Revitalised Heskey drags Liverpool out of the storm

Southampton 0 Liverpool 1

They sang. It rained. There may not have been a golden sky in sight (rather a dirty, dank Saturday evening on the Hampshire coast) but, surely now, Liverpool have walked through their storm.

Manager Gérard Houllier certainly thinks so. "Emile [Heskey] is a sleeping giant. When he wakes up you cannot stop him," he said after a rampaging performance from his striker. For Heskey, restored as Michael Owen's strike partner and scorer of the winning goal, take the whole Liverpool team. Has the giant now woken from almost three months of sleepwalking into a crisis?

This time last year their manager made the mistake of saying his players were 12 games away from greatness, only for that to blow up in his face. On Saturday he revised his forecast down – these were "four games in 11 days which are going to shape our season."

Tomorrow they face Sheffield United in the second leg of the Worthington Cup semi-final, then on Sunday it is Crystal Palace away in the FA Cup fourth round. The following Wednesday it is Arsenal at Anfield in the Premiership.

Win those and, well, an 11-game run without a league win will seem just like the bad dream everyone at Liverpool must think it is. Houllier was even, with a straight face, able to describe the recent run as a "plateau" rather than the catastrophic free fall that it seemed to be.

First up it was Southampton. Unbeaten at home all season, flying high, and surely too strong, too vibrant, too much for a Liverpool side about whom even Houllier was beginning to wonder over their confidence. The result, to borrow the wording of the exuberant James Beattie's T-shirt – revealed after his goals against Middlesbrough last week – was "obvious". Wrong again.

Although Southampton's biggest crowd of the season had come to crown their striker as England's anointed one, even if Sven was not able to make it after all, they saw him usurped by Heskey instead. Remember him? Big bloke, falls down a lot. Used to score goals.

Heskey's free header after just 13 minutes settled the match although, in truth, Liverpool were three or even four goals superior to the Saints. And they could have had three of those before Heskey scored what was his first for 20 games. The home manager Gordon Strachan admitted as much when he said that the visitors were the best side he had faced during their last 10 matches.

The tone was set after just a dozen or so seconds when the impressive John Arne Riise picked up the ball in centre field and ran, and ran, unchallenged before shooting. The ball came back off goalkeeper Antii Niemi but he made amends by smothering Michael Owen's effort.

Liverpool were rampant. Danny Murphy – who last week had admitted he and his team-mates were not earning the big money they were paid – had an excellent game in midfield as he and Steven Gerrard out-muscled the Saints, an astonishing outcome considering the home side's recent performances.

After the break Owen, who has suffered a week of speculation over his gambling habits, missed the kind of chance you would bet your house on. One-on-one with the goalkeeper after Riise's excellent cross, he steadied himself before dragging his shot wide.

Earlier Heskey had fluffed a similar chance while Niemi had saved spectacularly from Murphy and as time went on, Liverpool must have wondered if Lady Luck was against them.

The expected charge from Southampton never came, however. Beattie, well marshalled by Sami Hyypia, drifted further wide and Strachan made a double substitution. But it had no effect.

For once Fabrice Fernandes was starved of service on the wing and Beattie was restricted to one blocked volley in the first half. So Liverpool leapfrogged their opponents and moved up to sixth place.

The former Anfield midfield stalwart Terry McDermott had said, rather glibly, that the definition of a crisis at Liverpool was to be below Southampton in the league. Judging by that criteria and – more importantly – Saturday's evidence, it may be a case of crisis over.

Goal: Heskey (13) 0-1.

Southampton (4-4-2): Niemi 6; Telfer 5, Lundekvam 5, M Svensson 5, Bridge 6 (Delgado, 79); Fernandes 4, Delap 5, Oakley 4, Marsden 5 (A Svensson 5, 61); Beattie 6, Tessem 4 (Ormerod 5, 61). Substitutes not used: Jones (gk), Williams.

Liverpool (4-4-2): Kirkland 6; Carragher 6, Hyypia 6, Henchoz 6, Traoré 5; Diouf 6, Murphy 8, Gerrard 7, Riise 8; Owen 7, Heskey 8. Substitutes not used: Dudek (gk), Smicer, Biscan, Cheyrou, Baros.

Referee: S Bennett (Orpington) 6.

Bookings: Southampton: A Svensson. Liverpool: Murphy.

Man of the match: Murphy.

Attendance: 32,104.