Owen keeps up the chase as Fulham freefall

Liverpool 2 Fulham

It is probably a futile exercise, but no one could accuse Liverpool of giving up on the fourth Champions' League place this season. Given the chance to make the rest of their season an irrelevance they refused to take it yesterday and they are still in pursuit of Chelsea even if time is running out.

They remain four points behind the London side with five games to go thanks to goals from Emile Heskey and Michael Owen and, as Everton lie in between, next Saturday's Merseyside derby will act as an eliminator. You suspect that David Moyes' team will prove far less accommodating than Fulham.

Yesterday Jean Tigana's side carried negligible threat and, with nine goals conceded and none scored in their last three matches, they would appear to be ideal relegation material but for the incompetence of the teams below them. Even then it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they could get dragged into the mire.

"We were too weak," Fulham's assistant manager Christian Damiano said. "We lost the ball too easily and we found it difficult to defend." Almost unnecessarily, he added: "We need the three points to make us safe as soon as possible." Gérard Houllier, the Liverpool manager, was upbeat. "We played some great stuff. The passing and the movement were good and although we gave away the ball occasionally I want the players to know they can make mistakes." Against powder-puff Fulham any error was unlikely to be punished.

Both teams entered this match with 4–0 maulings on their minds, although Liverpool had the excuse that their captain, Sami Hyypia, was sent off in the fourth minute at Old Trafford. This time, the disruption came early as Danny Murphy had to withdraw from the side after injuring his neck in the warm-up, although that was a blessing in disguise because his replacement, Vladimir Smicer, was at the game's creative core.

As early as the fifth minute Owen had the ball in the Fulham net, only for the effort to be disallowed for offside, and, had it not been for Maik Taylor's saves from the England striker and Milan Baros, Liverpool would have been out of sight before Heskey found the net in the 36th minute.

The breakthrough arose from John Arne Riise's free-kick on the right which Fulham failed to clear. Smicer is not noted for his heading but he rose like John Toshack to knock the ball back into the area, and Heskey hooked in for his ninth goal of the season.

Three minutes later Smicer set up another opportunity when his instant volleyed pass put Baros ahead of Andy Melville and the Czech striker would have had the goal at his mercy if his control had been anything like adequate. Instead he had the touch of a sledgehammer and that gave Taylor the chance to block.

Fulham had barely threatened but they were almost gift-wrapped a chance after 53 minutes when Jerzy Dudek mis-hit a clearance against Steed Malbranque. The rebound fell to Luis Boa Morte, who was robbed of possession by Djimi Traoré just as he was about to shoot.

That suggested a threat to Liverpool's dominance but it was snuffed out on the hour. A minute earlier Owen had swung and barely connected when Smicer drew the ball back to him and most strikers would have had that on their minds. Not Owen. When Smicer put him in, he drew Taylor and slipped the ball under the goalkeeper's body.

Fulham stirred themselves for the finale and Louis Saha hit the bar in the 81st minute with a fierce crack from the edge of the area, but that effort summed them up: just lacking. "They look like a team who have lost their soul," Houllier said.

Liverpool 2 Fulham 0
Heskey 36, Owen 59

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 42,120