Jamie Carragher has explained his astonishing on-field bust-up with Alvaro Arbeloa at the Hawthorns on Sunday.
Liverpool were 2-0 up against West Brom when the pair were involved in a heated exchange after Carragher had to block Marc-Antoine Fortune's close-range shot.
The referee had to tell the pair to calm down, while Reds boss Rafa Benitez - while pleased with their character - was disappointed in the way their passion was shown.
Afterwards, Carragher admitted goalkeeper Jose Reina's bid for this season's Golden Glove award was behind the disagreement.
He told the club's official website: "We can't win the league now but there are a number of targets we can aim for.
"We want to keep a clean sheet and we want Pepe to have a chance of the Golden Glove for the third season running.
"Pepe is one behind (Edwin) Van der Sar now and there's a chance Van der Sar won't play next week, so we wanted to make sure he got a clean sheet today.
"To be honest we were a bit lackadaisical in our defending all through the game and they had too many chances.
"Maybe we took it a bit too easy and let them attack us too much, but that was one of the toughest games I've played in all season.
"We go all over Europe playing top teams and we play against the best sides in this country, but that was one of the hardest games we've had."
The Kop favourite is already looking forward to making another challenge on the Premier League title next year.
"It's hard to win the Premier League because our top four sides plus Barcelona probably make up the best five sides in Europe," he said. "That's the challenge we face.
"You can look at the statistics from this season and it's impressive that we've only lost two games and scored lots of goals, but United have got more points than us and credit to them because that's what matters.
"We have to make sure we finish second now and win our last game of the season next weekend."
Liverpool were 2-0 up against West Brom when the pair were involved in a heated exchange after Carragher had to block Marc-Antoine Fortune's close-range shot.
The referee had to tell the pair to calm down, while Reds boss Rafa Benitez - while pleased with their character - was disappointed in the way their passion was shown.
Afterwards, Carragher admitted goalkeeper Jose Reina's bid for this season's Golden Glove award was behind the disagreement.
He told the club's official website: "We can't win the league now but there are a number of targets we can aim for.
"We want to keep a clean sheet and we want Pepe to have a chance of the Golden Glove for the third season running.
"Pepe is one behind (Edwin) Van der Sar now and there's a chance Van der Sar won't play next week, so we wanted to make sure he got a clean sheet today.
"To be honest we were a bit lackadaisical in our defending all through the game and they had too many chances.
"Maybe we took it a bit too easy and let them attack us too much, but that was one of the toughest games I've played in all season.
"We go all over Europe playing top teams and we play against the best sides in this country, but that was one of the hardest games we've had."
The Kop favourite is already looking forward to making another challenge on the Premier League title next year.
"It's hard to win the Premier League because our top four sides plus Barcelona probably make up the best five sides in Europe," he said. "That's the challenge we face.
"You can look at the statistics from this season and it's impressive that we've only lost two games and scored lots of goals, but United have got more points than us and credit to them because that's what matters.
"We have to make sure we finish second now and win our last game of the season next weekend."
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