Benítez Plays It Straight After Gerrard Hat-trick

Liverpool last night finished what the administrators started for Luton Town, brutally extracting what sentiment remained for this season's FA Cup among Kevin Blackwell's band of diminishing brothers. They sent an overdue statement across the Atlantic in the process.

"It is not about the manager, it is about the team," said Steven Gerrard, recalled as Rafael Benítez accepted that he could afford to take no chances against even beleaguered League One opponents, given the wandering eyes of his employers, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. The Liverpool captain responded as he often does when his club are in a corner, from the front, and the second hat-trick of his career brought Benítez not only a fourth-round tie at home to Swansea City or Havant and Waterlooville - it brought him respite.

The Liverpool manager did not require victory as greatly as he had in Marseille last month, when Champions League qualification and his status according to the co-chairman Hicks lay in the balance. Nor did Anfield resonate with fierce anti-American protest to rival the support Benítez received against Porto when the weakness of his position first became apparent. But with four successive draws stalling Liverpool's season and confirmation of the approach to Jürgen Klinsmann, the Spaniard was in desperate need of this professional execution from a team immersed in mounting instability.

"I am really pleased to be here" was all Benítez was prepared to say on Hicks's revelations this week. "You've heard me say this before, no? I understand that you have to ask these questions but I just want to enjoy winning 5-0." The Liverpool manager would, of course, love to say more. But it would probably result in the sack.

That Luton ended the evening with their own troubled future clearer than Liverpool's underlines the sorry mess the Americans have created at Anfield. The visitors' finest result came before kick-off, with confirmation that Luton Town Football Club 2020 Limited has been given preferred-bidder status in its attempts to save a proud club and a proud team from extinction - though not even that news lifted the gloom that has enveloped Blackwell, the manager.

He has vowed to resign along with his backroom team on February 9 and said last night: "I have made my decision and I am normally a man of my word. I didn't know Nick Owen's consortium was now the preferred bidder until the BBC told me before kick-off. I have had players sold without my knowledge, undervalued and sold, and now I have to find this news out from the BBC. That is what I am angry."

No anger was or could be directed at Luton's players, however. For 45 minutes they held a Liverpool side bolstered by the return of Gerrard and Fernando Torres but the morale-boost of an interval clean sheet evaporated when the Spaniard released Ryan Babel on the stroke of half-time and the Dutchman pierced Dean Brill's resistance. The anticipated onslaught duly followed. Jamie Carragher was rarely employed as he celebrated his 500th appearance for the club. He was applauded on to the pitch by a guard of honor as he joined legends such as Billy Liddell, Kenny Dalglish and Ian Callaghan among others in the Liverpool 500 club, but it was Gerrard who shaped the victory.

A simple header from a Peter Crouch knockdown doubled Liverpool's lead, before Sami Hyypia flicked home a corner from the captain with the aid of a cruel deflection off Matthew Spring. Gerrard stroked the fourth into the bottom corner and, with the best saved to last, the midfielder sent a swerving 30-yard shot beyond the restricted Brill.

"We're gonna win 6-5" sang the 6,000-strong Luton fans, but their rescue act had taken place elsewhere. Liverpool's message - on banners proclaiming "Thanks Yanks, More Friendly Fire" and "Dubai SOS - Yanks Out" - may take longer to answer.