It looked like being another frustrating afternoon for Liverpool until Luis Suarez cancelled out Chris Herd's first-half opener inside the final 10 minutes.

And Dalglish was pleased with the way his men stuck to their task.

"The performance from 20 minutes before the interval to the end of the game, they were excellent," he said.

"We showed a great deal of determination and commitment but Villa had their goal which gave them something to hold onto.

"They had a lot of resolve but we kept plugging away.

"We were delighted with the players."

Decisions

Indeed, Dalglish reserved his criticism for the officials rather than his own players.

When asked if his team just needed a bit of luck, the Liverpool boss responded: "And decisions.

Liverpool were denied several penalty shouts for handball, including a strong appeal against Eric Lichaj, while Alan Hutton appeared to trip Suarez before the break.

"Most of the things that haven't gone in our favour have been out of our control and I think that was reflected today with certain things," he added. "We can't do much more than that.

"(There is) No frustration on our part. The frustration would come if I were in charge of the referees' association."