Murphy hooked in a dramatic late winner (again to make it 1-0) when Liverpool visited their fierce rivals a season later – and repeated the trick a third time (you guessed it, 1-0), on this occasion from the penalty spot, near the end of 2003-04.
“Some of the lads were saying to me, ‘What’s going on here, how have you done it again?’” he later recalled. “And I was just like, ‘I don’t know, I really don’t know what’s going on, this is weird!’”
By then, Murphy was nearing the 250-appearance mark at the club and had added a second League Cup medal to a collection that also included UEFA Super Cup success.
Following the 2004 change in the dugout that saw Rafael Benitez replace Houllier, though, his time with the Reds came to a perhaps premature conclusion as he moved to Charlton Athletic.
