"I am very happy with this result," said Houllier. "We have the yellow jacket now we have got to keep it.
"I always tell my players to keep focused and they did against a very good Tottenham side. People may say we were fortunate to win this game but we were very unfortunate to share the points with Newcastle. In the second half besides their goal Tottenham only had the one chance which was a very good save by Dudek and we had one great chance with Michael.
"Danny scored a magnificent goal and deserved it. The good thing is we are growing in maturity and mental strength. We didn't let our heads go down when Tottenham equalised and we kept going forward and got our goal.
"I'm pleased for Michael as he showed a lot of strength and character and took the penalty well. He is only 22 but it was not an easy penalty. There was pressure to put us 2-1 in front and he had just been fouled, but he showed his strength and character. There was never any doubt that Michael would take the penalty.
"The competition is very open and it's still early days in the Premiership. We have stepped up the pace and we will try to keep that position. The press writing about us say we can't win the league so I'm happy with them to just keep writing that."