Down to wire, says Houllier

GERARD HOULLIER is tipping the race for fourth to go down to their May 15 meeting with Newcastle at Anfield.

The Liverpool manager had an afternoon to remember on Saturday as Danny Murphy became the first opposition player to score a Premiership penalty at Old Trafford in a decade to seal victory in a closely-fought battle of the north-west giants.

Yet even as Houllier was striding into a rare shaft of sunshine in a season of almost unrelenting gloom at England's most successful club, he wondered out loud whether the Reds would have cause to regret their earlier failings against some of the top-flight's lesser lights. No team that can beat Chelsea and Manchester United on their travels should find themselves scrapping for crumbs, some 30 points adrift of the champions.