Wolves 0 Liverpool 3: Liverpool secured the first win of Kenny Dalglish's second coming with a rare away win against the opposition whose victory at Anfield just weeks ago marked a new low for the Merseysiders.

Wolves’s 1-0 win at Anfield on December 29th prompted the Reds faithful to turn on Roy Hodgson and call for their hero Dalglish to be reinstated. Three-and-a-half weeks later, a side unrecognisable from that dishevelled outfit inflicted the heaviest defeat of the season at Molineaux.

To boost spirits on Merseyside even further, Fernando Torres scored two of the three and almost looked back to his old self, while Raul Meireles’s man-of-the-match performance was capped with a stunning second half volley.

Dalglish was buoyed by the pair’s performances.

“Raul played very well, he made the first and scored the second. He’s a very good footballer," he told Sky Sports 2. “It takes a wee bit of adjusting getting up to speed with the the Premier League and he’s getting up to that level; he’s a talented footballer.

“We have some good footballers here, some intelligent footballers and if we keep the work-rate from today we’ll be okay. I thought Fernando was fantastic too, apart from the the two goals he worked his socks off. He was threatening and that performance will do for us every day of the week.”

As for the club’s reported €5 million move for Blackpool’s Adam, Dalglish was giving little away when asked to keep the fans informed.

“We know more about what our fans want than you (the media) do. If we’ve got business to do we’ll do it behind closed doors. If there’s a story to tell then we’ll do that. I know what’s going on (regarding transfers) but that doesn’t mean I have to tell you.”

The result moves Liverpool up to 10th ahead of the afernoon games, five adrift of Sunderland in sixth.

Meireles, playing in the attacking midfield role given to him by Dalglish in the absence of Steven Gerrard, serving the final game of a three-match suspension, has now scored in his last two matches and his form presents his manager with a conundrum for the midweek visit of Fulham when the captain will be available again.

Christian Poulsen’s restoration to the starting line-up began badly with a fourth-minute booking but his day was to improve with the defence-splitting pass which created the goal. It was a rare moment of quality in a first half which was spoiled partly by the poor state of the pitch and partly by the teams, neither of whom really got into their rhythm.

The Denmark international is intrinsically associated with Roy Hodgson’s six-month reign of failure at Anfield but Dalglish believes he has more to offer - which is more than can be said for the former Fulham boss’s other maligned signing Paul Konchesky who failed to make the squad.

Poulsen’s repertoire is not renowned for having many creative interventions but the pass he picked out Meireles with was perfectly-executed through the inside-right channel.

The Portugal midfielder, played onside by full-back Ronald Zubar on the other side of the pitch, seized on the opportunity and raced into the penalty area

before cutting the ball back to Torres who side-footed home one of his most straightforward chances of the season.

Meireles had a decent half without being dominant, certainly in the physical midfield battle with Wolves, but showed his class prior to setting up the goal with a brilliant 40-yard diagonal pass to pick out Torres only for the striker to cut inside and shoot straight at Wayne Hennessey.

He also flashed a half-volley wide of the goalkeeper’s right-hand post as he continued his improvement in the advanced midfield role he prefers.

Wolves’ two best efforts of the first half were Kevin Doyle’s mis-hit cross from wide on the right which almost caught out Jose Reina, who did well to smother Steven Fletcher’s close-range shot at the far post in added time.

Dirk Kuyt should have doubled the advantage early in the second half when put through one-on-one by Maxi Rodriguez but he delayed his shot and Hennessey charged out to block.

The Wolves goalkeeper was powerless, however, to do anything about the second when it came in the 50th minute.

Daniel Agger’s long punt forward was only partially headed clear by Christophe Berra, under pressure from Kuyt, and Meireles lashed a brilliant dipping 25-yard volley inside Hennessey’s left-hand post. The Portugal international had been threatening to do something similar all season and the confidence from his maiden Liverpool goal in last weekend’s Merseyside derby showed in the quality of that right-footed strike.

Wolves responded with a brief spell of pressure but although Liverpool have the league’s worst record for squandering points from winning positions they held out.

Jonjo Shelvey, on as a substitute for Poulsen, should have put the game beyond doubt with only his second touch — his first having set up his chance from Meireles’ pass — but blazed wide with only Hennessey to beat.

Torres continued to pose a threat on the counter-attack and in added time fired into the roof of the net after Kuyt’s strong run into the area followed a 30-pass move from the visitors.