Roy Hodgson praised the performance of Glen Johnson after the full-back starred in Liverpool's 3-0 victory over West Ham United at Anfield on Saturday evening.

The England international fired the Reds into an early lead on his return to action following a groin injury, before goals from Dirk Kuyt (penalty) and Maxi Rodriguez prior to half-time secured a comprehensive win.

It's a result that moves Liverpool up to ninth in the Barclays Premier League table - just three points off fourth-placed Bolton Wanderers.

Hodgson told his post-match press conference: "He was very good. I think he profited from the fact he's been obliged to undergo an enforced rest due to the injury. It's taken a while for him to get over it, but he's been fit all week and has trained.

"I thought he was full of running, enthusiasm and energy, and furthermore he scored a very important goal. The first goal in a game like this is always the important one, and Glen got it.

"Today I thought all of the back four's performances were pretty nigh on perfect.

"West Ham didn't have their first headed chance until the 91^st minute, but that was really the only time in the game I thought we looked like conceding a goal. We certainly looked like scoring a fourth on more than one occasion.

"Glen Johnson is a top-class player, we all know that, and it was nice to see him play so well today and show the fans how well he can play."

While Johnson opened the scoring for Liverpool, it was fellow full-back Paul Konchesky who supplied the assist for Maxi's header which effectively sealed victory for the home side.

Click on the play button to watch Hodgson's post-match press conference

Hodgson said: "What was most pleasing today was that we've done a lot of work on trying to get our full-backs forward and trying to get our midfielders to create space for them. So it was nice to see Glen score one goal and Paul Konchesky make another.

"I thought our movement down the sides throughout the game was very problematic for West Ham and, as I said, we scored two goals from it and could have scored more because we got ourselves into good positions.

"The other pleasing aspect is that we were so professional in the second half, there was never any chance we'd let them back into the game, there was no sloppiness, and it gave me a chance to give people like Aurelio, Babel and Shelvey a well-deserved taste of Anfield football."

Liverpool's midfield options had been severely depleted in the build up to the Hammers clash following injuries to Steven Gerrard and Jay Spearing.

With Lucas Leiva also serving a one-match suspension, Hodgson was forced to select Raul Meireles and Christian Poulsen in the centre of midfield - two players brought to Anfield by the boss in the summer.

The manager said: "Christian is a good player. As I've said before, if you can pay a price for being too honest, I think he may have done that in one or two of the earlier games when the team wasn't playing well and he's tried to do perhaps a little bit too much.

"But I always knew he is a very good footballer and today in a good team he showed what a good player he is.

"Raul was very good. The important thing for us is to get Raul Meireles on the ball, and he'd have got on the ball today in whatever position he played in midfield because we passed the ball quite well and got the ball into the midfield players."

The boss continued: "It was important to win and I thought we did it with some style. As I said yesterday, I think there are going to be lots of situations in the coming months where momentum will be gained and lost by teams because the league is such that there are no games where you can safely predict the result.

"We knew what we had to do here today. We were concerned to some extent we would have to do it without Steven Gerrard and Lucas Leiva, but the players selected today did really well and we got the three points we needed with not only a good performance, but also a professional performance."

After taking a commanding three-goal advantage into the break, reporters were eager to know whether Hodgson felt this was the most comfortable performance of his Anfield tenure.

He replied: "I suppose it was and to be fair if you're not comfortable at 3-0 at half-time and they've not really had a shot at goal, then you're never going to be comfortable. But having said that, I don't think 'comfort' and 'relaxed' are words that we managers of Barclays Premier League teams use too often.

"I started to relax a little bit with 10 minutes to play when it was 3-0, but then you can always fear the other team will get back in it with a goal and you're going to start to panic and you never know where it's going to go from there, as we saw this afternoon when Arsenal looked very comfortable in the first half (against Tottenham) but ended up with zero points."

Watch analysis of our 3-0 win>>

Meanwhile, reporters quizzed Hodgson on whether Fernando Torres had felt any effects of the ankle ligament injury he picked up against Stoke City last weekend.

The Spain star almost capped a dynamic performance with a goal late on, only to see West Ham custodian Robert Green tip his effort onto the crossbar before being substituted to a standing ovation.

Hodgson said: "He's fine - he didn't ask to come off.

"I would have quite liked to have taken him off a little bit earlier because I thought he looked a little bit tired. He travelled in the week, played 45 minutes (for Spain) and worked very hard today.

"His movement and his runs were very, very good, as were Ngog's. I would have quite liked to have taken him off with 20 minutes to go, but quite frankly I also thought he was going to score a goal and I wanted him to.

"He came very close and that's why I kept him on as long as humanly possible because I thought it would be nice to try and let him score a goal and then take him off, but the underside of the crossbar denied him."