Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier praised the contribution of under-fire striker Emile Heskey after the 3-1 victory over Birmingham on Sunday.
Heskey scored Liverpool's third - only his third league goal of the season - with an acrobatic volley as Liverpool moved into their highest Premiership position for almost three months.
Houllier said: "Emile's effort was outstanding. He does that sort of thing every week in training, and I am pleased for him because he gets so much stick all the time."
Liverpool had to come from behind after Mikael Forssell gave Birmingham the lead.
Steven Gerrard equalised with a disputed penalty within two minutes and Liverpool confirmed their superiority with second-half goals from Harry Kewell and Heskey.
Houllier added: "The table looks a lot healthier now, but to be fair we should have been in this position before, we have lost about six points we should have got.
"But this was a good three points, and a good win. Considering we played a
European game on Thursday I was very pleased with the effort and workrate.
"We started well but they were on top and doing well when they scored. That
was a wake-up call for us.
"At half-time I told them they had to be realistic and they had to get going.
I said they had not used up much energy before the break so they should find it afterwards.
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MMIX
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