“I DON’T think you will be disappointed,” wrote Sir Alex Ferguson in his match programme notes. Not for the first time, Liverpool found themselves at odds with the irascible Scot yesterday.

Having gained a landmark victory at Old Trafford just 12 months earlier, normal service resumed for Rafael Benitez’s side as their mini-revival came to a shuddering halt amid regret and recrimination.

And if defeat to their most bitter rivals wasn’t difficult enough to swallow, it was the manner that will most stick in the craw of Liverpool supporters.

Sure, fingers will be pointed at referee Howard Webb for handing United the immediate lifeline of a controversial penalty after Fernando Torres headed the visitors into an early lead.

But Liverpool’s lacklustre second-half performance against underwhelming opposition meant they can ultimately have only themselves to blame for another hammer blow to their hopes of Champions League qualification.

After all, it wasn’t Webb who stupidly hauled back Antonio Valencia that led to the gift of a spot-kick Wayne Rooney converted at the second attempt.

It wasn’t Webb who twice failed to extinguish United’s threat down the Liverpool left that directly led to the visitors conceding. And it wasn’t Webb who allowed Ji-Sung Park to saunter in unmarked and head the winner on the hour.

While United stay on track for a fourth successive title – which would, let’s not forget, surpass Liverpool’s total of 18 – Benitez’s side are in desperate danger of missing out on fourth place.

The towel will never be thrown in until that target is mathematically impossible, but it would now take something miraculous for Liverpool to qualify for the Champions League with Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City having stolen an ominous march over the weekend.

Indeed, it is becoming glaringly obvious that changes must be made over the summer if the Anfield outfit aren’t to be left trailing further behind for years to come.

Quite what they are and who actually makes them, though, is another matter entirely.

Torres’s opener – his 18th goal in 29 outings this season – was as good as it got for the player and his team yesterday.

The Spaniard, who celebrated his 26th birthday on Saturday, became increasingly frustrated and agitated, picked up another needless booking and twice missed presentable chances to equalise, that last of which came in the final minute.

But if more was expected of Torres, the same could be said for too many Liverpool players, including skipper Steven Gerrard, whose fluctuations in form appear in tandem with his team’s setbacks in recent months.

Ferguson may have successfully planted a seed by claiming the Football Association were biased in Liverpool’s favour over the decision not to punish Gerrard over his flare-up with odious Portsmouth midfielder Michael Brown last Monday.

Yet Webb already has previous with Benitez’s men this season, having ignored claims of a clear handball inside the area by Cesc Fabregas at the Emirates in February.

Certainly, his overall performance did the visitors few favours.

If seeing their team overshadowed on the pitch isn’t bad enough, Liverpool’s fans are being told in many quarters that United’s yellow-and-green protest against the Glazers is the right way to demonstrate unrest against American owners.