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Roy Hodgson on the trapdoor after Liverpool are humbled at Blackburn

احدث اجدد واروع واجمل واشيك Roy Hodgson on the trapdoor after Liverpool are humbled at Blackburn

Blackburn Rovers have triggered one dismissal in Roy Hodgson's managerial career and may now provoke another. Liverpool's latest anaemic away defeat, this time to depleted opponents, prompted another outpouring of anger towards a beleaguered manager whose 17 months at Ewood Park will surely appear extensive in comparison to his Anfield tenure.

With four minutes remaining, Steve Kean's side fretting and Steven Gerrard sizing up his second goal of the night from the penalty spot, Liverpool sensed another remarkable comeback and escape route for Hodgson. But those days are over. At least under this manager and with this squad. The captain who has forged a career on rescue missions blazed over and, quite possibly, the 63-year-old's fate was sealed.

Defeat was accompanied by the now familiar refrains of "Dalglish" and "Hodgson for England" from the Liverpool supporters. A new ditty was added last night. The Blackburn fans chanted "You're getting sacked in the morning" after Benjani Mwaruwari stroked home his second of the game and Rovers' third shortly after the interval. The Liverpool fans then joined in. The post-match performance, with Hodgson refusing to answer questions on his future before Liverpool's director of communications brought the press conference to an abrupt halt, increased the sense of a reign unravelling.

That basic, avoidable errors – not Gerrard's penalty miss – caused Liverpool's fifth defeat in eight league games, leaving them five points above bottom place in the process, condemn and torment Hodgson after six months in charge.

At Ewood he was not only dismissed by the voice of his club's supporters, but by their feet. The gate for Saturday's home win over Bolton Wanderers, Hodgson's reprieve, was roughly 10,000 down on the average attendance – a figure that included 4,000 season ticket holders – and here, for the first time in living memory, there were empty swathes in the Darwen End where the away fans congregate. After one away league win all season, the expense of Christmas and the consistently miserable fare Liverpool have served on their travels for the past year, it was a wonder so many showed up at all, and their presence provided a further rebuke to the manager's recent complaint about a lack of support.

There was no indication of the all too familiar torment to come in the early stages as Liverpool passed crisply, moved well and frequently looked to play an attack of Fernando Torres and David Ngog off the shoulder of a Blackburn defender. But even with their sorry record away from home, that was to be expected. This was a Blackburn team with eight senior players missing and only a back four that could lay claim to being first choice. They are also a mere five games into the reign of a new manager whose appointment was not met with widespread acclaim by the Rovers' faithful. Hodgson's claims of transition carry little weight by comparison.

"We were magnificent and the winning margin probably, and should have been, more," said Kean, who, amid talk of Ronaldinho and David Beckham parachuting into Lancashire, was supposed to be the one in charge of the circus.

Slowly, but somewhat inevitably, Liverpool's performance disintegrated and Kean's makeshift selection capitalised on consistently abject defending. Mame Biram Diouf was unmarked as he collected Ryan Nelsen's ball into the Liverpool half, leaving Glen Johnson, left exposed by Joe Cole, in two minds as he also had to contend with the excellent Martin Olsson's run into the area. The England right-back elected to go to Diouf, who simply rolled an inviting pass behind the Liverpool defender and into the path of Olsson, and his low finish sailed between the legs of José Reina.

More poor defending enabled the home side to double their lead six minutes later. Sotirios Kyrgiakos, recalled with Daniel Agger rested for Sunday's FA Cup tie at Manchester United, was detailed to handle Benjani when Morten Gamst Pedersen chipped into the area. And handle him was all he did. Benjani pushed away his rudimentary marker, controlled, turned inside, and beat Reina with a rising effort into the roof of the net.

As Hodgson had conceded beforehand, Liverpool have rarely showed the character to recover from adversity this season and they were three down and flailing shortly after the restart. The pattern will not come as a surprise. Olsson fed Junior Hoilett down the left and he left Martin Skrtel and Johnson trailing before rolling the ball back from the byline for Benjani to triple his tally for the season from close range. Blackburn, depleted Blackburn, were strolling, and although Gerrard drove home a loose ball to give Liverpool belated hope, their chances of a stirring revival disappeared when he blazed over from 12 yards after Michel Salgado had tripped Torres inside the area. The torment goes on for Liverpool and Hodgson, but for how much longer?

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