Dudek hands Houllier the prize of vindication

Worthington Cup Final: Brilliance of Polish goalkeeper takes pressure off Liverpool manager and wins United's praise

The big-screen images showing Gérard Houllier's immediate reaction to the goals that won the Worthington Cup were a picture of suppressed elation. Each time, as the ball tore into the Manchester United net, Liverpool's manager leapt to his feet as if about to perform a touchline jig of joy. On both occasions, he stifled his celebrations, let a rapturous smile dissolve into steely resolve and contented himself with a clenched fist.

While no doubt anxious not to tempt providence against a team with United's reputation for rescuing lost causes, Houllier's self-discipline probably owed more to a voice in the back of his head reminding him not to become over-agitated. Less than 18 months have passed, after all, since a life-threatening heart condition forced the Frenchman under the surgeon's scalpel. But this triumph, more than any since he resumed active service last spring, was just what the doctor ordered.

At the end, Houllier's warmest embrace was for Jerzy Dudek, the goalkeeper who had appeared likely to follow Sander Westerveld out of Anfield after his error-strewn display against United in December transformed Diego Forlan from a figure of fun into an Old Trafford cult hero.

The injury to Chris Kirkland forced Houllier to rehabilitate the miner's son from Poland, whose loss of form had begun at last summer's World Cup. Dudek, blooming like a St David's Day daffodil in his yellow jersey, seized the chance with both hands as well as the odd judiciously placed foot.

Houllier wore a grin as wide as the Mersey as he pressed the flesh among the red-shirted ranks. After Liverpool's plummet from the summit in the Premiership was followed by their exit from the Champions' League and FA Cup, criticism of his supposedly dour methods was followed by speculation that Martin O'Neill was set to replace him. The look testified to a sense of vindication as well as a famous victory.

True, it was not an epic match. Finals seldom are, as the attritional 1996 FA Cup meeting between these clubs proved. Yet in an age when United seemed to have assumed the pre-eminence that was once Liverpool's, the result was everything for Houllier's team. Not that their performance was determinedly dull, simply that it stemmed from a rediscovery of their defensive strength and capacity to counter-attack to devastating effect through a revitalised Michael Owen.

Owen's brightness should have been witnessed in sunlight, justifying the sound of U2's "It's a Beautiful Day" blaring out over the loudspeakers before kick-off. Alas, the game's governing body, Sky, demanded that the stadium roof remained closed. In theory, that should have added to the atmosphere.

However, after all the hype, and reports of tickets changing hands for £600, the first half was anticlimactic until Steven Gerrard scored. Exactly a week after Liverpool's abject defeat at lowly Birmingham, taking the lead evidently surprised their supporters as much as it stunned United's.

Never let it be said, incidentally, that football fans are divorced from the so-called real world. Draped over a balcony in one of the Liverpool sections were two banners which evoked a looming conflict that surely will become, to borrow from the best-known Shanklyism, a matter of life and death.

"Don't bomb Iraq, Nuke Manchester," ran the slogan on one. The other, in Owen's honour, bore the marginally less tasteless epithet: "Weapon of Manc destruction." Liverpool fans once eulogised Joey Jones with a flag declaring: "Joey ate the Frogs' legs and made the Swiss roll, now he's Munching Gladbach", but those, apparently, were more innocent times.

Long before Owen's sublimely cool finish for the second goal, the "Iraq" banner had disappeared. One could imagine some television executive hissing: "Don't mention the war." At United this week, at least until Wednesday's visit of Leeds offers the opportunity for redemption in what could yet turn out to be a second successive season without a trophy, it will be a case of don't mention the score.