Skipper Gerrard returned to the side that had been European heroes against Juventus on Wednesday only to miss the penalty that meant Liverpool had to settle for a single Barclays Premiership point against spirited Tottenham.

The performance ruined boss Rafael Benitez’s 45th birthday celebrations, and Gerrard suggested he would not be taking any more spot-kicks after his second-half blunder.

Gerrard said: “That’s me (finished) with penalties. I should have scored and I’m so sorry I missed and would like to apologise to the fans, my team-mates and the club. I blame myself for us not winning.”

The celebrations that followed the Champions League quarter-final success over Juventus were replaced by depression as Bolton leapfrogged the Reds into fifth place, with neighbours Everton now three points ahead with a game in hand.

The day of despair underlined the true reality of Liverpool’s problems. European success has masked the limitations in size and quality of Benitez’s squad and they have now won just two of the 12 league matches to have followed Champions League games.

Benitez clearly does not have the personnel to avoid to avoid such blows. He tried again to rest a few players against Spurs – with away games with relegation-threatened Portsmouth and Crystal Palace before the first Champions League showdown at Chelsea – but the tinkering did not work.

Spurs led twice at Anfield with fine goals from Erik Edman and Robbie Keane which were eventually clawed back by Luis Garcia and Sami Hyypia strikes.

In the middle of all this came the penalty Gerrard blasted high into the Kop, the weight of constant speculation over his future and his responsibilities to Liverpool seemingly taking their toll. He looked barely fit after his groin injury.

He said: “I decided to go for power and kept my head down as I ran to the ball. The lads told me their goalkeeper went early so if I’d looked at him I could have passed the ball in.

“The last time I took a penalty I went for placement and missed so that’s why I went for power this time. I think that’s the end of me on penalties from now on.

“I could also have won it with a shot against the post, it just wasn’t my day. I hope to get the chance to make amends over the remaining games.”

The England international added: “We dominated and threw away chances but if we keep playing like this we will pick up a lot of points in our last five games.

“We will keep trying to catch Everton and now Bolton. We need five good performances and I can tell the fans we won’t give up the battle.”

Benitez – so assured in Europe – got it wrong with his selection, trying to play all three centre-backs following the outstanding display by Sami Hyypia in Turin.

The Finn, whose future is also in doubt, has had to play second fiddle to Mauricio Pellegrino in recent domestic games but just could not be left out on form. He was included alongside the Argentinian and Jamie Carragher but there were too many moments of uncertainty.

Benitez tried to remain upbeat, saying: “If you look at the games left, Everton must play Manchester United and Arsenal and on the last day they are at Bolton.

“I am still positive, it will be difficult but we will do everything to achieve our aims.”

For Spurs the golden moment was Edman’s 35-yard stunner, with the Swede saying: “I have never done anything like that before, I don’t usually score at all.”

His boss Martin Jol can now see a genuine chance of UEFA Cup qualification, and said: “Liverpool are a fine team, you have to be to beat a team like Juventus so we knew this would be hard, but we handled it well and deserved the point.

“We played with two strikers and took the game to them and I do not think many teams will do that at Anfield, most prefer to play 4-5-1.

“We may well have stopped them playing like that, but we would probably not have scored and we needed the win as well.”

And on the excellent debut of defender Michael Dawson he added: “It was a beautiful way to make his debut, Dawson had a smile on his face and played very well. He is a great asset.”