Who said lightning never strikes the same place twice?

Who said lightning never strikes the same place twice? Robbie Fowler soared like a hawk in the second minute of injury time to give Liverpool a dramatic 4-3 win over rivals Newcastle.

That is exactly how it finished 11 months ago but though this seven-goal thriller was a very different affair, its importance will be just as crucial as Roy Evans' men race onto the heels of leaders Manchester United, just a point behind.

For the Geordies, defeat spells the end of their own title dreams, a fifth away defeat leaving them nine points adrift. But for manager Kenny Dalglish this was an emotional return to his old stamping ground which plumbed depths and the heights, but ended in almost disbelief.

He suffered the greatest insult of his a managerial life when a Newcastle fan threw his black and white shirt in his face in disgust as his side seemed to throw away their chance in an abject first half. But he finished looking for a well-deserved grovelling apology after his side battled back to 3-3 with goals from Faustino Asprilla and Warren Barton in the last three minutes.

That should have been it, but then Stig Bjornebye raced down the left and pumped a high ball into the middle. Little Fowler outjumped everyone to steer his second goal of the game past a stunned Shaka Hislop and history had repeated itself. To be fair, it was probably Liverpool boss Roy Evans who ended the game feeling like throwing himself in the Mersey.

He said he would settle for a repeat of last April's scoreline but will have nightmares about the cavalier way Liverpool sacrificed a winning lead. The Newcastle fan had it right as his side produced the most abject 75 minutes anyone can remember.

Dalglish has never won at Anfield as a visiting manager, but he took Liverpool to three championships, and this was ground on which he completed Blackburn's revival with the league crown in 1995. But a heavy first-half humiliation - initiated by the current possessor of his famous number seven shirt, Steve McManaman - was too much too bear for the Geordies who believed they were witnessing more than just the end of their own title dream.

Their side's craven surrender also marked the internment of the last vestiges of the romance and bravado the original Merseyside icon Kevin Keegan brought to the game. A year ago he brought a side brimming with attacking instinct and excitement to fully contribute to the game of the season. This time his pragmatic successor took a niggardly view, lining up with a miserly 4-5-1 in the absence of Alan Shearer and with Les Ferdinand still not fully fit.

Such pessimism invited punishment and when McManaman and Patrik Berger scored in the space of 70 seconds midway through the first half, followed by Robbie Fowler's 24th, the £60million pre-season favourites looked dead and buried. The visitor ripped off a shirt no fans wear with greater pride, jumped over the barrier at the Anfield end, ran down the touchline and flung it with immense symbolism at Dalglish.

There was worse to come, a half-time gamble on Ferdinand which badly misfired when the England striker limped back to the treatment room after just 11 minutes and the sight of yet another Liverpool favourite, Peter Beardsley, made the scapegoat by Dalglish.

Like Blackburn, Newcastle have become a club too heavily dependent on Shearer and suffer in his absence, there is clearly dressing room dissent, articulated by unsettled Frenchman David Ginola, and they showed a defeatist attitude that was unprecedented in Keegan's reign. Not until the ever-eager Keith Gillespie conjured a goal out of nothing in the 70th minute did they rediscover the pride and passion.

Then Asprilla punished Redknapp's mistake to lob in an improbable second in the 87th minute and mission impossible was completed a minute later when Barton bundled over after the ball broke loose from the Colombian's challenge on a shell-shocked David James.

Copyright - Press Association