Match Report- Liverpool 1 Southampton 2 An out-of-sorts Liverpool side slid to a 2-1 defeat to Southampton at Anfield. Brett Ormerod scored for the Saints after just 72 seconds and they doubled that lead on 64 minutes through a Michael Svensson header. Even a late rally and an even later Emile Heskey goal failed to get Liverpool back into the game. Southampton boss Gordon Strachan stuck with the players that beat Charlton last weekend and his side went ahead from a cleared Liverpool corner. Claus Lundekvam cleared the danger from deep in his own half to send Ormerod away. With Liverpool's central defenders both caught upfield from the corner, Dietmar Hamann was exposed and Ormerod raced away before shooting past Chris Kirkland from 12 yards. Jon Otsemobor made some enterprising runs on the right and created headed chances for Vladimir Smicer and El Hadji Diouf - but Liverpool lacked inspiration. Smicer's surge into the box on 30 minutes ended with him hitting the ground in front of the Kop after colliding with Lundekvam, but referee Paul Durkin waved away appeals for a penalty. Liverpool's best first-half effort came from Otsemobor's approach play when he produced a flighted ball into the box and Danny Murphy flicked a shot just over. Southampton lost Lundekvam with an ankle injury, Chris Marsden going on and Danny Higginbotham moving into central defence. The visitors had a great chance to double their lead on 50 minutes when James Beattie raced into space on the left, leaving Igor Biscan stranded. His cross fell to Marian Pahars on the edge of the box but the Latvian lifted his shot wide. Beattie was lucky not to concede a penalty after flattening Diouf in the box from behind a minute later but the striker should have scored on 55 minutes when Kirkland palmed his firm header away. A minute later Liverpool introduced Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec and it produced an initial spark. Smicer surged through on the left to see his shot blocked, with the ball breaking to Sinama-Pongolle, whose effort was turned away by Antti Niemi. From the resulting corner, Sami Hyypia climbed to send in a header which was kicked off the line by Jason Dodd. But Southampton went down the other end and doubled their lead when Svensson powerfully headed Jason Dodd's corner past Kirkland and into the roof of the net off Smicer. Liverpool poured forward and Otsemobor and Gerrard had both forced saves from Niemi when Heskey gave the home side hope when he stabbed the ball into an empty net with 15 minutes to go. Higginbotham had to hack a goalbound Sinama-Pongolle effort off the line on 79 minutes. Niemi then saved a Heskey header from Gerrard's cross, but it would have been an injustice had the Saints been robbed at the death. source: Ananova