It was a night of unbridled celebration for the Merseysiders. Not only did Fowler become the first of the club's four strikers to score since the turn of the year but his colleagues, Fernando Morientes and Peter Crouch, also ended their embarrassing Premiership goal droughts and manager Rafael Benitez reaffirmed his commitment to the Anfield cause at a time when speculation is rife about a return to Spain to take charge of Real Madrid.
Reports before the match suggested that Benitez had signed a new four-year contract extending his tenure at the club by 12 months to the summer of 2010 but he refused to confirm that afterwards. "We are talking," he said. "But I'm happy here and they are happy with me. It is not a problem."
The probability of Benitez remaining to build on last season's remarkable Champions League triumph provides as big a lift to the club as their biggest Premiership win of the season and the manager was delighted afterwards with the way the evening developed.
"I can understand you wanting to talk about Robbie's goal and it is important for him to score," said Benitez. "But it is also important for Morientes and Crouch. Perhaps this will end all this talk about our strikers not scoring and it gives me a selection problem for our next match against Newcastle."
Fowler was ecstatic to reopen his Liverpool account five years after his previous goal for his home-town club. "It's been a long time and people have pointed that out," he said. "It's so pleasing to get off the mark again. Another pleasing thing is that our other strikers have scored as well so that should take the heat off us a bit."
Chris Coleman, Fulham's manager, felt the margin of defeat did not do justice to the performance of his team. "The scoreline looks as if something is terribly wrong," he said. "But we played some lovely stuff out there and at 2-1 there was a lull in the crowd because Liverpool were starting to get nervous."
The statistics indicate, however, that there is no better invitation for out-of-touch marksmen to regain their finishing touch than a visit from Fulham as Fowler proved when he headed home from close range after Luis Garcia had flicked on a Harry Kewell corner.
After Morientes had twice spurned good opportunities, Fulham equalised from their first serious attack. Daniel Agger, partnering Jamie Carragher in central defence, underhit a pass to Steven Gerrard and Mark Pembridge pounced, allowing Luis Boa Morte to set up Collins John, who shot through the legs of Jose Reina.
Fulham were on terms for only nine minutes, though, Michael Brown handing the advantage back to Liverpool in turning the ball into his own net as he attempted to cut out a Kewell cross meant for the unmarked Morientes.
After both teams had struck the frame of the goal - Garcia for Liverpool and Zat Knight for Fulham - Djibril Cisse made an immediate impact as an unpopular replacement for Fowler, rising to meet a Gerrard cross and forcing Tony Warner to drop the ball in the six-yard area for Morientes to score.
Crouch then ended his barren spell in the Premiership from even closer range and Liverpool's other substitute, Stephen Warnock, completed the rout by scoring his first goal for the club in stoppage time.
