Post Liverpool: Kinnear on Given

Following a defiant performance that was Superman, Batman and the Incredible Hulk all rolled into one, Shay Given`s one man attempt to keep Liverpool to single figures on the scoresheet was hailed by Joe Kinnear as one of the best performances he had ever seen. Kinnear said:

"To be fair, if it wasn`t for Shay Given, who knows what the score would have been? I`ve never seen a performance from a goalkeeper like it in my life - he kept us in the game before their first goal with save after save. The only great things were Shay Given's performance and, of course, the supporters, and I`m disappointed for them.

That`s why it`s so important to have a settled back four. We`ll learn from this, and we do need some reinforcements, there`s no question about it. They drove at us. I thought some of our players were leggy. They had a tough game at Wigan, but what we had was what we had - we were threadbare.

We chopped and changed, and put players in that were half fit. Thankfully, Shola Ameobi turned up - he hadn`t trained all week. We just had to go with him - I just said 'we`ve got to get 45 minutes out of you`. We had no Mark Viduka or Alan Smith, and I can go on and on. It`s behind us now. Thankfully, it`s over, but it`s not finished in the best possible manner."

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