Wimbledon piled on the misery for Liverpool at Selhurst Park as the storm clouds continued to gather over Graeme Souness.
Just three days after their FA Cup humiliation by Bolton, Souness' ramshackle Liverpool side were hit by goals from John Fashanu and Steve Cotterill to continue a run of seven games without a win - and Wimbledon could have done more.
Souness dropped goalkeeper Mike Hooper and striker Ronnie Rosenthal after the Bolton debacle, bringing back David James and Mark Wright.
But with four other key men injured, Liverpool were struggling before the game even kicked off.
Liverpool had the better of the first half-hour as Don Hutchison, Mark Walters and John Barnes all missed chances.
At that stage Liverpool looked good - but Wimbledon punished them mercilessly for their inaccuracy.
In the 36th minute Liverpool's Danish defender Torben Piechnik pulled down Dons forward Cotterill and Fashanu, playing with a cast on a broken wrist, slotted home the penalty.
It was the beginning of the end for Liverpool, who never seriously threatened to come back into the game.
James made brave saves from Neal Ardley and Lawrie Sanchez and at the start of the second half was in action again, denying Andy Clarke, Sanchez again, and then diving at the feet of Fashanu to save after Sanchez's header hit the bar.
Steve Harkness cleared Cotterill's lob off the line but the inevitable second came in the 62nd minute.
This time Gary Elkins' free-kick was flicked on by Fashanu, Robbie Earle's shot was blocked by the brave James but Cotterill - who last week asked for a transfer - cracked home the loose ball from 10 yards.
Liverpool never recovered and Wimbledon had registered their third home win of the season, completing the double over the troubled men from Anfield.
Wimbledon boss Joe Kinnear had words of sympathy for Souness: "They are not the team of old," admitted Kinnear. "They have got a lot of young lads in there. But Graeme has got enough points to make sure there is no danger of relegation. They have got enough class to stay in the Premier League. Only time will tell if they go on to better things. But in the first 20 minutes they played extremely well. They played us off the park. But we dug in there - our two centre backs were magnificent, and we survived and gradually got going.
“Once we got our noses in front we created a few chances. We put them to the test really. In the end we would not have been flattered by four goals. We are just delighted to get three points. We have had a good week after beating Everton in the Cup - now we've done the double over Liverpool. We've lost one of our last eight games now, hopefully that will continue."
Souness declined to comment after the match, boarding the Liverpool team coach straight afterwards with his players and racing away.
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