O'Shea hopes to have sunk Blues

John O'Shea feels his winner at Anfield would have been 'soul destroying' for Chelsea.

John O'Shea feels his last-minute winner against Liverpool would have been 'soul destroying' for Chelsea.

The Manchester United utility man struck late on at Anfield on Saturday to secure a 1-0 win which briefly took the leaders 12 points ahead of their title rivals.

Though Chelsea reduced the gap back to nine points with victory at Portsmouth, O'Shea feels United's success could have a demoralising impact on the champions.

"It must be soul destroying for Chelsea, to be watching this with a couple of minutes to go," said O'Shea.

"They must have been thinking we were going to drop two points, maybe even three.

"Liverpool could even have nicked it because we were down to 10 men, but those kind of things have been done to us in the past.

"It's been fairly rough in the past couple of games, but we have been getting maximum points and that's great for us.

"You have to give us credit because we've not been as fluent as we can, but we've still been winning."

The Republic of Ireland international also had no doubts about the significance of his third goal of the season.

He added: "The 90th minute at Anfield, in front of the Kop - Gary Neville's just told me that is his dream and I've just gone and done it!

"Without a doubt, it's the most important goal I've ever scored. To score a goal in such circumstances in front of the Kop is so special."