Jamie Carragher has insisted Pepe Reina's bid for this season's Golden Glove award was behind his on-field disagreement with Alvaro Arbeloa during Liverpool's 2-0 victory at West Brom.
Goals in each half from Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt secured victory for the Reds at The Hawthorns - and ended the Baggies' stay in the Premier League.
West Brom fought hard for a way back into the game in the latter stages, and created a number of chances which had Carragher seething with frustration.
"We can't win the league now but there are a number of targets we can aim for," said Carragher after the game. "We want to keep a clean sheet and we want Pepe to have a chance of the Golden Glove for the third season running. Pepe is one behind Van der Sar now and there's a chance Van der Sar won't play next week, so we wanted to make sure he got a clean sheet today.
"To be honest we were a bit lackadaisical in our defending all through the game and they had too many chances.
"Maybe we took it a bit too easy and let them attack us too much, but that was one of the toughest games I've played in all season. We go all over Europe playing top teams and we play against the best sides in this country, but that was one of the hardest games we've had."
Carragher admits he's disappointed Liverpool's title chances have been ended for another season, but he's already looking forward to the prospect of making another challenge next year.
"It's hard to win the Premier League because our top four sides plus Barcelona probably make up the best five sides in Europe," he said. "That's the challenge we face.
"You can look at the statistics from this season and it's impressive that we've only lost two games and scored lots of goals, but United have got more points than us and credit to them because that's what matters.
"We have to make sure we finish second now and win our last game of the season next weekend."
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