SOCCER/Liverpool 2  Tottenham 2:Wretchedness can arrive in the deepest of disguises. A draw at Anfield? Beforehand that would have seemed like a mercy to Martin Jol but it proved an act of cruelty instead. An equaliser for Liverpool in stoppage-time not only snatched away a first Tottenham Hotspur league victory at Anfield since 1993 but suggested once more there is a flimsiness to Jol's side.

A problem shared was not halved. Liverpool, beaten at home by Marseille in midweek, were prone to uncharacteristic defensive lapses and appeared so dismayed that a recovery was slow to develop. "Two mistakes changed the game," said a morose Rafael Benitez, brooding on the visitors' recovery from 1-0 down to grasp a 2-1 lead. A pair of direct and similar goals were humiliating for a back four who had cracked only twice in the league before this. "It is difficult to explain," a dumbfounded Benitez said of the goals, "because it was so easy to defend against them."

If a scapegoat had been essential there was one with greying whiskers available to be ladened with the blame. That would not have been a suitable present for a centre-half on his 34th birthday and, although Sami Hyypia was outjumped by Dimitar Berbatov at each of the Tottenham goals, there was cogency to Benitez's argument that the defence had been quite effective of late, despite the absence of Daniel Agger through injury.

Jol was more confident about the reasons for the outcome. In the 88th minute the Liverpool goalkeeper, Jose Reina, had come out of his area to head away and it was a pivotal moment because referee Mark Halsey accepted a linesman's decision that the Spaniard had been obstructed by Gareth Bale as he pursued the loose ball - otherwise Pascal Chimbonda would have had a free run to the goalmouth. "I couldn't understand it," said Jol.

Whatever the causes, there is an ambiguous conclusion to the run of six games, since the defeat by Arsenal, that was meant to present the Tottenham manager's case for keeping his job. That unbeaten stretch of the season is a gnomic piece of evidence. The only wins to be found in the sequence came against Anorthosis Famagusta, in the Uefa Cup, and Middlesbrough in the League Cup.

Jol can point to the sort of strong spirit that a galvanised Tottenham demonstrated to draw 4-4 with Aston Villa but it is still too easy to breach his team. No one stopped Steve Finnan from crossing deep in the closing moments and Fernando Torres was not prevented from levelling the score with a downward header in what had otherwise been a mediocre display by him.

The Tottenham manager's prospects of staying in employment at White Hart Lane cannot have been altered appreciably. "There is nothing to discuss with Martin. Everything is fine," the chairman, Daniel Levy, said.

Liverpool, as Benitez would claim, were in command for nearly all of the first half. Their opener came in a rather familiar way. Steven Gerrard's free-kick was spilled by the goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, and Andriy Voronin followed up to tuck the ball into the net.

Jol observed the set-piece had taken a deflection off Jermaine Jenas and that Gerrard's attempt had then come off Robinson's knee. There was further dubious handling from Robinson after the interval when Michael Dawson had to clear.

Liverpool may have been thwarted by the slight loss of confidence that prevents a side from being poised. Prior to the interval, for example, Voronin had passed to Gerrard when the Ukrainian was better placed to finish himself. The shortcomings cannot be blamed on squad rotation because this was close to Benitez's best XI. It looks, instead, as if an extreme emphasis is placed on Gerrard and he was not especially influential here.

For a phase, Tottenham were calm , used the ball prudently and looked ready to make the most of Robbie Keane's two goals. Robinson kicked downfield for both and Berbatov glanced each kick towards the Irishman in the 45th and 47th minutes. Keane finished coolly each time, with the second shot particularly impressive as he acrobatically cracked a drive over Reina from an angle.

Liverpool did not react well and, until Torres's header, only Javier Mascherano had been close to a leveller for a line-up who have not entirely shaken off their predictability.