By James Cox
Liverpool won their first league game since August after deservedly beating Blackburn 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Soritis Kyrgiakos (photo) and Fernando Torres scored the goals with a Jamie Carragher own goal sandwiched in between them in a manic five minutes at the beginning of the second half.
The home side started brightly and Joe Cole forced a brilliant reaction save from Paul Robinson before Raul Meireles put the rebound wide of the goal.
Robinson had to be alert again when diverting a header over the bar from Kyrgiakos, who was a threat all afternoon. Steven Gerrard also forced a smart save from the former England goalkeeper following a swift counter attack from a Blackburn corner.
The second half had barely begun when Liverpool took the lead, Kyrgiakos rose highest to meet a Gerrard corner, and planted a header firmly in the corner, albeit with a deflection off Martin Olsson.
Liverpool then should have had a penalty when Kyrgiakos was pushed by Phil Jones just before putting the ball in to an empty after Robinson had denied Maxi Rodriguez.
Blackburn had barely fashioned a chance all game, but equalised two minutes later when some poor Liverpool defending, which has been their biggest problem this season, allowed Benjani to escape down the right before pulling the ball back for El-Hadji Diouf whose shot was cleared off-the-line by Paul Konchesky, but the ball ricocheted off Carragher and in to the net.
Diouf as ever relished getting one over his former employers, although it went down as a Carragher own goal, his seventh in Liverpool colours in the Premiership.
Liverpool regained the lead three minutes later when Fernando Torres tapped in Joe Cole’s excellent cross to end his goal drought stretching back to the end of August, coincidentally when Liverpool last won in the league.
The victory still leaves Roy Hodgson’s side in the relegation zone but they will hope to build on the performance next Sunday at Bolton.
