It wasn’t subtle and it wasn’t pretty, but for Gerard Houllier it was a goal so necessary and so very sweet.
“It’s not players who get you the sack, it’s referees,” Houllier thundered.
As it was, Hyypia’s goal took Liverpool into fourth place in the Premiership, a position which, if Houllier’s side can finish there, would guarantee his survival.
There has been a precariousness about his team all season and it was essential there was some continuation of the fragile recovery which began with beating Portsmouth in midweek.
Wolves’s performance, so full of defiance, rendered incomprehensible the fact that theirs is the joint worst away record in the Premiership, and yet there was not even the reward of a point.
“It’s a cruel game. I don’t think we deserved that,” said the Wolves manager, Dave Jones. “We were at our best and still lost” Houllier has been wondering aloud where Liverpool would be had they not had so many injuries this season. Others ask what state Liverpool would be in if Gerrard had not stayed fit for most of the campaign.
He had recovered from an ankle knock to play yesterday, and again his physical presence and reserves of resilience and energy were pivotal for Liverpool.
Other players began cautiously, trying to gauge the full effect of the strong wind, but Gerrard, as is his wont, simply grabbed hold of the game immediately. After a surging break, he fed Jamie Carragher and Henri Camara had to sprint back to take the ball off Danny Murphy’s toes just as he was poised to shoot. Then Gerrard sent a chip to the edge of the box which held up for Harry Kewell, but he headed straight at Jones.
Kewell, who had been sick during the night, put in a peaky performance, but the Australian’s ineffectiveness was also a victory for Mark Clyde, the 21-year-old Northern Irish rookie who Jones fielded at right-back ahead of Denis Irwin.
There was more to Wolves than staunch defending, however, and Camara in particular caused Liverpool discomfort with his pace.
Paul Ince dummied Hyypia to exchange passes with Alex Rae and find Ioan Ganea, who threw a dummy of his own to open up enough space for a shot on the edge of the box, but Jerzy Dudek was out quickly to smother the effort. Kenny Miller, after a pacy, driving run, flashed a shot wide of Dudek’s post just before half time, a moment after Michael Owen had a similar effort at the other end.
That Owen was not given the chance to ameliorate his poor record from the penalty spot in the 26th minute left Anfield enraged. Houllier was still out of his technical area, jabbing an accusatory finger at Styles, fully five minutes after the incident. “If we had been given the penalty it would have given the game a quite different complexion,” he said.
Wolves had their own penalty claim in the second half when Ganea went down, not altogether convincingly, as John-Arne Riise challenged him for a Camara centre. Camara then almost embarrassed Dudek from long range but the Pole got across just far enough to get a parrying hand to the shot.
Wolves appeared the likelier team to score until Houllier made a double substitution which allowed Liverpool to regain momentum. El-Hadji Diouf proved feistier on the flank than Kewell, and Milan Baros added more pep to the attack than Heskey. Baros it was who crossed low into the six-yard box for Owen to go close. Wolves began to retreat and Jones later bemoaned the fact that their defending became panicky, resulting in them conceding a number of late free kicks around their own box. From one of these, Liverpool won the corner from which they scored.
Owen seemed to have wasted his team’s best chance to win five minutes from time when he hooked Florent Sinama-Pongolle’s knock-down over the bar. Following his two goals at Portsmouth, Owen’s frustrations returned – but Hyypia eased Liverpool’s.