HODGSON PLEADS WITH LIVERPOOL'S ANGRY FANS

LIVERPOOL'S boss, Roy Hodgson, has urged fans to back the club following the shock 0-1 home defeat by Wolves.

Stephen Ward's goal inflicted an eighth league loss on the Reds this season, sparking a chorus of boos from angry Liverpool fans at the final whistle. But the 63-year old Hodgson said: 'The fans have left angry and that's understandable. We've let them down.

'I have to hope the fans will become supporters because we need support. We are not deliberately losing games.'

Ward struck on 56 minutes to give Wolves its first away win in the Premier League this season and lift it off the bottom of the table. However, much of the focus was on the increasingly precarious position of Hodgson, who is in his first season at the helm after succeeding Rafael Benitez in July.

As the curtain came down on a third defeat in four league games for the Reds, leaving them 12th on the table and three points above the relegation zone, thousands of supporters chanted the name of former manager, Kenny Dalglish.

They also sarcastically chanted, 'Hodgson for England' after he replaced David Ngog with Ryan Babel during the second half. Hodgson, who believes the negativity directed at him has had an impact on his team, so has called for more backing from the terraces, said: 'I am getting used to it, that is the way it is.

'We've had to live with that for quite a long time now as ever since I came here the famous Anfield support has not really been there. There were the problems with the owners, then Kenny being so popular and not getting the job and it being given to me.

'It is sad and I don't like hearing those things because I am trying to do the best job I can do. As manager, you take responsibility for that, so I have to take that criticism on the chin as well.

'You have seen these players before. They are just not playing like they have done in the past, so I think it is time for the fans to really help as well.'