Hodgson criticises players after upset

That was away from home with Liverpool stagnating in the old Second Division and in an age before rolling news and the internet, the damage was limited to headlines in the Liverpool Echo. Last night, Liverpool were at home, they were playing a side 69 places below them and there were cameras everywhere.

That Northampton would commit every fibre of their being to the contest was predictable. That they would be the better side for swathes of the evening was not. Liverpool, the club that has won the League Cup more than any other, had to rely on a David Ngog header merely to force a penalty shoot-out in a monsoon in front of the Kop.