A MODEST Antti Niemi played down the towering contribution he made to Saints' 2-0 victory over Liverpool yesterday.

The Finn was in imperious form throughout, denying Harry Kewell and Michael Owen with brilliant first-half saves, before keeping out further efforts from Kewell, Igor Biscan, Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey in the second-half.

And a perfect personal performance was capped in the 72nd minute, when he dived to deny Owen from the penalty spot after Jason Dodd was penalised following a tangle with Kewell.

The England centre-forward has now missed ten out of his 23 spot-kicks for Liverpool, including his last two.

Niemi said: "Sometimes everything you do goes your way.

"Unfortunately that doesn't happen all the time, but it was certainly one of the better days.

"I've always said there is a bit of luck with penalties. If you guess right you have always got a chance.

"Out of respect to Michael I think it wasn't really one of his better penalties."

Niemi rated a diving save low to his left from Kewell in the tenth minute as his best save.

"The first one, the low one to the left towards the bottom corner stands out," he said.

"It's nice to make a good save near the beginning of the game.

"It always gives confidence and I think that was technically the best save as well.

"It was a great result, we needed that.

"Our results lately haven't been great, so three points and a double over Liverpool is something that doesn't happen all the time, so I am more than happy.

"The pitch was soaking wet and the wind didn't help, but at times they played very well.

"We have to give them respect and I was more than happy to have won."

Saints struggled to retain possession throughout much of the first hour of the game, but looked far more composed as a team following the introduction of Anders Svensson for Neil McCann, who was making only his eighth league start for Saints, in the 67th minute.

"Anders had done very well before he was out injured and he was a calm figure when he came on," said Niemi.

"He kept the ball and passed the ball well.

"We didn't play well at all in the first half.

"The manager let us know that at half-time, we played better in the second-half and got a few goals."

Man-of-the-match Niemi admitted the team received something of a tongue-lashing from new boss Paul Sturrock after Liverpool had dominated the opening period without scoring.

"The Scots can shout, let's put it that way - but quite rightly so," added the Saints goalkeeper, remembering ex-boss Gordon Strachan along the way.