Andy Carroll insists a spirited Liverpool performance on a frantic night at Ewood Park shows the character and determination Kenny Dalglish's men have within their ranks.

On a night when deputising 'keeper Alexander Doni was shown a straight red card and his replacement Brad Jones saved the resulting penalty, Liverpool looked to have let a two-goal lead slip from their grasp until Carroll marked his 50^th Liverpool appearance by netting a last-gasp winner.

All eyes will now turn to a mouth-watering Merseyside derby at Wembley on Saturday and Liverpool's No.9 knows Tuesday's performance will give the Reds a massive boost as they head into their FA Cup semi.

"It shows the fight that we've got here," said Carroll. "Coming off a few defeats and a draw, coming here and winning will lift all the lads to go to Wembley and try to get to the final from there.

"I think we're all confident. We've just been a little bit unlucky in a few games and I think the luck will come on our side, sooner rather than later hopefully. But I think it was a good performance from all the lads (at Blackburn) and we deserved the win.

"It was a funny old game. Back and forth with a sending off as well but in the end we got the win we came here for.

"We all believed that we were going to get the winning goal at the end and as Kenny said we kept attacking all the way through and then it (the winner) came right at the end."

The Reds started the game in dynamic fashion and Maxi Rodriguez was on hand to net two early goals against a Blackburn side looking for vital points in their battle to avoid relegation.

The Argentinean tapped in a Craig Bellamy cross on 13 minutes before doubling the Reds advantage shortly after. And when asked if the plan was to come flying out of the blocks, Carroll replied: "It always is.

"We came here looking for points. We haven't been on the best run but we came out of the blocks, got two early goals and passed it round. Unluckily Doni got sent off and we had to sit back with 10 men but we pushed on and we got the winner at the end."