In the end another draw for Manchester City against Liverpool, but this time nowhere near as damaging as when the sides last met at Maine Road.

That previous encounter was back in May 1996 on the final day of the season when a 2-2 draw sent City down to the First Division.

One of the abiding memories from that match, which is burnt into the memory of every City fan, was the sight of Blues midfielder Steve Lomas running the ball into the corner to timewaste - wrongly believing a draw would be enough for safety.

It wasn't then, but a draw now, courtesy of Danny Tiatto's equaliser, could prove to be vital in City's bid to avoid relegation.

It inches City ever closer to manager Joe Royle's survival target of 38 points.

Perhaps more importantly, this performance and result, against one of the Premiership's form sides, prove that City are good enough to stay up.

Indeed they worried Liverpool for periods of this match and Darren Huckerby was a constant threat.

At the other end, Nicky Weaver was not that busy and the Reds were somewhat subdued.

City had made four changes, including FA Cup goalscoring hero Shaun Goater in place of bad boy Paulo Wanchope, who has been transfer listed after one bust-up too many.

Liverpool also made four changes and they brought back the impressive Jari Litmanen, Emile Heskey, Christian Ziege, who was awful, and Steven Gerrard, who surprisingly lined up at left-back.

The Reds had not won at Maine Road since 1991 and they began intent to put that right against a City side that had won just one of their previous 14 league games.

Gary McAllister swung in a near-post corner to Sami Hyypia, who flicked it on for Markus Babbel to connect with a header which Weaver touched over for another corner.

Vladimir Smicer should have given Liverpool the lead during a quiet opening when McAllister's corner glanced off Steve Howey's head but the Czech somehow headed wide from just a couple of feet out.

Huckerby was causing Liverpool problems with his pace and he sent over a great right-wing cross which was just too far in front of Alfie Haaland.

The Merseysiders were really struggling with Huckerby's speed and the City hitman latched on to Goater's through ball to leave Babbel for dead only for Westerveld to come out and make a great tackle on the edge of his area.

Gerrard then accidentally 'fed the Goat' with a weak defensive header, but fortunately for him, the Bermudan international fired over.

Liverpool weathered this spell of pressure and a minute before half-time they produced the best move of the half to take the lead.

Litmanen played in Smicer on the left and he pulled the ball back for Heskey to power home his 17th goal of the season.

It was the perfect way for Heskey to mark his return to the side after starting the last two matches on the bench.

Loan signing Andrei Kanchelskis came on to make his City debut at the start of the second half as a replacement for hamstring-victim Andy Morrison.

Within two minutes of the restart, City levelled to the delight of the home fans in the 34,629 crowd, which was the Blues' biggest of the season.

Huckerby's pass rebounded off Stephane Henchoz to Goater, who pulled the ball back for Tiatto to fire home into the roof of the net.

It was only Tiatto's second goal of the season and the first Liverpool have conceded in 420 minutes of action.

Liverpool almost hit back straight away and Weaver made a point-blank save from Litmanen before McAllister robbed the napping Gerard Wiekens and shot high and wide.

Back came City and Kanchelskis went on one of his trademark runs before slipping the ball through to Huckerby, who shot just past the far post.

By this stage Liverpool had brought on Robbie Fowler and he soon made an impression.

He created a chance for Heskey, which was spurned, before he headed over and shot wide.

That proved to be the sum total of Liverpool's efforts to find a winner as the Reds' poor away form continues.

Teams:

Man City: Weaver, Haaland, Tiatto, Morrison (Kanchelskis 45), Howey, Whitley, Dunne, Wiekens, Granville, Goater, Huckerby (Ritchie 77).

Subs Not Used: Grant, Prior, Nash.

Booked: Whitley.

Goals: Tiatto 48.

Liverpool: Westerveld, Hamann, Ziege (Diomede 54), Henchoz, Hyypia, Smicer, Gerrard, McAllister (Biscan 77), Babbel, Litmanen (Fowler 61), Heskey.

Subs Not Used: Nielsen, Vignal.

Booked: Diomede.

Goals: Heskey 43.

Att: 34,629

Ref: P Jones (Loughborough).