Hull of a way for Liverpool to win three points

Sometimes a team which is going to win a Premier League title has to win without playing well.

It's what Manchester United have been doing for weeks now, and Liverpool managed it at Hull on Saturday.

For a time there was a fear that Hull might salvage an ill-deserved point, but they didn't because the Reds showed the ambition to finish the game off.

I couldn't help but wonder whether we could have shown a similar sense of adventure in some of the drawn home games which look like costing us dearly.

In the last few weeks the positive attitude of the team has been incredibly refreshing.

We've gone for it and been rewarded with some spectacular victories against Real Madrid, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Blackburn.

If that kind of gung ho approach had been employed when West Ham, Hull, Stoke, Fulham, Manchester City and Hull had come to Anfield, we might have lost one of them - but we might also have won two or three of the others and been in pole position in the Premier League instead of relying on favours from others.

There's no doubt about it that a team always finishes where it deserves to in the Premier League.

And I'm not a follower of the first is first, second is nowhere philosophy.

If we can't catch United - and it's going to take something special for them to drop six points in their last five games - we should be trying our utmost to clinch the runners-up spot.

No room for sentiment in title race

THERE'S a very real chance that Liverpool could hammer a nail into the relegation coffin of a famous old football club at Anfield on Sunday.

But Liverpool won't allow themselves to worry about Newcastle's failings, regardless of their reputation.

If Newcastle do go down - and they will be precariously balanced if, as I strongly believe, Liverpool win at the weekend - it won't be down to Sunday's score.

They will have suffered because of decisions made over the past months and even years.

Alan Shearer should really have been appointed long before he was if he was going to be given a genuine chance of keeping them up.

Newcastle have appointed almost as many managers as we've signed players and that kind of instability is no good to any football club.

I watched Newcastle's game on Monday night and they were very, very disappointing.

But they've been like that for most of the season and Liverpool can't allow themselves to start feeling sorry.

They will do a professional job, I'm sure, score another victory - and just hope that another north-east club has done us a favour the day before.

Newcastle's fortunes are in their own hands.

* I WATCHED Newcastle's Monday night match against Portsmouth, but really had to look hard to spot Michael Owen.

He barely got a kick all night and looked a shadow of the player who left Liverpool in 2004. He must rue the day he decided to quit Anfield for pastures new