Kelly: Patience was key
Martin Kelly has explained why patience was the key to Liverpool winning the Merseyside derby.
The Reds secured a two-goal victory over Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday courtesy of goals from Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.
Kenny Dalglish's side needed to bide their time ahead of Carroll's 71st minute opener following the first-half dismissal of Jack Rodwell for the Blues - but Kelly believes the Reds fully deserved the three points and he's hopeful they'll be able to pick up where they left off when Manchester United come to Anfield following the international break.
"It's two massive fixtures for us with the derby and then the Man United game," said the defender.
"As a team we were all made up with the win and now after the internationals we'll get back together next week and prepare to face United.
"It was brilliant to play in my first derby at their place. It was intimidating at the start with the crowd against us but we stuck together. We kept to our game plan which was to get the ball down and play.
"At half-time Kenny told us not to rush and that if we were patient the chances would come.
"The last thing we wanted to do was lose because we were all up attacking and leave ourselves open to being caught on the counter attack.
"We were patient and in the end the goals came. We deserved the points."
The best of the derby win in 15 minutes
An afternoon of many highlights for Liverpool also included a clean sheet, and Kelly believes the hard work put in on the Melwood training pitches paid off at Goodison.
"We've been working hard in training as a defensive unit," he added.
"We've been trying to get the right balance between attacking and defending so that when we lose the ball we're not too open.
"We did that well against Everton. We're all made up with the clean sheet and now we want to keep more of them."