THE chants of 'there's only one Shay Given' coming from the away enclosure at Anfield said it all. Newcastle United had just conceded three more goals yet the Irish goalkeeper escaped the blame and is still worshipped by the club's supporters.

After taking the lead through Patrick Kluivert, the Magpies defence crumbled and allowed Liverpool to pile more misery and, ultimately, more pressure on Graeme Souness' reign on Tyneside.

Newcastle have now won just one in eight Premiership matches and are slipping further and further down the table with a trip to Souness' old club Blackburn next on the horizon before a home date with champions Arsenal.

The fact that the fanatical Geordies were still shouting the name of Given highlighted just what they think of the club's position.

To be fair to Souness he is working hard on trying to bolster his defensive ranks in January.

And that need is a must.

An own goal gaffe from Titus Bramble, just moments after Kluivert's opener, levelled matters and young Neil Mellor, whose goals knocked Middlesbrough out of the Carling Cup, gave Liverpool a half-time lead by scoring the third goal of a frantic six minute spell.

The freedom Mellor was afforded in front of the Kop deserved to be punished and the lively Milan Baros found himself in similarly generous surroundings in the second half when he completed the victory.

Quite fittingly the Liverpool crowd began to shout 'Milan, Milan,' and Newcastle's chances of playing the likes of the Italian giants are fading at a rapid speed.

In May, Newcastle's end of season fixture at Liverpool was billed as a shoot-out for a Champions League place.

But, while this may have raised optimism around Anfield that a top four place can still be achieved, Souness will be lucky to steer his side to a UEFA Cup spot this season, with his side now seven points adrift of the Reds in sixth place.

Newcastle have not won at Anfield since April 1994 and, just four months into his tenure in the North-East, Souness knows things must turn around soon having dropped to within seven points of a relegation place.

With claims of more poor behaviour from a clutch of Newcastle's squad and a winter bug hampering selection plans, Souness was left cursing his luck even further when Craig Bellamy suffered a recurrence of a back problem during the warm-up.

The Welshman's non-appearance meant Kluivert made the most of being thrust into the starting line-up but it also meant that only four substitutes were named on the away bench.

It was the last thing Souness needed after a morning of frustration.

After cancelling the players' Christmas party in a bid to nip the potential for bad publicity in the bud, Kluivert and Bellamy were two of four men at the centre of allegations they caused disturbances in London's The Ritz.

Such claims may not have had any affect on selections yesterday, but Souness' defensive worries did take another turn for the worse.

Both Steven Taylor and Aaron Hughes had to withdraw from the squad through illness.

Andy O'Brien was asked to play right-back, although there was a return to the side for Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer, who both missed the midweek draw with Sporting Lisbon with a calf injury and suspension respectively.

Liverpool clearly had intentions of making the most of the visitors' reshuffle at the back. And the pace of Baros was used as a tool to unlock an unfamiliar defensive unit.

With just 90 seconds on the clock, speed and trickery got him beyond Olivier Bernard.

From the by-line, the man from Czech Republic rolled the ball back to Luis Garcia who fired high over the bar from six yards.

The dynamic Steven Gerrard has been running the show for the Reds since returning from injury and the England midfielder's driving run into the area ended with him powering a header just over the bar.

He also drove a low right foot 25-yard shot just wide of Given's upright after skipping past Jermaine Jenas.

But while Liverpool's attacking play caused problems to the Newcastle defence, the Magpies showed that their forward thinking does not lack invention.

And their first effort arrived after 20 minutes when Jenas rolled a free-kick to Bernard and the Frenchman, still no nearer to signing a new contract, shot a yard to the left of Jerzy Dudek's goal.

Newcastle may be languishing in the lower reaches of the Premiership but their goal on 33 minutes proved that posing a threat to opposing defences should be no problem.

A devastating move split the Liverpool defence apart when Dyer's vision found Bowyer unmarked on the right flank. Bowyer's centre ended with Kluivert sliding into to slot in the opening goal of the game.

In hindsight, if there was anything wrong with the strike it was that it came a little too early as it immediately sparked Liverpool, searching for only their second win in six league games, into life.

There was time for John Arne Riise to see a stunning 35-yard strike fly inches wide before Rafael Benitez's side levelled, albeit in a fortuitous manner, just two minutes after Kluivert had broke the deadlock.

The error-prone Bramble, who had been steady at Anfield, suffered more humiliation when he somehow headed Gerrard's corner downwards and the ball bounced high into Given's net.

To compound his misery, less than three minutes later, Liverpool striker Baros found team-mate Mellor, who had created space in between the two Newcastle centre-backs, and the product of the Anfield Academy side-footed into Given's bottom right corner.

During Souness' playing days at Liverpool in the late 70s and early 80s he was the driving force in the middle of the pitch that helped the club to a long list of honours - including five league titles and three European Cups.

And it was that sort of influence, similar to that what Gerrard offers Liverpool, that he needed to see from the black and white shirts against his former club yesterday.

But Souness' hopes of earning his first win over Liverpool in ten attempts as a manager never looked like arriving.

Any slight chance of that went well and truly out of the window when Baros grabbed his 11th goal of the season just after the hour mark.

But once again Newcastle were their own worst enemy at the back.

Baros, occupying a place between Bramble and Elliott, was given a huge amount of space to run into and after picking up Kewell's fine through ball he rounded Given and passed the ball into an empty net.

He also went close with a breathtaking overhead kick.

Jenas should have reduced the arrears from close range and Laurent Robert, on for Kluivert, forced Dudek into a flying save but it was comfortable for Liverpool particularly after Bowyer was sent off with 13 minutes to go.

Having already been booked, the former Leeds midfielder's lunge on Florent Sinama-Pongolle earned him a second booking when he quite easily could have received a straight red - he now misses the Boxing Day trip to Blackburn.

Liverpool 3 Newcastle United 1.

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