Liverpool's unbeaten run of eight matches under Kenny Dalglish came to an end on Sunday as West Ham earned a deserved 3-1 victory over them to move off the bottom of the Premier League table.

Goals by inspirational captain Scott Parker, recent signing Demba Ba and a reinvigorated Carlton Cole were more than enough to see off a Liverpool side whose only response was a late effort by Glen Johnson.

Dalglish accepted that his side had not been the better side. "We never passed it as well as we can or took the opportunities that came our way," said the 60-year-old Scot, whose side in mitigation had played on Thursday seeing off Sparta Prague in the Europa League.

"The last 20 or 25 minutes, we started to play a wee bit like we can. We got the goal near the end and we thought we might steal a point.

"There were a couple of shouts for a penalty, things that are outside our control that you can't manage, but we'll try to correct the mistakes we made," said Dalglish.