A miserable week for Liverpool ended with Gerard Houllier's side dropping two home points as Sunderland mounted an impressive rearguard action to boost their survival hopes.

Having lost their unbeaten league record to Middlesbrough and exited the Champions League, Liverpool proved unable to find a way past Sunderland's defensive ranks.

The visitors failed to create a single chance, but a mixture of brave defending, Jurgen Macho's superb goalkeeping and a little luck combined to give Sunderland a point.

That determination was typified by George McCartney's header off the line and from the resulting corner, Macho's wonderful save from a powerful Danny Murphy header.

From the game's opening moments, Sunderland's goal lived a charmed life as Liverpool peppered Macho with an array of shots and headers.

Central to the Liverpool cannonade was Murphy, who never ceased probing in his efforts to find a chink in the Sunderland defence.

After Vladimir Smicer's pass had found Murphy in space, the England international cleverly volleyed across the box to Markus Babbel, who inexplicably side-footed over the bar.

Another sweeping move involving Michael Owen, Smicer and Emile Heskey ended with Murphy's shot taking a deflection off Phil Babb and rebounding off the bar.

A couple of Murphy set-pieces then almost provided the opening goal.

First his shot rebounded off the Sunderland wall to the feet of Dietmar Hamann, whose low strike whistled past the post.

A second Murphy free-kick found Owen, who powered a header towards the corner, only for Macho to touch the ball round the post.

The Austrian goalkeeper reacted equally sharply to turn another Murphy shot away, after Owen and Smicer had opened up the Sunderland defence.