Dalglish: We want more

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is confident that now his players have experienced that winning feeling they will want much more.

The Reds ended a six-year trophy drought at Wembley yesterday when they got the better of Cardiff in a penalty shoot-out to lift the Carling Cup.

It was their record eighth triumph in the competition and allowed Dalglish to complete a clean sweep of domestic honours as both a player and a manager.

Now the task is to turn the Merseyside giants into regular winners on the big stage once more – and Dalglish is certain the experience of parading a cup will help.

“I don’t think anyone who has ever won a trophy has come away from it saying they didn’t enjoy it,” said Dalglish.

“If you do something and you enjoy it, you are going to want more of it. It is logical.

“The idea six years ago was not to go six years without winning a trophy.

“We are where we are now because of the work everyone has done, not just me.

“The owners, the supporters, the players, everyone has chipped in. We have said that all along. The closer we are, the stronger we will be together.”

Dalglish confirmed defender Daniel Agger had almost certainly broken a rib during a pulsating duel in which Martin Skrtel and Dirk Kuyt struck after Liverpool had fallen behind to Joe Mason’s opener.

Ben Turner bundled home in the last minute of extra time to deny Liverpool what seemed to be certain victory, only for Dalglish’s players to prevail in the shoot-out anyway when Steven Gerrard’s cousin Anthony missed the final kick.

“The game had to be settled some way and we feel for Anthony Gerrard, who missed the vital one that meant we won the trophy,” said Dalglish.

“Although we have won something today, that is not us finished. We don’t want to stop here, we want to keep going.

“It (Liverpool) means an awful lot to a lot of people.

“All we do is try to make them as happy as we possibly can. Today we have been able to do that. Hopefully it makes up for some of the days when we have not been able to.”

There have been a few too many of those.

However, in man-of-the-match Stewart Downing, Dalglish had an easy target for his view of which group of players stand to benefit most from this latest achievement.

“It is great to see Stewart getting a bit of recognition,” said Dalglish.

“The seven players who came in (last summer) can be very proud to walk away with a trophy in their first season.”