Kenny Dalglish set his sights on winning a place in Europe after John Pantsil’s own goal gave Liverpool a 1-0 win over Fulham, continuing their revival under the Anfield legend.
Dalglish was able to celebrate a second successive victory following Saturday’s 3-0 win at Wolves thanks to the blunder by Pantsil in the second half at Anfield.
Wednesday’s result lifted Liverpool up to seventh in the Premier League and gave the Reds their first back-to-back victories since beating Bolton and Chelsea almost three months ago.
Photo: REUTERS
On another day, Fulham could easily have won as Mark Hughes’s side squandered several glorious chances and left Merseyside wondering how they had not managed to earn even a point.
However, Dalglish is confident Liverpool, who are nine points behind fourth placed Chelsea, can climb higher and challenge for a Europa League place or possibly even a Champions League spot.
“I think we are better than seventh,” he said. “We will not get carried away — we want to be further up there than that. We want to win more games and we will try and do that. We are delighted to be up to seventh in the Premiership because we have been through four of five hard games, so the lads can be very happy.”
Liverpool had an early Fernando Torres goal incorrectly ruled out for offside and looked the better side in the first half, but they failed to make the most of their possession.
However, they made the most of Pantsil’s error shortly after the break when he tried to clear off his own goal line, but sliced into his own net.
Liverpool were expected to then dominate, but the opposite happened as Fulham looked the more offensive and disciplined side.
Brede Hangeland’s header was cleared off the line by the impressive Raul Meireles and Mousa Dembele missed a glorious late opportunity, to go with the sitter he also squandered in the first half.
“I think to be perfectly honest, Fulham will be feeling hard done by,” Dalglish said. “They will be thinking they deserve something from the game, but there’s been many games when we thought we were worth something as well.”
“Fulham are very well organized and passed it about well, but we got away with it. We are delighted with the three points and the commitment and we will be ok,” he said. “They showed great determination and effort not to give up. It’s great credit to them. They have a week off now and a break and that sort of victory has been a long time coming and because we worked hard we got the slice of fortune.”
“I’m delighted with the attitude and commitment and the harder you work the luckier we get,” he added.
Hughes said afterwards that he was at a loss to explain how his side had lost.
Fulham have very real relegation worries as they sit just four points off the bottom three in 15th place, but if they can produce performances like this one they should have little to worry about.
“I have been involved with many teams as a player and manager and come here and been totally dominated and were lucky to get anything,” he said. “But this was the total opposite. We came here and really took the game to Liverpool and not to get anything out of it is very disappointing because we certainly deserved something.”
“Apart from one five to 10 minute spell after half time when we invited them on to us and they got the goal from our consecutive errors, I thought we were by far the dominant team, but we didn’t make that dominance count and that pretty much sums it up,” he said. “This doesn’t dent our confidence because we are playing well. Everyone can see we are an accomplished side and will be even stronger next year.”
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
Robin Smith, the batter who shone for England in a period when it was beaten regularly in Test cricket, has died. He was 62. Smith’s family said in a statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that he died unexpectedly at his home in Perth, Australia, on Monday. No cause was given. He played 62 Tests for England from 1988 to 1996, scoring 4,236 runs at an average of 43.67 with nine centuries. His signature shot was the square cut. Smith also played in 71 one-day internationals and was part of England’s squad who reached the 1992 ICC World Cup final. His unbeaten
SSC Napoli on Sunday joined AC Milan at the top of Serie A after winning 1-0 at title rivals AS Roma, as Inter kept pace with the leading pair by beating Pisa SC 2-0. David Neres stroked home the only goal of a feisty game in the 36th minute at the Stadio Olimpico, ending a blistering counterattack with a calm finish which put Napoli on 28 points. Napoli are behind Milan on goal-difference, and just one point ahead of both Roma and Inter in a tight scudetto battle in which Antonio Conte’s team are to host Juventus at the weekend. “To come to
RSS