Goals by Jermaine Pennant after 16 minutes and Peter Crouch, 20 minutes from the end, knocked the stuffing out of Fulham after a lively start against a Champions League-conscious Liverpool side showing eight changes from the side which beat Blackburn last week.

But Hodgson said: "I thought we matched Liverpool - one of the best sides in the country - most of the way.

"We paid for a couple of mistakes at the back when the ball was despatched powerfully into our net and we didn't take our own chances.

"But we gave a good account of ourselves and there are still nine points to play for, even though the fact Bolton won today and Birmingham have a game to play means our position has deteriorated.

"Of course I'm disappointed and I won't make a fool of myself by making outrageous claims - but until it is mathematically impossible for us to stay up we will fight on.

"I certainly don't think we lacked determination or spirit.

"I think we played well for most of the match and gave it our best shot but any side Liverpool field is a good one and hard to beat."

Nearly a year ago Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez made nine changes in his Liverpool side at Fulham, who were also fighting relegation at that time as well.

The Cottagers defeated Liverpool 1-0 and ultimately survived the drop.

Benitez received stinging criticism from, among others, Neil Warnock, then the manager of Sheffield United who went down.

Warnock - now at Palace - raised the issue again today in a newspaper column.

And Benitez said: "Somebody told me about these comments. We knew he was bad as a manager, prehistoric, but we didn't know he was a person like this.

"I will talk with my lawyers but we don't need to waste time with him."

The Spaniard continued: "Every manager has a responsibility for his team selections in every game and I also have a responsibility to use my squad.

"I picked a team I believed could win the match, We now need after this win just one more point to ensure fourth place in the league, even if Everton win all their remaining games.

"We've still got to be careful. We needed a good job done today and a good job was done.

"We can completely focus on Tuesday's Champions League game against Chelsea now.

"We've talked a lot about boardroom matters for a long time but for now I just want to speak about football, if that's possible.

"We've shown again we have quality and of course there will be some different players against Chelsea - but we can be confident."

Benitez, though, admitted that there is still concern over key midfielder Steven Gerrard, who damaged his neck in training.

The manager explained: "He has been heading the ball a lot in training and could not play today, We will have to see how he is next week."

Benitez also reported that centre-back Sami Hyypia had to come off with a head injury and that the outstanding Javier Mascherano "took several several knocks but should be all right for the next game." end