With all the recent debate surrounding the atmosphere (or lack of it) on home territory, this game provided a backdrop to a show of support from around 7,000 travelling fans of a fervour seldom these days, certainly on Tyneside.

However, despite all the cheering and shouting, the songs the homeward-bound mags sang at the end were ones of defiance and pride rather than celebration. Certainly if this was our Cup Final then we marked the occasion with a display on and off the field that was reminiscent of a Wembley day out.

As ever in an Anfield pre-match build up there had been one or two mentions of those memorable but painful seven goal roller-coaster rides of the 90s.

And when Robert lashed in another goal of the month contender to level the scores after barely four breathless minutes, it seemed that we could be on for another epic evening.

Unfortunately and not for the first time this season, the rigours of cup football proved to be too arduous and another braved but flawed effort sent both Manager and Captain one fruitless season closer to the final curtain.

For Sir Bobby there's little solace in the fact that he'll no doubt have a nice seat at Cardiff courtesy of the FA, while for the number nine there may only be one more opportunity to dream of emulating those 1950s open top bus tours through the toon before his boots go on ebay.....

And if we're looking for reasons as to why the dream died for another season, starting with Shearer is as good a place as any. It's no doubt a source of irritation to him that he chose this game to pay tribute to the departing Carl Cort by emulating the Londoner's fitful contribution to first team games.

In typical style though, Shearer almost had the last word at the end of a totally forgettable ninety minutes as he belatedly worked an opening to find himself in the rare position of having both ball in close proximity as well as sight of the goal.

But Dudek was equal to his shot and when his fist took the ball into the mass of away fans in the Anfield Road end, we knew then that the game was up - despite referee Poll indicating a corner kick.

That lack of enthusiasm for the flag kicks had been borne out of an evening when the man who lashed in the early leveller had proved frustratingly incapable of conjuring up crosses that got further than the defender stationed at the near post.

After a recent improvement in his all-round game that had brought spectacular strikes and deserved praise, it was hugely deflating to see Robert fail to make a significant contribution to the "wor effort" in the 86 minutes following the goal that silenced the Kop and sent the opposite end of the ground mental.

In a game when we desperately needed service from the flanks, too often we were unable to deliver crosses for Shearer to attack from both open play and setpieces, with what possession we carved out towards the dead ball line at the home end often frustratingly ending up at the feet of Hughes or Bernard, with no end product.

But after commenting that the number nine gave us little and suffered from a lack of service from wide areas, he also failed to have the luxury of supporting partners too often.

Speaking of defenders, our new first-choice pairing of Woodgate and O'Brien just about held firm, although the disappearances of both full backs at various times did cause them (and us) some concern.

And before we're accused of mounting a hate campaign against our former Forest midfielder, we'd better just say he continues to disappoint and leave it at that. But that second goal came from another piece of slack, casual play and an avoidable loss of the ball in a dangerous midfield area.

While there's only really been Viana to claim his shirt recently though, with the return of Bowyer to fitness it'll be interesting to see which of Bobby's England midfielders gets the nod, with the added factor of Bellamy also on his way back to usurp Dyer.

Certainly tonight we could have done with something more combative in the centre of the park than what we had - something like Gerrard, who showed more strength and drive than most of our lot and still found time for an illegal and unpunished trademark two-footed lunge. Would that our lightweight troops had managed to get stuck in to that extent and break our new year resolution to avoid yellow cards....

If there's one massively frustrating element to this tie, it's that we seemed to have done the hard work by half time, quietening the home crowd (in truth a remarkably easy feat) and achieving the slightly more demanding task of containing Michael Owen.

Regrettably we failed to build on that reasonably solid opening forty three minutes (after the early lapse that had 4-3 thoughts spinning through the brain once more) and allowed the home side to dominate midfield after the break.

Quite simply with Dyer, Jenas, Solano and Robert we didn't have enough strength to hold the reds off when they stepped up a gear - and crucially we lacked the genuine pace or inspiration to get behind and through them as they went looking for the winner.

For once though Robson was right to take off Solano, who was starting to run out of steam and making little headway down the right, although there's still a sneaking suspicion that the Peruvian's withdrawal is somehow linked to the audibility of the chanting of his name by the toon sections.

When the dust settles on this tie, we can count ourselves unfortunate not to have pulled out a second successive away tie at a tricky venue and slightly unlucky that Shearer's late effort didn't secure a replay. Otherwise though, like the Wembley days out there was the over-riding feeling that we just hadn't done enough to warrant a place in the Fifth Round draw.

We borrowed a stock non-league phrase earlier in this report about it being our Cup Final and while we won't be debuting at the Millennium Stadium come May, we'll still hopefully be in contention for a Champs League  when our league season ends with a repeat of this fixture.

For that reason alone it's to be hoped that Owen and co. are still dreaming of the FA Cup at that point - on this evidence we'll need all the distractions or helping hands we can get to snatch fourth spot if we need anything whatsoever from that final day trip to Anfield.

Biffa