Joe Cole Pleased With Anfield Debut

Joe Cole was pleased to get 90 minutes in for his new club as Liverpool cruised to a Europa League qualifying win over Rabotnicki. Cole, who arrived on a free transfer having been released by Chelsea, was at the heart of his new side's best moves and set up the opening goal for David Ngog. Captain Steven Gerrard slotted home a penalty just before the interval. "It was good, I was nervous before the game but it's always like that when you go to a new club," Cole told ITV4. "It was good to get 90 minutes in and get the win in the end. The main difference (at Anfield as a Liverpool player) is that I wasn't getting too much stick! That's different. "I enjoyed it, I needed the 90 minutes. I ran out of petrol a bit with 20 minutes to go but it was needed. It would have been nice to have scored but I'm sure that will come soon." Team-mate Jamie Carragher said: "I thought Joe was brilliant, it was a great performance. "We've probably been written off a bit over the summer and I think everyone believes we can improve on last season. "With the addition of Joe, the news about Steve (Gerrard) and Fernando (Torres) staying and hopefully one or two coming in, there's a bit more of a feel-good factor. "It's positive." Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson said: "It's nice to be in the next round although, quite honestly, I thought we would be after that good performance in Skopje. "It was important tonight to be disciplined and have a quality performance and we certainly did that. "Obviously we're just delighted to be in the next round, I'm sure that round will prove tougher than this one." With the Premier League season kicking off in just over a week, Hodgson was grateful for some competitive action. "It will be a good lesson for the game against Arsenal in 10 days' time," he said. "I'm hoping we'll be there or thereabouts at the end of the season, it's a tough league now and a lot of teams have the same ambitions as us and the same sort of quality." As for transfer targets, Hodgson told ITV4 he is keen to recruit more new faces. He added: "I'd like to think so, we do have a window of opportunity there and it's important for us to improve our squad. If we get into the group stage, we need other players. "We're working hard at it but finding the sort of quality we need is never going to be easy because we've got good players already."