Benitez accuses Portsmouth of time-wasting

Liverpool's manager Rafael Benitez smiles before the game against Portsmouth in the English Premiership at Anfield, Liverpool. Benitez accused Portsmouth of time-wasting as the Spaniard saw his side's faint title hopes disappear at Anfield in a 0-0 draw

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez accused Portsmouth of time-wasting as the Spaniard saw his side's faint title hopes disappear at Anfield.

A goalless draw after a careless performance against stubborn opposition left Liverpool 16 points adrift of Premiership leaders Manchester United.

With more than half the season remaining, Benitez is refusing to wave the white flag just yet but it is going to require something extraordinary if the Spaniard is to put Liverpool's domestic season back on track.

Benitez was clearly frustrated with Portsmouth's go-slow approach in the second half and claimed the Fratton Park club of deliberately trying to run down the clock.

"It's a pity because we know we could have gone third if we had won," said Benitez.

"We tried to do the right things but couldn't score. We lost balls we would normally keep.

"Portsmouth tried to do their job but you could see they were trying to waste time from the beginning."

Despite stretching their unbeaten Anfield league run to 24 games, Benitez's under-performing troops paid the price for failing to breakdown their opponents.

Their cause was not helped by a spiralling injury list which resulted in England defender Jamie Carragher being deployed as an emergency midfielder.

Portsmouth's David Thompson (L) chases Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt during their English Premiership football match at Anfield, Liverpool. The match ended 0-0

Benitez is confident influential Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso will recover from a hip injury in time to feature in Saturday's game at Wigan as Liverpool chase their first away win in the Premiership this season.

While the point was greeted with despair in the Liverpool camp, Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp saluted his troops for a job well done.

Portsmouth have not won at Anfield for 55 years and they rarely looked like ending that sorry statistic during a drab game.

Yet the draw was enough to send them above Bolton Wanderers into third spot ahead of their weekend meeting with Aston Villa.

In addition, the result helped Liverpool old boy David James inch towards a new record.

The former England goalkeeper now requires just four more clean sheets to pass David Seaman's record of 141 cleansheets in the top-flight.

The 36-year-old, who spent seven years at Liverpool, was making a sixth appearance at Anfield since leaving in 1999 with his fourth different club.

James had failed to keep a clean sheet on his five previous visits with Aston Villa, West Ham and Manchester City yet he enjoyed a trouble-free evening as the hosts proved careless in front of goal.

"We battled away and I thought we coped very well," said Redknapp. "David really had nothing to do - he had a very quiet night.

"As for people saying we were time wasting, I wouldn't know what time wasting was."