Gary Neville, the Manchester United captain, stepped up his comeback from injury last night by playing for an hour of the reserves’ 2-0 defeat by Liverpool. The England right back, who was up against Harry Kewell, the Liverpool left winger, has not featured for the United first-team for 11 months since suffering an ankle ligament injury in March last year.

Despite returning to full training several weeks ago and making two previous reserve-team appearances, there have been question marks about Neville’s long-term future with numerous niggles hampering his comeback. His most recent appearance was a run-out in a reserve game against Everton last month, which lasted just 45 minutes because Neville suffered a tight hamstring.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, has not put a timescale on Neville’s return and he is likely to have to come through several more reserve or practice matches before he is considered for a return to first-team duty. Despite a clear lack of match fitness, Neville appeared to come through the game unscathed.

For Liverpool, Daniel Agger came through 45 minutes of the game, played at the Halliwell Jones rugby league stadium in Warrington in front of 10,546 spectators, in his first appearance since suffering a broken metatarsal in September last year. The Danish centre back, 23, was wearing a pair of specially designed boots and played the first half before being replaced by Martin Skrtel, who was returning from a calf injury.

After several setbacks of his own, the return of Agger, who was first-choice alongside Jamie Carragher in central defence until his injury, is an undoubted boost to Rafael Benítez. Gary Ablett, the Liverpool reserve-team manager, said: “It was always the plan to give Daniel up to a half and to give Martin a half and he came through without any problems.”

Xabi Alonso, the midfield player who has made only two Premier League starts this year, scored a first-half penalty for Liverpool and, after Richard Eckersley had been sent off for two bookings, Kewell added a second with a swift breakaway in the final minute. Moments before Kewell wrapped up the win United’s Danny Simpson was denied an equaliser when the referee ruled that his header had not crossed the line.