CITY'S dressing room rallied round Shay Given to help him through his World Cup heartache.

And the Blues got the reward for their solidarity when the Irish keeper - perhaps cheated out of his last chance of playing in a World Cup finals by Thierry Henry's infamous handball - produced a stunning save to help his team to a 2-2 draw at Anfield.

Striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who later scored an equaliser to end his own scoring drought, revealed how a distraught Given received warmth and sympathy from his team-mates when he arrived back at the club.

Given had seen his hopes of a trip to South Africa next summer evaporate in Paris on Wednesday night, but was back at City's Carrington training base the following day.

And Adebayor was one of the first to try to perk up his spirits with an embrace and kind words.

The big Togolese striker's own World Cup hopes were ended by defeat in Cameroon last month, and he was quick to empathise:

"When I saw Shay in the dressing room on Thursday I went and gave him a cool hug and told him how we felt," he said.

"All the players - Craig Bellamy, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Kolo Toure - were all telling him that, and it was nice to hear. We knew in his head it was going to be difficult, and we knew he needed us so he could be 100 per cent for the game.

"We are family, and help each other to achieve things."

Remarkable

And when Given bounced back with his remarkable reflex save to keep out Martin Skrtel's header, and then put in a typically accomplished display, it came as not surprise, said Adebayor.

"We all know how good Shay is, how professional he is," he said. "It was typical of him, because he had that difficult moment last week and came back to show how good he is."

Adebayor also revealed that City's unity stems from a players' meeting at the start of the season, aimed at forging team spirit out of the summer imports and the remains of last season's squad. At the start of the season we told each other that we will fight for each other, in good moments and bad moments, and that is what we did with Shay," said Adebayor.

"We showed him we love him, and that even in his bad moments we will still support him. We are all together."

The draw keeps City neatly placed in sixth, on the shoulder of Spurs and Villa, and ahead of Liverpool.

Streak

And Adebayor feels there are maybe six teams chasing the four Champions league places:

"I think it's between Liverpool, City, United, Arsenal and Chelsea, plus Villa," he said. "It will be tough until the end of the season."

The stalemate took City's run of draws to six on the bounce, the longest sequence for 96 years, but Adebayor says that some draws are better than others, and that a point at Anfield is a positive - even if the Blues did take the lead through Stevie Ireland with 15 minutes left.

"We were losing 2-0 at home to Burnley before we came back to 3-2 and drew in the end," he said. "And the draw at Villa was a good draw. We were supposed to beat Burnley, but that's football.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with our consistency. We just have to keep focussed, keep doing what we love doing best and hopefully on Saturday we'll get back our winning streak.

"Not everyone will lead 2-1 at Anfield, and we just have to believe that we can do it, and that we can finish in the top four.

"The boss believes that, and the players believe it, so there is no reason we can't achieve our dreams."