“This is not about Tom Hicks or anyone else. This is about Liverpool Football Club — nothing else”
Supporter interviewed outside Anfield last night

You know what? He is right. Dark clouds may have taken permanent residence over this corner of Merseyside in recent months, but on nights such as this the storms give way to a golden sky and as the clock ticked down and that famous anthem began to reverberate around Anfield at a little after 9.30pm, it briefly seemed that all was well again in Liverpool’s world.

And then, just when the assembled red hordes were about to celebrate another famous European victory, it all went awry. Salomon Kalou crossed into the penalty area and John Arne Riise panicked, stooping to head the ball into his own net in front of a disbelieving Kop. Suddenly it was advantage Chelsea and the clouds were back over Anfield. When the final whistle was blown seconds later, one supporter next to the press area shouted towards the directors’ box. “Satisfied now, Hicks, you tosser?” he screamed, proving that there really is no ill in these parts that cannot be blamed on the Texan with the red scarf and the rhinoceros’s skin.

As if he needed it, the co-owner is in danger of adding the status of bad luck charm to that of public enemy No 1. Precise figures are open to debate, but this was thought to be the sixth match he has seen at Anfield and the fifth time that Liverpool have failed to win. The 1-0 defeat by Barcelona last season, his first visit, felt like a triumph because the club progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals on the away-goals rule, but this did not as Riise’s error left Chelsea as firm favourites to reach the final, particularly because Liverpool have such a wretched record at Stamford Bridge over the past two decades.

Liverpool, though, will see no cause for despair. The Champions League brings the best out of them — supporters, players, without question the manager, too — and it is a love affair that has only been enhanced over the course of a campaign during which it has served as a distraction from the unedifying soap opera that has been unfolding in the boardroom. For a club founded on stability it has been a traumatic season, but nights such as this — and the second leg at Stamford Bridge in seven days’ time — offer an opportunity to put that to one side and for everyone, irrespective of agenda, to sing from the same hymn sheet.

Did someone say sing? That brings us back neatly to Hicks, who, daring to set foot inside Anfield for the first time in four months, stumbled his way through You’ll Never Walk Alone in a manner that evoked memories of John Redwood, the Secretary of State for Wales at the time, miming desperately to Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. Not since Delia Smith slurred her way through the worst rallying call of all time at the interval during a Norwich City match three seasons ago has a boardroom figure at an English club invited such ridicule.

Four rows behind him, assuming a distinctly lower profile, were David Moores, the former chairman, and Rick Parry, the chief executive — the men who have spent the past six months ruing the day that they sold the club to Hicks and George Gillett Jr, his estranged co-owner. And perhaps 20 yards to the right was the delegation from Dubai International Capital, the self-proclaimed saviour of the club. Sameer al-Ansari, DIC’s chief executive, was dapper in a suit, while alongside him was Amanda Staveley, who has advised the group during its takeover negotiations. A former girlfriend of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, Staveley stuck out among the suits and tired old faces. At one point Sven-Göran Eriksson, the Manchester City manager, was seen craning his neck.

DIC remains supremely confident that al-Ansari and Staveley will be calling the shots in the boardroom before too long, but for now Hicks is clinging on in a difficult financial climate. Earlier in the day he had pitched up at Melwood, the club’s training ground, to chew the fat with Rafael Benítez. There had been claims that the Spaniard told him that there was no point talking while the ownership of the club remains unclear, but later, in his post-match press conference, the Liverpool manager spoke of a “positive meeting”.

As he left the stadium a little after 11pm, Hicks looked pleased, as if he felt more secure in his position as “custodian” of the club. Once he had worked out the words — and it is not difficult — he began to belt out the chorus of You’ll Never Walk Alone with gusto, as if the crowd were singing it for him. They were not, of course, and the reality is that he does walk alone and will continue to do so until he beats a retreat to Texas. On nights such as this, though, he could be mistaken for thinking otherwise.