Houllier hopeful of top four spot

Last updated : 02 May 2004 By Chris Maxwell
Goals after the interval from Danny Murphy and Emile Heskey gave Houllier's men a comfortable 2-0 win that their dominance deserved on a sun-baked day on Merseyside.

The Reds now stand a point above Aston Villa and three-points ahead of Newcastle in the all-important fourth spot, and a delighted Houllier has every faith in his Liverpool squad as they approach must-win games with Birmingham and the sixth-placed Geordies.

Houllier said: "The defeat against Charlton probably effected our confidence but I have every confidence in the boys that they will make it. The fight for the fourth place will go maybe right to the end. We’ll give our best shot to secure that place.


"I thought it was a cracking game of football. The first half was high tempo, both teams wanted to score and I enjoyed it. The boys did extremely well in terms of defending because Middlesbrough were coming to get a result.

"In the second half we had more penetration and a couple of good moves and scored two good goals. Michael was instrumental because he got the penalty and made the second goal for Emile.

"After that we tried to keep the result more than get a third goal but you can understand that in the position we are in. I thought at times we were a bit nervous and bit tense but we had some really good movement in the second half."