They say no pain, no gain, and that was certainly the case last week as I sought to recover from my groin injury in time for Saturday's match against Liverpool.

The injury had ruled me out of the last match against West Ham and I hadn't really done much in the way of training since the previous match against Blackburn.

They didn't really want me to do anything at all because of where the injury was and I was told not to do anything cardiovascular for at least five days after it occurred. My fitness was decreasing daily as I wasn't able to do sit-ups or anything like that.

It was hard because you want to maintain whatever fitness you have but I had to let things take their course.

I had been hoping to train on Tuesday but when it came around the physio took me in for some more treatment. He really got his fingers into me and I thought afterwards 'There's no way I can train today'. I felt worse than I did when I went in!

I thought that would rule Wednesday out but I was hopeful that I would be OK on Thursday to go out training with the lads.

I did do a little bit of running on the Wednesday but as it was I was back with the physio on Thursday for a hard session.

I didn't actually get to train with the team until Friday - the day before the game. But I felt OK and made myself available for selection.

I knew I wouldn't last 90 minutes and so didn't expect to be in the starting line-up but I felt capable of doing a job from the bench.

As it turned out we lost 3-0 and with the result went our record of being undefeated at home for over a year.

There wasn't too much talk about it, although some of the guys were a bit upset. But we just have to have put that behind and look to start another run.

Before the match the belief was that they were a good Liverpool team, but they weren't the greatest Liverpool team and they could be beaten.

The manager, Kevin Keegan, didn't want to speak about their striker Michael Owen, who before Saturday had only scored once all season.

He didn't want to tempt fate but as it was he went on to score a hat-trick!

We certainly didn't do ourselves any favours because within five minutes Michael had scored.

It was the kind of opportunity that if you have not been scoring you jump at - a couple of yards from goal with no defenders around.

We had two opportunities to clear it but we didn't and the ball bounced perfectly for him and it just said 'hit me'.

Because of the timing of the goal we felt we were still capable of turning the match in our favour, especially as we were at home and we should be able to dictate the pace of the game.

But Liverpool were very well organised. They played a 4-4-2 formation and the back four and midfield four were always within 15 yards of each other. They moved forward and back in a line and that makes it difficult for teams to break them down.

We had a lot of possession but it was always in front of their midfield four and from those positions you can't really hope to do too much damage.

We went in 1-0 down at half-time and there was no talk about substitutions. The manager just went around individuals telling them what he expected of them.

But after 61 minutes I was brought on to replace Darren Huckerby. I was told to play centrally rather than going out wide, get hold of the ball and try and link up with the midfield.

But it wasn't to be and within three minutes we went 2-0 down. Michael then wrapped up his hat-trick with a goal in the 89th minute.

We were beaten because we couldn't deal with their gameplan.

They counterattacked but when they did they only sent three or four men. When we got the ball back and tried a counterattack of our own they always had five or six men back defending.

Even though they were attacking with pace and within the space of two passes were on the edge of our box they were only committing the minimum number of players required.

That game is now in the past and we have the perfect opportunity to get the result out of our system tonight when we play Second Division Crewe at Maine Road in the second round of the Worthington Cup.

No-one knows who is going to play, but players have been guessing that one or two people might be rested.

I would hope to start and if I do I imagine I will be playing with Darren Huckerby with Nicolas Anelka left out.

From my point of view it is an opportunity for me to have 90 minutes and if I am important in the manager's plans then this would be a good time to put out a strong team and improve one or two players' fitness.