Everton remained on course to finish above Liverpool in the Premier League for the second season in a row after holding their city rivals to a 0-0 draw in a scrappy Merseyside derby at Anfield yesterday.

Liverpool’s best chance saw a goal-bound effort from man-of-the-match Steven Gerrard cleared by Everton defender Sylvain Distin, who had a goal contentiously disallowed at the other end.

The draw left Everton somewhat marooned in sixth place in the table, five points above their neighbours and five points below the European qualifying positions with two games to play.

“I don’t want to be a whinging manager, but we scored a legitimate goal today and it should have counted,” said Everton manager David Moyes. “We’re still in there. We picked up a point again. We’ve got two games to go and we’ll keep pushing to try to get in there [the top five] if we can.”

The draw also meant Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher failed to finish on the winning side in his 30th and final Merseyside derby.Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was content withthe resul“I can have no complaints,” he said. “The players gave everything and the very least we deserved was a point.”