WINNING the title takes spit gas well as polish, and Liverpool showed yesterday at Upton Park that they can shine with the best of the battlers.

The extension of their lead at the top of the Premiership was a reward for matching West Ham's approach when it mattered before emerging with enough style to show just who was boss in an entertaining, and absorbing game.

With all the foreign touch-players Harry Redknapp has imported into the East End, there may come a day when West Ham will try to match Lverpool for style. But injuries and pragmatism led him to a more robust conclusion yesterday as his team closed down the flashy northerners with a vigour worthy of a dog chasing its tail.

Unfortunately, the end result was just as pointless as two Liverpool players duly answered their critics: Stan Collymore putting his personal problems behind him to mark his return to the Premiership side with the well-taken first goal. Then Michael Thomas, booed for much of the match after an earlier dust-up with Dowie, capped a glorious end-to-end move to score Liverpool's winner.

West Ham created pressure and chances in equal measure, with the winger Michael Hughes stubbornly impressive, but Slaven Bilic's headed equaliser was the only goal they could manage and by the end Liverpool were cruising.

Their loss through injury of influential players such as Fowler and Wright ended up as a minor problem, though the England new boy Matteo enjoyed a less than international-class game as sweeper and when Collymore limped off after 19 minutes, Liverpool badly lacked a focal point up front.

When they took the lead after just two minutes they must have thought they were in for a Sunday afternoon stroll. Thomas won the ball well on the right and played it back to McAteer. The wing-back threaded a 30-yard pass inside to Collymore which tempted Rieper out of position enough to allow the Liverpool striker to neatly flick the ball over the defender's head, run 30 yards into the area and expertly slot the ball past the Miklosko.

It was the perfect riposte after a recent few weeks when once or twice he has mysteriously failed to turn up for training and was also urged by the club to move nearer Anfield from his Staffordshire home. This he has now done and, until he went off, he looked close to being back to his old sharp self.

At this point in the game, West Ham upped their work-rate, denied Liverpool the space to get their passing game going and took control of the match with some splendid moves of their own. The equaliser on 15 minutes, though deserved, was indirectly caused by a suicidal back header into his own six-yard box by Matteo which eventually led to a West Ham corner. Hughes swung it in and Bilic rose athletically to power a header past James.

West Ham tried to capitalise on their ascendancy but could not. James saved well from Cottee, Dicks volleyed against the bar, Rieper headed just wide and Bowen shot just over after a cracking one-touch movement involving the Welshman and Hughes.

Frequently Liverpool could hardly get beyond their 18-yard line as West Ham mercilessly pressurised the visitor's ball-playing defenders and at one point Scales was forced into a very on-Liverpool-like boot of the ball aimlessly upfield just to relieve the pressure.

Perhaps out of tiredness or overconfidence, West Ham lifted their foot off the gas in the second half and after just 53 minutes Liverpool took advantage to score a glorious winner.

The move began with James and progressed through a typically patient series of passes, before Harry's boy, Jamie Redknapp, fought off Cottee, who found Scales, who found McManaman who fed Thomas in the right of the West Ham area and the midfielder shot clinically into the opposite corner past Miklosko, as simple as that.

West Ham brought on their latest Portuguese signing, Hugo Porfirio and created yet more chances. Bishop and Cottee shot just wide and James made easy saves from Hughes and Cottee. Bjornebye went close for Liverpool but in the end it was West Ham's misses that proved more costly.

"The boys battled through," said Roy Evans afterwards. "It pleased me that their attitude was right, although you can't grind out results all season. You've got to show quality too and I have a feeling there is more in our tank yet."