Crystal Palace - 1 Liverpool - 0: Crystal Palace inflicted another bout of travel sickness on Liverpool as they unexpectedly revitalised their own chances of Premiership survival.
"I'm confident of staying up now," said assistant manager Kit Symons afterwards. "We now have Newcastle away, which is a big game, Southampton at home, which is enormous for both clubs, and Charlton away, all games we're capable of winning."
With four defeats in their previous five matches Palace had shown real relegation form. Before the weekend they were the favourites for the drop, along with Norwich. But here the team aiming for fourth from bottom outplayed the side going for fourth from top.
"People say we're a one-man team, and Andy Johnson scored again, but this really was a fantastic all-round team performance," Symons added.
As for Liverpool, this was their 10th away defeat of the season - the same as Norwich and West Brom. It left their commanding central defender Sami Hyypia looking a forlorn figure at a deserted Selhurst Park on Saturday evening after he and his team-mates had warmed down with a jog around the stadium.
"Not everybody was up for it," said the 31-year-old Finnish international. "Sometimes it is like that and we need to get rid of that. We've dropped points in many games this season and the same thing's happened here.
"After every defeat I look in the mirror and think what I can do better. I expect every other player in the team to do that. It's not good to blame other players. You have to look at yourself first and see what you can do better."
Liverpool are now four points below fourth-placed Everton and their chances of qualifying for next season's most important European club competition look remote. However, the question their supporters are asking is which team will turn up for Wednesday's Champions League semi-final against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge?
On Saturday, Liverpool - who appeared to have half a mind on the Chelsea game - were roundly outplayed. They did not manage a shot on goal until the 38th minute and only seriously tested goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly once with Steven Gerrard's fierce drive four minutes from the end.
It drew an exceptional save from Kiraly, diving to his left to palm the ball wide. "He apologised afterwards for not holding on to the ball," said Symons.
It was Palace, however, with Johnson's running off the ball and particularly down the right side that seized attention.
The goal, after 34 minutes, came from his reflex header off a Wayne Routledge long-range shot. It was his 20th goal of the season. "It was a pinpoint cross Wayne tells me," Symons added with a wink.
