NEWCASTLE, United Kingdom (AFP) - Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard admitted that his side's inability to overcome 10-man Newcastle United took some of the sheen off his 100th Premier League goal.
Gerrard reached the milestone with a 42nd-minute penalty in Saturday's 2-2 draw at St James' Park, cancelling out Yohan Cabaye's long-range opener for the hosts.
However, although Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa was sent off for the foul on Luis Suarez that produced the penalty, Liverpool needed another equaliser from Daniel Sturridge after Welsh academy graduate Paul Dummett restored the hosts' lead.
Chelsea's 4-1 win over Cardiff City later in the day meant that Liverpool slipped to third place in the table, while Newcastle climbed into the top half.
"It's a chance missed for us today (Saturday). I thought we did enough to win it, but credit to Newcastle for hanging in there," Gerrard told BT Sport.
"After the sending off, the game changed. They started strongly but we dominated the rest of game, but couldn't get enough goals to win it.
"I thought our all-round game was very good. Often you come back after international duty lacking a bit of energy." On becoming the 24th player to score 100 league goals in the Premier League era, the England captain added: "It would have been nice to do it in general play and I feel disappointed we've not got the three points."
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers heralded his captain, who also scored one of the goals that took England to the World Cup in Tuesday's 2-0 win over Poland at Wembley Stadium.
"It's a monumental contribution. I have watched him play for many years as a young player and probably for me, his best Premier League goal came at this ground when he played against Newcastle," Rodgers said.
"He scored an absolute screamer here, from a free-kick. But he's an incredible player and I am fortunate enough that I get to know him as a man as well.
"As a captain, he has been brilliant for me. He understands the manager's role and respects it.
"He is a great player who has got many more goals to come as well. You see his fitness level - people talk about him and his fitness and how is he at 33? "Well, he's played two really tough international games, played at a high level and he has also got a really good performance in today, so he is still fresh and looking very, very good."
Rodgers saw his side romp to a 6-0 victory in last season's corresponding fixture at St James' Park in April, but he admitted that Newcastle fully deserved a share of the points from their latest encounter.
"They've got some outstanding players with great pace and quality who can hurt you," he said.
"The last time we played here we won 6-0 - that was never going to happen again." Newcastle manager Alan Pardew felt that French centre-back Yanga-Mbiwa was unfortunate to have been sent off.
"I thought it was a tough call today. I don't think Mapou really pulled him down in a manner that was a definite sending-off," he said.
"He got a little piece of him, he was the last man and I suppose by the letter of the law, he had to go. I haven't got a massive problem with it." Several hundred Newcastle fans had protested about owner Mike Ashley's management of the club prior to kick-off, but Pardew felt that those inside the stadium had behaved impeccably.
"We showed today that we can fight when we need to and therefore I am immensely proud of the whole day, really," he said.
"Our fans were brilliant - Steven Gerrard coming to take a corner and being applauded by our fans and stuff like that. It was just a great day for football."
