LIVERPOOL left it late yesterday but Danny Murphy's 87th-minute penalty gave the Reds a slightly fortuitous win to make it three wins on the bounce and move further away from the mid-table position occupied of late.
As expected, Michael Owen and Steve Finnan returned to the side after Wednesday's win at Blackburn, but somewhat surprisingly Djimi Traore was retained at left-back and had something of a torrid afternoon.
Thankfully, unlike last year when we were two down within half an hour, the Reds started quite brightly and took the lead on 17 minutes through the prolific-right-now Emile Heskey. Three in two now for Emile, Dixie Dean's record edges ever closer.
It was a superb goal, the big striker ghosting ahead of his marker to volley Finnan's cross past veteran keeper Mark Crossley before he even saw it and it was no more than was deserved at that stage.
As happens so often though, going in front merely encouraged the team to sit back and invite pressure and an equaliser was on the cards well before Saha levelled shortly before half-time, after Volz and Malbranque had carved our left flank to bits far too easily.
The second half started in similar fashion and for a spell we were hanging on for dear life, with only the superb reflexes of Jerzy Dudek preventing Fulham from leading when he got a strong hand to a Saha blockbuster.
The boys needed to dig deep to wrest control back and thankfully, Gerrard and Hyypia started to assert their authority and push the Londoners back with Kewell starting to get some joy down the left as well.
Smicer came closest to regaining the lead for Liverpool, denied only by a great finger-tip save by Crossley, but it seemed the game was petering out tamely for a draw.
That was until, with only three minutes left, livewire substitute Pongolle turned brilliantly in the box and was caught by Knight for a penalty, coolly converted by Murphy.
There was still time for Boa Morte to be sent off for a ridiculous lunge on Pongolle but the Reds weren't to be denied and can approach a critical week with some optimism.
