Heskey's revenge!

The £11m player Liverpool signed from Leicester last season was being booed by both home supporters and the 3,000 travelling City fans as he struggled to make any sort of impact.

Then, suddenly, all his earlier mistakes were forgotten as he scored a super winner to leave City with nothing to show from an encouraging performance in the opening match of their second Premiership season.

The goal, worthy of an England striker, crowned a sustained 25 minute spell of Liverpool pressure immediately after half time, but it also says much about City's resolute performance that it needed a special goal like that to break them down.

Even in the face of a flowing tide of penetrative Liverpool attacks City were just about surviving mainly thanks to some superb saves from Matt Clarke.

Anfield is a special place for City's first choice goalkeeper since it was on this famous ground that he made his City debut last season - on a Monday night in front of Sky TV cameras when Gary Walsh went down with flu.

For most supporters, that was their first look at Clarke who had joined City during the summer on a free transfer from Sheffield Wednesday under the Bosman Ruling.

He impressed that night and did so again again as he produced superb saves to deny England under-21 international midfield player Steve Gerrard, England striker Michael Owen and Heskey before he was beaten in the 66th minute.

Heskey pulled away from Ian Nolan and outpaced David Hopkin before lashing a superb angled shot into the far top corner of the net giving Clarke no chance.

What a contrast it was in the first half as City not only contained Liverpool in defence but gave them plenty to worry about in attack.

On the face of it, manager Chris Hutchings' choice of five players in midfield with Dean Windass as the lone striker and new signings Benito Carbone and Ashley Ward on the bench seemed to be a defensive formation.

It didn't turn out that way, though, as City took the game to Liverpool at every opportunity and denied them possession.

One of the down sides of last season was that City too often gave the ball away, something no team can afford to do in a quality league like the Premiership.

To try to cure that problem, Hutchings and his coaching staff have been working the players hard in pre-season to improve the quality of their passing and this paid dividends in a highly encouraging first half performance.

Windass, who is so valuable to the side whether he plays in his natural striker position or as a combatative midfield player, worked hard as the only striker and might have earned a penalty when he fell in the box under a fierce challenge from Stephane Henchoz.

Referee Paul Durkin was unmoved, but he was quick to book defender David Wetherall for a tackle from behind on Heskey.

The midfield did their best to support Windass, none better David Hopkin who tested goalkeeper Sander Westerveld with a rasping first time shot from 30 yards when Windass chested the ball down to him.

Then, three minutes before half time in just about City's best attacking move of the match he raced on to a superb through pass from Lee Sharpe only to see Westerveld come quickly off his line to block the shot.

Wetherall and his 21-year-old partner Andrew O'Brien, who were two of the rocks on which City's Premiership survival was built last season, were again in superb form at the heart of the defence, frustrating Liverpool for long periods and restricting them to sporadic attacks.

Skipper Stuart McCall and Gareth Whalley linked up well in midfield to help City to keep possession.

It was a different story in the second half. Liverpool, who needed to quicken the tempo, turned up the pressure after the break and Clarke, who hardly had a serious shot save in their first half, was soon busy.

Liverpool's £6m signing from neighbours Everton, Nick Barmby, who'd had a quiet first half, came more into the game on the right while Gerrard showed his England credentials in the centre of midfield, but the player who caused City most problems was Czech international Vladimir Smicer down the left.

Smicer, who was arguably the game's best player, was at the heart of most of Liverpool's best moves as the mounted wave after wave of attacks which resulted in the winning goal.

City brought on both Carbone and Ward 16 minutes from the end to try to rescue something from the game and eight minutes later left winger Peter Beagrie also came on to give them more attacking options in the closing stages but to no avail.