SAM Allardyce has sprung to the defence of teenage debutant Danny Livesey, refusing to let the young defender carry the can for Liverpool's second goal in Saturday's Reebok thriller.

The 17-year-old Salford boy was thrown in at the deep end after just half an hour when Anthony Barness was forced to pull out with a hamstring problem and did not look out of place in top flight company. But there was a hint from his senior colleagues that they felt he could have done more to prevent Milan Baros stealing in for the second Liverpool goal.

The manager was having none of it, however. "I saw one or two of our players pointing the finger for the second goal but I can assure you it wasn't his fault," Allardyce insisted. "It was the defence as a unit for standing still and not defending the cross properly.

"So you can't point the finger at the young man. He doesn't know these kind of things yet but others around him do and, basically, that's why we conceded the second goal. Baros was on the move and we stood still and that just can't happen in any kind of defending whether you're on the half way line, midway through your own half or in your own box."

Livesey, who has come through the Wanderers academy ranks after being spotted playing for Salford Boys, has been knocking on the first team door since making a big impression at centre-back in the reserves last season.

"It was a bit nerve-racking at first," he admitted. "I didn't expect to go on but Barney got injured and they just said 'Get warmed up, you're going on!' I was a bit nervous.

"I knew I was in the squad on Friday but didn't know until an hour before kick off that I was on the bench."