Kenny Dalglish hopes his side’s prolificacy in beating Brighton 6-1 will set the standard as Liverpool’s quest for a cup double continues.

The Reds will welcome Stoke to Anfield in the FA Cup quarter-finals after an emphatic victory over a team chasing promotion to the Premier League.

Martin Skrtel, Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez all fired – and the scoreline was bloated by three Brighton own goals.

Dalglish reflected: “Three? Are you taking Steven [Gerrard]’s off him as well? You better tell him!

“You can’t blame their boys for wanting to defend their goal, they were just a bit unfortunate.

“Someone said we had 15 attempts on target. We’ve said we’d like to get our conversion rate up and today that’s not a bad return.”

Liverpool might have had seven had Suarez converted a penalty late in the game. It was Dalglish who told the club’s other penalty takers to stand aside for the Uruguayan.

“That was my fault – I just let sentiment get in the way,” said the boss. “But I’ll learn my lesson.

“It’s a good victory but it was more difficult than the scoreline suggests. Brighton played very well against us at the AMEX in the League Cup and for half an hour or 40 minutes here they were very good as well.

“We deserved to win and go through but whether the score is a true reflection of how the game went, that’s open to conjecture.”

Reporters quizzed Dalglish on what a sixth goal of the campaign will do for Carroll’s confidence.

His response was: “We’ve always been positive and we always will be.

“We’ll always be supportive of any player who comes to this football club, it doesn’t matter what his name is. We’ll be the judge of whether we’re happy or unhappy, and we’re delighted with everyone who’s come here since we came to the club.”
Carroll, Suarez and Gerrard started together for the first time.

“I never realised that,” added Dalglish. “The three of them are fantastic footballers and they played fantastically today. The more any team gets their iconic players on the pitch, the more chance they’ve got of being successful.

“But we’ll stand and be counted as a squad.”

Meanwhile, Dalglish was asked about the absence of Daniel Agger and Craig Bellamy and whether they will be okay for the Carling Cup final next weekend.

“We had a couple of injuries on Friday and Saturday with Bellers and Daniel Agger,” he said. “We’ll have to see how they are but they should be alright, I think.”

Elsewhere both Chelsea and Tottenham will need replays after they both draw against Birmingham and Stevenage. Crawley were beaten by Stoke and Everton toppled Blackpool.

Wins for Sunderland, Bolton and Leicester see them through to the quarter final.

FA Cup quarter-final draw

Liverpool v Stoke
Chelsea/Birmingham v Leicester
Stevenage/Tottenham v Bolton
Everton v Sunderland