Just to cheer you guys up
On this day January 22, 2002
Danny Murphy hit the winning goal at Old Trafford for the second year running as Liverpool notched up a fifth straight victory over their fierce rivals.
The former Crewe man, who had curled home a delightful free-kick to secure the points in the same fixture the season before, did it again, this time nipping into to lob a sublime effort over Barthez on 84 minutes after an audacious clipped pass by the irrepressible Steven Gerrard.
It was a goal that was more than worthy of winning what was a titanic struggle between two of English football's most decorated sides and moved Liverpool to within two points of United at the top of the table.
Stand-in boss Phil Thompson led his side into the lion's den on the back of a run of just one win in their last nine league matches.
But the Reds held the Indian side over Alex Ferguson's men back then and a heroic performance got Liverpool's title bid back on track and seriously dented the hopes of the reigning champions.
It was the perfect pick-me-up for Gerard Houllier to watch from his sick bed and gave the Reds the confidence to go on and push Arsenal all the way in the title race.
Matchwinner Murphy was delighted that lightning had struck twice and hoped the 1-0 success would be the springboard to greater things.
Murphy said: "It's nice to score the winner here again but the most important thing was to win the game.
"The fans gave me a bit of stick at the weekend and they are entitled to their opinions, but I was delighted to get on the scoresheet tonight.
"Steve Gerrard played in a hell of a ball and I caught it just nicely. He gave me a similar pass at Blackburn which I fluffed so it was nice to see it go in tonight.
"We've had a hell of a run lately and this is a great win for us. The important thing now is to make sure we build on this. There's no point winning here if we don't beat Leicester next week. We can't afford to mess up in that game."
Danny Murphy hit the winning goal at Old Trafford for the second year running as Liverpool notched up a fifth straight victory over their fierce rivals.
The former Crewe man, who had curled home a delightful free-kick to secure the points in the same fixture the season before, did it again, this time nipping into to lob a sublime effort over Barthez on 84 minutes after an audacious clipped pass by the irrepressible Steven Gerrard.
It was a goal that was more than worthy of winning what was a titanic struggle between two of English football's most decorated sides and moved Liverpool to within two points of United at the top of the table.
Stand-in boss Phil Thompson led his side into the lion's den on the back of a run of just one win in their last nine league matches.
But the Reds held the Indian side over Alex Ferguson's men back then and a heroic performance got Liverpool's title bid back on track and seriously dented the hopes of the reigning champions.
It was the perfect pick-me-up for Gerard Houllier to watch from his sick bed and gave the Reds the confidence to go on and push Arsenal all the way in the title race.
Matchwinner Murphy was delighted that lightning had struck twice and hoped the 1-0 success would be the springboard to greater things.
Murphy said: "It's nice to score the winner here again but the most important thing was to win the game.
"The fans gave me a bit of stick at the weekend and they are entitled to their opinions, but I was delighted to get on the scoresheet tonight.
"Steve Gerrard played in a hell of a ball and I caught it just nicely. He gave me a similar pass at Blackburn which I fluffed so it was nice to see it go in tonight.
"We've had a hell of a run lately and this is a great win for us. The important thing now is to make sure we build on this. There's no point winning here if we don't beat Leicester next week. We can't afford to mess up in that game."
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