Liverpool 0-0 Bolton Wanderers: Immediate Reaction

Bolton Wanderers put in a heroic defensive performance at Anfield to hold Liverpool to a 0-0 draw and earn themselves an FA Cup Fourth Round replay.

Adam Bogdan pulled off a series of saves, including a great stop from Fabio Borini and an alert block from Raheem Sterling, while the new three-man defence in front of him was nothing short of brilliant as they restricted a dominant Liverpool.

The hosts enjoyed 68% of possession, and found themselves camped in Bolton territory for vast periods of the match. But they were largely restricted to long range shots as Bolton's defence showed superb organisation and work rate to prevent Liverpool from breaking through - indeed, Liverpool had 24 shots at goal, but only nine hit the target.

Matt Mills and Dorian Dervite in particular were exceptional. Mills picked up an early booking for a silly tackle on Sterling, but didn't let that worry him as he put in blocks and tackles galore on the tricky, pacey forward. Dervite probably had his best game in a Bolton shirt and was a colossus at the back, time and time again frustrating the likes of Sterling, Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho.

But it wasn't all about defence for Wanderers. Indeed, they could easily have nicked it in the second half as two chances fell to Eidur Gudjohnsen. The first came from Tim Ream's lovely ball into the box from the left, Eidur tried to sidefoot the ball towards the bottom corner but it appeared to deflect wide off Sakho, even though the referee gave a goal-kick. Just three minutes later Josh Vela combined well with Dean Moxey, and the young midfielder pulled the ball back to Eidur on the penalty spot only for the Icelander to fire over the bar left-footed.

With that Bolton's attacking threat came to and end and the hosts pressed hard for a winner. Mills was replaced by Spearing- potentially with fears of a second yellow in mind - which saw Neil Danns fill in at centre-back, but Bolton continued to show dogged resilience. Borini sent a near post header wide, Henderson shot wildly wide and then Lucas Leiva stung Bogdan's fingertips - but Liverpool simply couldn't find a way through.

Wanderers will take great heart from their superb, resilient defensive display, which was a sign of how much we have improved under Neil Lennon. If we can get a few attacking players, such as Craig Davies, Zach Clough and Chung-Yong Lee, back fit and add extra bodies ahead of the replay then we have a great chance of pulling off an upset at the Macron.