how did the breathless, exhilarating maelstrom that was the 170th Merseyside league derby end goalless? Liverpool, who created myriad chances and dominated the contest from start to finish, will still be wondering when the season ends in May. Everton will point to the heroic Alan Stubbs in defence and the supremely calm Nigel Martyn in goal, and exhale deeply.

If the result was not satisfying, Liverpool’s performance was. No longer the haunted figure of a fortnight ago, Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier was delighted. “I really enjoyed that,” he said. “It was a great game, the best derby I’ve seen since I’ve been here. Our fluency is coming back, we never lost our shape and if it had been a boxing match it would have been stopped.”

Everton too can take heart, says manager David Moyes. “We’ve done well today. Stubbs was a colossus when we needed someone to stand up and be counted and Martyn was wonderful: 10 out of 10 for him.”

Initially, though, Everton looked uneasy and Duncan Ferguson’s lack of mobility is becoming more exposed with each return from injury. When a chance did come his way, a free header six yards out in the 43rd minute, he meekly sent the ball high and wide. The only difficulty the Ferguson of yore would have encountered was whether to place it left or right past Jerzy Dudek.

Last man Sami Hyypia was fortunate to escape when he pulled down Tomasz Radzinski who had, not for the first time, raced past him and the temperature rose sharply. “I don’t want players to get sent off,” said Moyes, “but he should have been.”

Both teams claimed penalties: Liverpool when Ferguson wrestled Hyypia to the ground; Everton after Jamie Carragher appeared to handle Kevin Kilbane’s free kick. Moyes pronounced Carragher guilty. Houllier thought otherwise: “With British managers it’s always the same; it’s always referees, it’s never fair”.

Wayne Rooney had been a peripheral figure in the first half, but three minutes into the second period he brushed Hyypia aside 25 yards out and thundered through two more defenders. With the goal and Dudek at his mercy, he shot over. It was his sole contribution of note.

Liverpool hit back but Everton’s composure blossomed with each opportunity that was spurned.

Liverpool almost sneaked two goals in the final minutes. Dietmar Hamann blazed over after his own lung-bursting run before Martyn saved Carragher’s deflected piledriver with his feet.

A scoreline to forget, but a game to remember.

Liverpool: Dudek, Finnan, Henchoz, Hyypia, Carragher; Hamann, Gerrard, Kewell, Cheyrou, Le Tallac, Owen

Everton: Martyn, Hibbert, Stubbs, Pistone, Naysmith, Rooney (Watson 84min), Gravesen, Nyarko (Carsley 58min), Kilbane, Radzinski (Jeffers 73min), Ferguson

Referee: S Bennett

Attendance: 44,056

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