Merseyside fizzer: no derby goals

Tight tussle ... Jordan Henderson gets to grips with Leon Osman. Source: Barrington Coombs / AAP

Everton remain on course to finish above Liverpool in the Barclays Premier League for the second season in a row after holding their city rivals to a 0-0 draw in a scrappy Merseyside derby at Anfield.

Liverpool's best chance saw a goal-bound effort from man-of-the-match Steven Gerrard cleared by Everton defender Sylvain Distin, who had a goal contentiously disallowed at the other end.

It meant Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher failed to finish on the winning side in his 30th and final Merseyside derby, while Everton are still without an away win in this fixture since 1999.

The draw left Everton somewhat marooned in sixth place in the table, five points above their neighbours and five points below the European qualifying positions with two games to play.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	36	27	4	5	42	85
2	Man City	35	21	9	5	30	72
3	Chelsea	35	20	8	7	34	68
4	Arsenal	36	19	10	7	31	67
5	Tottenham	35	19	8	8	18	65
6	Everton	36	15	15	6	14	60
7	Liverpool	36	14	13	9	25	55
8	West Brom	35	14	6	15	1	48
9	Swansea	35	10	13	12	-1	43
10	West Ham	36	11	10	15	-8	43
11	Stoke	35	9	13	13	-10	40
12	Fulham	36	10	10	16	-11	40
13	Aston Villa	36	10	10	16	-21	40
14	Southampton	36	9	12	15	-11	39
15	Norwich	36	8	14	14	-22	38
16	Newcastle	36	10	8	18	-23	38
17	Sunderland	35	9	10	16	-12	37
18	Wigan	35	9	8	18	-22	35
19	Reading	36	6	10	20	-26	28
20	QPR	36	4	13	19	-28	25

"I don't want to be a whinging manager, but we scored a legitimate goal today. It should have counted,'' said Everton manager David Moyes.

"We're still in there - we picked up a point again today. We've got two games to go and we'll keep pushing to try to get in there (the top five) if we can.''

Liverpool were unchanged from the side that routed Newcastle United 6-0 last weekend, but Everton were first to threaten, with Marouane Fellaini prodding the ball narrowly wide from a Leighton Baines free-kick in the 17th minute.

At the other end, Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge failed to hit the target with a couple of pot-shots, while Phil Jagielka produced a pair of impeccably timed blocks to thwart Gerrard and Philippe Coutinho.

Liverpool had the better of the second half, Tim Howard saving from Sturridge and Distin clearing off the line from Gerrard, although Distin also had a header ruled out by referee Michael Oliver for a foul that was far from evident.

"I can have no complaints,'' said Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.

"The players gave everything and the very least we deserved was a point.''

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