SAM Allardyce wrestled with mixed emotions after seeing a point won and lost in the space of 30 dramatic seconds at a packed, sun-drenched Reebok on Saturday.

Ivan Campo, signed on loan from Real Madrid on transfer deadline day, crowned his home debut with Wanderers' second equaliser three minutes from time but before the manager could get the shut-up-shop message through to his players, Emile Heskey scored at the other end to secure a 3-2 win for Gerard Houllier's Reds.

"It's a great shame," Allardyce said, summing up his anguish. "It was a thriller but I hate being on the wrong end of thrillers.

"I feel absolutely gutted but we can't do anything about it other than praise the players for their efforts and commitment and the skills they've shown against a Liverpool side that's supposed to be streets ahead of us, which I don't think they were."

Liverpool's late winner made up for last season's 2-1 defeat in the corresponding fixture when Dean Holdsworth fluked a late goal that signalled the end of Sander Westerveld's Anfield career - an irony not lost on Allardyce.

"Full marks to them," the Wanderers' boss added. "They stuck to their task and gave us our own back from last year but I certainly thought that, when Ivan Campo scored, we would see the game out. I came down screaming and shouting to try to get a 'back nine' with a four (defenders) and a five (in midfield) but I don't think we touched the ball from their kick off to them scoring the third goal.

"There's very little as a manager or as a coach that you can do. You try and get it sorted out but, in fairness to Liverpool, it was a great finish and, of course, very sad for us that we haven't picked up a point which I think we deserved.'

Coming on the back of the confidence boosting single goal victories over Aston Villa and Manchester United, the performance delighted Allardyce, especially in the light of the efforts the players had put in at Old Trafford just three days earlier.

"All over the park there was not a player who did not try his hardest," he said. "A bunch of players playing with knocks and tired muscles because of their efforts on Wednesday, a bench that had two youngsters (Danny Livesey and Jonathan Walters) and someone else (Campo) who has only been with us a couple of weeks and we've matched Liverpool.

"That's a massive positive but at the end of all that, while patting the lads on the back for how well they've played, the bottom line is the disappointment of no points."

Although it was a painful lesson learned, Allardyce believes the experience should silence supporters who are critical of containing tactics to secure results.

"I didn't see the goal coming but what I did foresee was that Liverpool were going to throw absolute caution to the wind in the last three minutes because they were very disappointed at losing a goal at that late stage," he explained. "And we had to cope and combat that.

"It shuts many people up who watch the game and say 'Why do you keep so many men back in the last few minutes when you're winning a game or drawing a game?' I think they finally saw why on Saturday and perhaps they've learned a lesson from that.

"I was trying to get the back four nice and tight, nice and narrow, to block the middle of the goal and the middle of the field and get a midfield five in front of them so there was nowhere for the ball to go.

"But we made slight errors and slight misjudgments defensively and Liverpool punished us heavily. We got a little over-excited and didn't calm ourselve down. Somebody should have got the ball away as far as they could and we should have seen the game out.

"It's unfortunate. Everybody's played their part in a thriller but, although it might sound harsh and critical, scoring two goals at home and not getting any points is not acceptable from my point of view."