Rush: Goal Will Boost Andy

Ian Rush believes Andy Carroll's last-gasp winner against Blackburn on Tuesday night will give the forward great confidence going into Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Everton.

Carroll connected with a Daniel Agger header to power the ball past Paul Robinson and settle the Barclays Premier League clash on 90 minutes.

And Rush, who watched events at Ewood Park unfold from Accra, the Ghanaian capital, where he was busy launching the Liverpool Football Club and Standard Chartered coaching clinic, was clearly delighted to see the Reds' current No.9 clinch the winning goal.

"It's great to see Andy Carroll back on the scoresheet because that will give him a tremendous amount of confidence," said the Welshman. "He had a good game on Tuesday and he won a lot in the air.

"When we went down to 10 men, he did a lot by himself up front. He put a lot of hard work in and he got his just rewards in the end. It was quite a powerful header."

Rush was buoyed by the reaction of the Liverpool players, both on the pitch during a frantic 90 minutes of play and then after the final whistle blew.

"At the end of the game, everyone was hugging each other and that's what it's all about," said Rush. "What I liked about it was how hard the lads worked. It was always going to be difficult with 10 men but they put the effort into it and they got their rewards.

"After the win, the next few days are going to be exciting. We have a semi-final against our fiercest rivals Everton and I'm looking forward to it. Everton will be confident but just looking at the way the Liverpool lads worked on Tuesday night, I think it's going to be an absolutely fantastic game.

"It'll be great for Merseyside and let's just hope we get the result."

Rush gave his full backing to Brad Jones who is likely to be Liverpool's 'keeper for the all-Merseyside semi-final on Saturday.

After Alexander Doni was shown a straight red card at Ewood Park, which ruled him out of the weekend's fixture, the spotlight was immediately on Jones and the Australian made an instant impact by saving a Yakubu penalty.

Rush said: "Brad hasn't played for a long time but he made a couple of good saves and I think he should be looking forward to playing in the semi-final."