Torres lifts the gloom at Anfield

Fernando Torres
12 April 2012

Striker Fernando Torres ended his six-match goal drought with the winner against Blackburn in a 2-1 victory which provided a much-needed boost at Anfield.

Goalkeeper Paul Robinson had kept the Reds at bay until Sotirios Kyrgiakos' 48th-minute header and although a Jamie Carragher own goal quickly levelled things up Torres struck only his second of the season soon after.

It ended a run of seven matches without a victory in all competitions and although it was still not enough to lift Liverpool out of the bottom three the result came as a welcome relief.

Torres, starved of service, has looked woefully out of form with his only goal coming in the 1-0 win over West Brom at the end of August. However, if the Spain international could have chosen any team to play against it would have been Rovers, against whom he has now scored five times in their last four meetings.

And it can be no coincidence Liverpool's only two Barclays Premier League victories have been as a result of Torres applying the decisive finish. It was the very least representatives of New England Sports Ventures, in the crowd after their £300million buy-out just over a week ago, will have wanted to see.

It may have been for their benefit that there was a guest appearance by Gerry Marsden to sing a live rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone. The change in the pre-match routine appeared to have the desired effect on Liverpool but, although it was as positive a first half as they had put in under manager Roy Hodgson, it still failed to produce a goal.

That was in part due to Robinson, who was at his sharpest to deny the hosts on several occasions. His best save came in only the eighth minute when Torres' ball around the corner to Maxi Rodriguez saw the Argentina international cross low for Joe Cole but his first-time shot was blocked by the goalkeeper and a stretching Raul Meireles drove the rebound wide.

Kyrgiakos's header from Steven Gerrard's corner was also kept out by Robinson, with the goalkeeper then diving to his left to deny Gerrard who had launched a quick counter-attack from a Rovers corner. But Liverpool finally took the lead three minutes into the second half when Kyrgiakos, who had been a threat in the air all afternoon, rose to powerfully meet Gerrard's corner and Martin Olsson could not prevent the ball from going into the net.

Such has been Liverpool's luck this season that Rovers went straight down the other end and scored as Paul Konchesky's goalline clearance from El-Hadji Diouf's shot cannoned back off Carragher and into the net.

But a sign the Reds' fortunes were changing came in the 53rd minute when Torres ghosted in at the far post to side-foot home Cole's cross to give the Reds three precious points.

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