Relieved Reds hail Heskey

Andy Impey and Patrik Berger clash at Anfield

Phil Thompson breathed a double sigh of relief as Liverpool stayed in the Premiership title race with victory over bottom club Leicester.

Emile Heskey cashed in on a Matthew Jones error to score his first goal since November and give the hosts an uninspiring 1-0 win.

And the Reds were also buoyed by the news that Jamie Carragher will face no further action over Sunday's coin throwing incident at Highbury.

We were doing okay until Matthew did his song and dance act in the middle there

Leicester manager Dave Bassett

The England defender will sit out a three-match violent conduct ban for his red card in Liverpool's FA Cup defeat and has been fined £40,000 by the club.

But he will not be charged by police or face a misconduct hearing at the FA.

Thompson said: "There has been a fair bit of compassion and understanding, and I think the police and FA should be commended for the way they have handled things."

Seriously hurt

But he added: "What happened to Jamie Carragher was going to happen to someone soon.

"Now we must make sure this fans throwing coins does not happen again.

"I'm sure it will - I have no doubt - but we will have to do our utmost, be it police, stewards, whoever, to stop this sort of thing before someone gets seriously hurt."

Thompson's relief that Carragher's automatic ban would not be extended was doubled by Heskey's return to scoring form.

Heskey celebrates his first goal of 2002

The Liverpool assistant manager said: "Emile was outstanding from start to finish and got what he deserved.

"He has been turning in consistent displays for the team all season, so it was smashing to see him score such a good goal.

"I hope he goes from strength to strength now because he has worked so hard during his barren spell."

Leicester manager Dave Bassett could only reflect on the the irony of Heskey finally netting against his former team-mates.

He said: "We were doing okay until Matthew did his song and dance act in the middle there. You can't afford errors like that at this level.

"You could have bet on Emile scoring against us. He hadn't scored for a while so he was bound to do it against his old club," he added.