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• Striker expected to make first Europa League start of season
• Hodgson: I learned a lot last week against Northampton

Roy Hodgson has declared Fernando Torres free of the injury problems that have plagued the Liverpool striker throughout 2010 and admitted the scar of Northampton Town influenced his decision to recall the Spain international for the Europa League.

Torres is available to make his first start in the competition this season against Utrecht tomorrow as Liverpool seek their first win in four matches. Steven Gerrard has been rested in readiness for Sunday’s league game against Blackpool and may require an injection for a troublesome back problem after that match but Hodgson believes Torres’s improving fitness and confidence warrant the forward’s inclusion in Holland.

A 45-minute appearance against Trabzonspor represents Torres’s only European football since he scored twice against Benfica in the Europa League quarter-final in April, with Liverpool keen to nurse their record signing back to full fitness after a series of hernia, knee and groin problems. But Hodgson said: “The injury problems are behind him now and we can’t bring those up any more. They were supposedly cleared up when he went to the World Cup. Because then he didn’t meet up to some people’s expectations then there were theories about him being injured. But really he was recovered from injury and the injury he picked up in the final was very minor and had cleared up when he got back to us. We have been trying to keep a close eye on him but I wouldn’t dream of playing him if he wasn’t right.”

Torres, despite struggling to rediscover top form this season, has been involved in Liverpool’s last four goals in the Premier League and Hodgson believes the 26‑year‑old’s confidence is also restored. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with his confidence but, yeah, he’d like to have that goal,” the Liverpool manager said. “The thing with top, proven goalscorers is that you know it will come again.”

Hodgson admitted Torres’s inclusion was an insurance policy after the embarrassment of going out of the Carling Cup to Northampton on penalties with a second string last week.

“One of the benefits of having him here is that when you are drawing or losing to Northampton and you have left all your best players out to prepare for the weekend, then you would like to have your best players to change things,” he said. “Maybe that’s one of the things I learnt from last week – but I learnt lots of things last week.”

Daniel Agger is absent with a groin injury that required the Danish defender to undergo an MRI scan today and Hodgson said Gerrard was left behind because “I have plenty of options in central midfield”.

Utrecht (4-4-2, probable): Vorm; Cornelisse, Schut, Wuytens, Nesu; Duplan, Lensky, Silberbauer, Mertens; Mulenga, Van Wolfswinkel.

Liverpool (4-4-2, probable): Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Kelly; Kuyt, Lucas, Meireles, Cole; Ngog, Torres.

Referee D Gomes (Portugal).

LiverpoolUtrechtEuropa LeagueAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

The struggling League Two club made their opponents resemble a consignment of geriatric shoe manufacturers last night

Television crews only usually pitch up at Northampton’s railway station when there is a rail strike on or over-running engineering works have led to travel misery for the thousands of commuters that make the daily journey from the market town in the East Midlands to London. But today, well today was a bit different. It was a good news day.

Just about eight hours earlier Northampton’s footballers had achieved the unthinkable in defeating Liverpool, at Anfield, in the third round of the Carling Cup. Understandably from a national perspective the story is Liverpool and their demise from a once great team that has won 18 league championships and five European Cups to one that has been reduced to being knocked out of a major competition by a team that is 17th in English football’s bottom division. But it would be harsh to deny Northampton their moment in the spotlight.

This was undoubtedly one of the greatest victories in their history, although there has hardly been an encyclopedia of highlights. An FA Cup win over Arsenal in 1958 and the meteoric rise to the first division in the 1960s stand out although the rapid fall back into the basement that followed those successive promotions to English football’s top divisions was equally remarkable. The Cobblers had a decent team in the mid-1980s when, under Graham Carr and with the likes of Trevor Morley and Eddie McGoldrick playing, they hammered their way to the fourth division title with a style of football that was adopted by Jack Charlton’s Republic of Ireland team. And in the 1990s they went to Wembley two years running for play-off finals, taking about 40,000 supporters on both occasions. The first, against Swansea City in 1997, was won 1-0 with John Frain scoring with the last kick of the game. Twelve months later they were beaten by Grimsby Town when in touching distance of reaching the first division.

Since then, though, it’s been a sobering experience. Yes, there have been promotions, but there have also been relegations, the last in 2009 which saw them return to League Two. There were optimistic thoughts of promotion last season but a dreadful start to the campaign, that led to the sacking of Stuart Gray as manager, proved too great to overturn and they finished 11th in the table.

Under the current manager, Ian Sampson – who played in both those Wembley play-offs in the 90s – they have struggled to find any rhythm this season. They may have defeated Brighton and Hove Albion, Reading and now Liverpool in the Carling Cup, but they didn’t win their first league game until the sixth attempt and that 2-1 victory against Southend United remains their only League Two win.

Sampson, like the majority of managers in this country, has little to operate with in terms of finances, and his players are largely a mixture of youngsters and professionals released by clubs higher up the ladder. Liam Davis and Kevin Thornton – who were both successful in the penalty shoot-out at Anfield – have been at Coventry City, John Johnson at Middlesbrough, Billy McKay at Leicester City and Paul Rodgers at Arsenal. Their goalkeeper Chris Dunn is a product of the club’s youth academy as is Michael Jacobs, an 18-year-old winger who scored in front of the Kop in extra time before then showing incredible nerve to step up in the shoot-out to score again. They had the on-loan defender Ben Tozer making his debut having only joined from Newcastle United on Monday while their captain, Andy Holt, came close to leaving the club in the summer before finally agreeing to sign a new contract on reduced terms from his previous one.

For Northamptonians, the club is an enigma. To be able to take 40,000 fans to Wembley is proof that the appetite for football is there. But to have only one league win this season and be sitting in 17th position in League Two shows why they struggle to attract more than 5,000 for home matches. They have also been involved in a long-running battle with the local authority who are denying them permission to develop land around their small Sixfields Stadium which, through private investors, will allow the club to expand their ground and release funds for the manager to spend on the team. Perhaps the council may start to take notice given the yards of coverage generated by last night’s victory, all promoting the name of Northampton.

For Sampson, though, the politics are a mere side issue. He now has to work on turning a team that can outplay Liverpool at Anfield into one that can believe in themselves in the league. And while there will be a keen ear on Saturday’s draw for the fourth round of the Carling Cup, his more pressing issue is that afternoon’s home match with Bradford City.

NorthamptonCarling CupLiverpoolMartin Roseguardian.co.uk

• Serbia international stunned by Northampton victory
• ‘We know this is not Liverpool. It is very bad’

The Liverpool forward Milan Jovanovic has branded the Carling Cup exit to League Two Northampton as a “catastrophe”.

The Serbia international got the Reds off to an ideal start with his first goal for the club after just nine minutes.

However, it went rapidly downhill from there and although David Ngog snatched a late equaliser in extra time to make it 2-2 Liverpool went out on penalties, the first time they had gone out to fourth-tier opposition.

“Catastrophe. I am so disappointed,” said Jovanovic. “We know this is not Liverpool. It is very bad. I am so surprised by the performance. I have not got enough experience of English football but I didn’t expect this. Northampton played a really good game. We played a bad game – but this is football.”

Jovanovic added in the Liverpool Echo: “I am so disappointed. We all are. We are sorry for the result but we have to move on now.”

LiverpoolNorthamptonCarling Cupguardian.co.uk