Glen Johnson gets winner as Liverpool get back to winning ways in Premier League

GLEN Johnson scored with a late header to give Liverpool a 1-0 win over Stoke City, ending the Merseyside club’s three-match EPL losing streak.

GLEN Johnson scored with a late header to give Liverpool a 1-0 win over Stoke City, ending the Merseyside club’s three-match losing streak in the Premier League.

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Johnson’s goal came in the 85th minute after Ricki Lambert’s looping header came off the crossbar. The fullback raced to the rebound and the right back headed it into goal, prompting ecstatic scenes at Anfield.

Stoke forward Bojan nearly equalised with a volley in added time, but Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet’s fingertips came to the rescue and the ball was diverted out for a corner.

Brendan Rodgers and Adam Lallana are overjoyed with the late goal.

Liverpool moved into 11th place in the league with 17 points, just ahead of Stoke, which has 15 points.

“I thought the players were absolutely incredible,” Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said.

“It was obviously a difficult game. Stoke don’t concede many goals - they’ve got outstanding players.

“Mark (Hughes) has done an excellent job since he’s gone in there. They’ve got quality in their team so we knew it was going to be a test, but I thought we thoroughly deserved the win.

“We had to be persistent today and keep going. In the second half, the speed of our game was better - we were able to express ourselves a little bit more after a solid first half.”

Rodgers had been under pressure after the team slid down the table following league losses to Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Newcastle, and poor performances in the Champions League.

Rodgers caused surprise after starting the match with captain Steven Gerrard on the substitutes bench on the 16th anniversary of his debut for the Reds, especially since the club’s matchday program honored him on its cover.

Philippe Coutinho tries to get the better of Geoff Cameron.

His replacement, Philippe Coutinho, failed to spark any creativity and the 34-year-old Gerrard eventually came on in the 75th.

The manager said he wasn’t aware of the occasion until just before the match and he wanted to give his skipper a rest after playing against Crystal Palace and Ludogorets in the Champions League.

“Steven is at the part of his career where he’s not going to be playing in every game and every minute of every game,” Rodgers said.

“He didn’t tell me it was his 16th anniversary. I felt quite bad actually when I looked at the program.”

After a poor first half with no shots on target, both teams hunted for a goal with a series of end-to-end chances in the second interval.

Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson’s volley went just wide of the near post in the 51st, after the ball bounced off up for him when a pass from Lucas deflected off Ryan Shawcross.

Bojan’s throughball to Mame Biram Diouf in the 55th brought Mignolet off his line momentarily before retreating. Diouf tried a low shot, but it was scooped away by Mignolet’s feet. Bojan struck a post in the 61st.

Originally published as Glen Johnson gets winner as Liverpool get back to winning ways in Premier League