Dalglish needs to move on from loss

Kenny Dalglish cannot believe none of the match officials noticed the possible handball by Stoke City's Matthew Upson.

Kenny Dalglish believes that referees are out to get him and his Liverpool team.

This, of course, is nonsense.

But after Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Stoke City, the Liverpool manager made it out that he feared the English Premier League officials were conspiring against the Anfield club for reasons which were not entirely clear.

Dalglish was not happy with some of decisions in the match, which is fair enough, and he had a point on occasions because Liverpool were hard done by, although that's really not why they lost the game.

But the best way to distract supporters, and your bosses, from a disappointing performance against a Stoke side who have not spent £100m (Dh600m) over the past eight months on players is to attack the referee.

Why take the moral high ground when you can appeal to the lowest common denominator?

"We would like to be respectful to the referees, but more importantly is them having respect for my club," Dalglish said .

"If I feel we're suffering in any way, then I may need to go the same route as some others and see if I can gain some benefit from that."

He then added that he would speak with John Henry, the club owner, before deciding his next plan of action.

This should be to move on and grow up.

Dalglish has been all smiles since returning to the dugout last January, but this was the return of the scowl.

Mark Clattenburg, the referee, was correct to award a penalty when Jamie Carragher clumsily hauled down Johnathan Walters, who scored from the spot.

He was wrong not to see a penalty when Matthew Upson, the Stoke defender, blocked a Luis Suarez cross with his arm late on. There were other minor incidents which could have gone either way; it is just that, this time, it was Stoke who got benefit of the doubt on more occasions.

Liverpool enjoyed 73 per cent of possession at the Britannia Stadium, and had 16 shots on goal compared to Stoke's two.

Remarkably, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam had five shots kept out by Stoke's defence inside a minute.

This is why Liverpool did not take at least a point. Referees miss penalties sometimes. International players can miss well over a dozen good chances in one game.

And yet Dalglish resorted to pointing out that his side had been the victim of "contentious decisions" in every game this season.

Just like everyone else.