Liverpool: Rodgers Hails 'Brilliant Win'

Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is confident the dramatic victory over West Ham United is a sign of things to come...

Liverpool recorded their first back-to-back league wins of the season on Sunday afternoon after coming from behind to defeat West Ham United.

Speaking at his post-match press conference Kop boss Brendan Rodgers analysed: "It's a brilliant win for us. Sam's done a terrific job here and in particular this year. He has made it very difficult for teams to come here to Upton Park, as we saw with Chelsea last week [West Ham won 3-1].

"My players were brilliant; they have been through a lot this week in terms of travel. I thought we thoroughly deserved the win in the end and I'm delighted for the players because they put so much into the game."

The visitors, who were also victorious in the Europa League on Thursday night, started the match brightly and took a deserved lead after 11 minutes courtesy of a fine strike from distance by Glen Johnson.

However, the Hammers soon began to threaten themselves and a quick fire double before half time via Mark Noble's penalty and a Steven Gerrad own-goal sent the hosts into the break ahead.

With time running out it looked doubtful whether or not Liverpool would take anything from the game but substitute Joe Cole popped up with a 76th minute equaliser before Jonjo Shelvey, aided by a deflection off James Collins, completed the comeback three minutes later.

"The first 25 minutes, we were outstanding, some of our play was great and it was capped off with a great goal by Glen Johnson. The penalty knocked us back a bit, probably because we felt it was a wee bit unjust," commented Rodgers.

"And then all of a sudden, for the last 20 minutes of the first half, we stopped playing. Half-time was just about reinforcing to the players that we had to keep playing.

"We had to keep the tempo, keep moving, keep passing and the opportunities would come for us and in the second half we did that. We showed terrific spirit and that bit of steel to get the win."

The victory, which also saw the Reds score in the final 15 minutes of a league fixture for the first time this season, lifts them to 10th in a tightly contested table.

Next up Liverpool welcome lowly Aston Villa to Anfield before a run of festive fixtures, against Fulham, Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers, from which Rodgers and his side will be looking for a sizeable points haul.

"We're just trying to build momentum. We had a difficult opening fixture list and when you couple that with trying to play a certain way of football, it was always going to be difficult," added the 39-year-old Northern Irishman.

"But certainly over the last few weeks we have progressed - let's just see how we finish. This is one of the biggest clubs in world football and everyone knows where it should be.

"We're making steady progress in climbing the league and that's important for us. It's a very tight league this season. We've supposedly had an unbelievably bad season up until now, so once we really hit form we'll be alright."

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