Referee Howard Webb said his involvement in Wolves' second goal during Tuesday's Cup win over Birmingham was "the lowest point of my career".



Webb, widely regarded by many as England's best referee, failed to award Birmingham a clear penalty just before half-time after Wolves defender Richard Stearman brought down Marcus Bent in the area - an error he later admitted having reviewed the match video.

He was then at the centre of controversy again in the 51st minute after accidentally blocking Radhi Jaidi's pass on the halfway line.

Jaidi subsequently directed the ball into the path of Wolves striker Andy Keogh, who fed Michael Kightly and he squared for Sam Vokes to wrap up the 2-0 win.

Webb told Birmingham's official website: "I am disappointed to have an influence on a goal like that. It is probably the lowest point of my professional refereeing career.

"I am disappointed and it is not what you want to be a part of at all.

"It is difficult because the ball comes at you with pace and you think you are in the best position, but then something like that happens and they break away and sod's law says they go and score from it.

"You want the world to swallow you up at that moment.

"I have spoken to the management of Birmingham and they have been outstanding having accepted it and shown no animosity at all.

"They dealt with it in an excellent way - but I was almost more disappointed with the penalty incident."

Sammy Lee is hopeful hospital-bound Rafa Benitez will be back at Melwood in time to oversee final preparations for next week's derby double header.

The gaffer will undergo a third operation on troublesome kidney stones today, leaving his assistant to lead training.

Lee told Liverpoolfc.tv: "It's a difficult time for him because, you know Rafa Benitez - all he wants to do is be out there on the training pitch with his players. That's his forte. But he's still buoyant.

"He's going for the third operation but we're hoping it won't keep him out for too long - hopefully just a couple of days.

"All credit to Rafa for what he's put in place. His attention to detail and organisation means that, if any one of us is missing, there won't be a blip."

Benitez underwent his first operation back in December, returning to the dressing room when Bolton visited Anfield on Boxing Day.

Since then the Spaniard has watched matches from the directors' box.

Lee joked: "You certainly get a different view of things up there - but he sees things that I don't when we're both on ground level, so there's no difference there!"

Meanwhile, Lee echoed the view of Albert Riera that Liverpool's disappointment following Saturday's Stoke stalemate was a measure of how far they'd come.

He said: "That's the measure of this team at the moment - that we go away from home and get a point in the Premier League and we're disappointed. Devastated is a bit strong but the lads were bitterly disappointed.

"We go for all three points but we have to take the positives. The game didn't transpire how we would have liked - we had control and we lost it. But the positives, for me, were that we got a point and we didn't concede from the many, many set pieces that they had."

The weekend ended with Liverpool four points clear at the top following Manchester United's 3-0 win over Chelsea.

Asked whether he bought into some pundits' view that Chelsea were now out of the title race, Lee said: "A lot of pundits have said there's only one team that can win the league - and I don't buy into that, either. You can't rule teams out in January.

"We can't keep looking over our shoulders. We've got to do what we've got to do."

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