SOCCER: ANDY HUNTERon the aftermath at Anfield as Liverpool's manager reflects on the import or a crucial victory

RAFAEL BENITEZ savoured “the perfect response” to the worst spell of his Liverpool reign yesterday as victory over Manchester United rescued the Anfield club’s season and prompted another attack on a refereel from Alex Ferguson.

The United manager, charged by the English FA for criticising Alan Wiley’s fitness against Sunderland, claimed home fans had influenced referee Andre Marriner at key moments of Liverpool’s 2-0 triumph. But not even Ferguson could deny that Liverpool merited a result that ended a damaging sequence of four successive defeats and lifted the pressure on Benitez.

Defeat left United two points behind Chelsea at the top of the table and Ferguson bemoaning two incidents involving Jamie Carragher, the first when he challenged Michael Carrick inside the Liverpool area and then when he hauled former Anfield hero Michael Owen to the floor but was only booked.

“It was a disappointing afternoon. It was a disappointing performance,” the United manager said. “Liverpool were the better team, they deserved to win the game, but there were so many controversial things that happened we have to feel aggrieved at some of them.

“ Michael Carrick gets a clear penalty kick as far as I was concerned. Jamie Carragher has gone right over the top of the ball. If it is outside of the box it is a free-kick and maybe a yellow card. But it was inside the box and the referee was only six yards from it. It was a bad decision, I think.

“It’s a very difficult atmosphere here. There was a wounded animal aspect to the game and it was something we didn’t overcome. I think it affected our players and it affected the referee. Whether he had enough experience or not, I don’t know.

“The most controversial decision was Carragher bringing down Michael Owen. He was clear through. The laws of the game were altered to prevent professional fouls of that nature and if Jamie Carragher goes off, he is their best player and their captain. It would have been a different game. They would have been under pressure.”

Fernando Torres turned the game in the 65th minute with an outstanding finish that will raise fresh questions over Rio Ferdinand.

Both Nemanja Vidic and Javier Mascherano were dismissed, the Serbian for the third successive time in this fixture, before Torres’s replacement David Ngog sealed a precious triumph.

Benitez only decided to deploy Torres on the coach journey to the stadium, with the Spaniard still recovering from an adductor strain that kept him out of defeats to Sunderland and Lyon, and was rewarded with the latest rescue act of his tenure.

“We knew that we needed to change, we knew that we needed a little bit of luck and we needed to win,” said Benitez. “It is a fantastic result, and maybe it was the perfect game because we knew that we had to perform against a good team in front of our own fans. All the players wanted to win. They all showed character and today was the perfect response from them.”

On Torres, who tormented Vidic and Ferdinand once again to score his ninth league goal of the season, Benitez added: “There wasn’t a big difference between the two teams but Torres made the difference with his goal. It was a difficult decision [to start him] because Fernando had not been training like [Steven] Gerrard.

“I talked with Fernando on the coach on the way here and after this I spoke with my staff and we decided to play him from the beginning. You could see that he was not 100 per cent and you could see that he was not fresh but still sometimes 80 per cent of Fernando can make a difference.”

Liverpool’s victory came after another protest march by thousands of supporters against Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the club co-owners who were present at Anfield, and a renewed vote of confidence in Benitez, this time from the managing director Christian Purslow.

“Liverpool Football Club is on a long-term journey and that journey is to be the most successful club, firstly in our country and secondly in the world, and you don’t do that by worrying about short-term results,” he said.

“You do that by having long-term plans centring on the people and the strategy. Rafa Benitez is absolutely central to that plan.”

After the game Gary Neville and Jonny Evans were involved in an altercation with Liverpool stewards who prevented them warming down in front of the United fans. The pair eventually trained at the other end.