Liverpool made their own luck, says Dalglish

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish admitted his side rode its luck but nonetheless deserved a 1-0 win at Anfield over Fulham on Wednesday.

Liverpool clinched their first home victory under Dalglish’s new reign thanks to a own-goal from John Pantsil.

They survived a series of scares – particularly in the final 10 minutes – to clinch a victory that moves them up to seventh in the English Premier League table.

“Fulham will be feeling a little hard done by. They will feel they deserved something from the game,” Dalglish said.

“But the boys showed a great amount of determination and effort and it’s a great credit to them.”

“That type of victory has been a long time coming and because we worked hard we got a little bit of fortune. I’m delighted with their attitude and commitment to the cause. The harder you work the luckier you are going to get.”

Dalglish was happy to move into the top seven but hinted Liverpool would not stop there.

He added: “I think we’re better than that but it’s getting a wee bit more realistic.”

“We are not getting carried with being seventh, that’s not where this football clubs wants to be; we want to be further up than that. But to do that we need to win more games, starting with Stoke next Wednesday.”

Fulham manager Mark Hughes said his players found it hard to hide their disbelief after ending the game with defeat.

When told that Dalglish felt Fulham would feel hard done-by to lose the match, Hughes said: “That’s some understatement! We are shaking our heads in there,” he said.

“I’ve been involved in many teams as player and manager coming here and been totally dominated and lucky to come away with anything. But tonight was the complete opposite. To take the game to Liverpool and not get anything out of it is disappointing because we deserved something. We were by far the dominant team.”