Brendan Rodgers was desperately disappointed after seeing his side 'throw away' three points against Derby.
Gylfi Sigurdsson opened the scoring on 56 minutes and we looked odds-on for all three points, but strikes from Paul Green and Rob Hulse turned the game on its head.
Despite a late red card for sub Shane Long we pushed hard for an equaliser, and Derby were defending for their lives come the final whistle.
Brendan said afterwards, "I'm very disappointed. For the first hour we did well, our organisation was good, we were a threat and we looked good going forward. We were good value for the lead and I thought we would get stronger.
"But once we went in front we started playing poorly. We're disappointed with the goals we conceded and our game management then was poor. Late on it was a war and we still had chances with ten men.
"I said to the players we need to see the game out better. For an hour we were the better side, without being at our best. Once we scored we should be able to pick them off."
Rodgers did not argue with the decision to send Long off, but rightly pointed out that our Irishman was clearly fouled just seconds before and the referee's decision not to award a free kick was key. "It was a definite sending off, a poor tackle by Shane. I don't like to see those type of tackles. But in Shane's defence there was a clear, clear foul on him and that was a really, really poor decision by the referee. Then the red mist came down and he caught him.
"Shane will be disappointed, he looked back to his performance level, he was leaner, athletic, and putting pressure on their back four.
"There was a similar tackle [by Rob Hulse] in the first half, I've got to say. Maybe not as bad but the same type of tackle, studs up. There's no argument with Shane's card, but if you look back we should have had a free kick in a very good position. Instead we ended up with a man sent off, which was a mistake by the official."
Sigurdsson made way for ex-Derby man Grzegorz Rasiak soon after scoring, and Brendan said, "In the first hour it was very difficult for our wide players to get into it, Derby sensed that was our danger so they went very tight on them. As we upped our intensity the game opened up. There was more space wide and we could get more crosses in. Therefore there's nobody better than Grzegorz in the middle, against his old club."
He concluded, "We've hit our target for the last four games, now we set our targets once more and go again. I can't be too critical because the team have done well recently. We've ended our mini-run and now we renew the motivation for Sheffield Wednesday next Saturday."
