Published: 23 Dec 2011 – 08:46:57

Midfielder Charlie Adam has no qualms about taking Liverpool’s next penalty despite squandering the spot-kick which saw his side lose ground on the Barclays Premier League’s top five.

Having created a number of chances against Wigan on Wednesday night, Gary Caldwell’s handball gave the Reds the perfect opportunity to break the deadlock just after half-time.

But Liverpool’s penalty curse continued as Adam, who has scored the team’s only effort from 12 yards at West Brom in October, made it four failures in five attempts with goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi saving. “I never thought I made a good connection with the penalty and the keeper made a good save but I’m disappointed I didn’t score,” Adam said.

The Scotland midfielder has now joined Luis Suarez, Dirk Kuyt and Andy Carroll in having missed from the spot this season, but that will not stop him stepping up for the next one.

He added: “I scored the last one I took and was confident but I missed it. But if the opportunity comes around again I will be there to try to take another one.”

Manager Kenny Dalglish tried to remain positive after the Reds saw another golden opportunity slip through their fingers.

“We will keep getting in there and if we keep getting penalties someone will step up to the plate and take them,” he said. “That is four misses now; it is not pleasant or deliberate but great credit to the boys for continuing to get in there.”

Missing chances, not just from the spot, has been Liverpool’s problem all season as they have hit the frame of the goal 16 times and scored just 20 goals in 17 Premier League matches. Wigan was just another example of that but Adam stressed they had to forget about past matches and concentrate on what was ahead.

“We probably should have killed the game off (at Wigan) but it is one of those things and is difficult to take but we move on to Boxing Day (at home to Blackburn) now,” the Scot said. “It is disappointing that the amount of ball we had we didn’t capitalise on it but fair play to Wigan they did well and we are disappointed we didn’t get three points.

“We want to try to win every game but sometimes in this league it doesn’t happen like that but once you suffer a disappointing result it is how you react. It will be two difficult games (Blackburn and Newcastle at home) coming up but there are a lot of games over the Christmas period and we are looking forward to it.”

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