Liverpool fans criticised by Konchesky's irate mother

Roy Hodgson welcomes his former side Fulham to Anfield tonight but Paul Konchesky, who followed the Liverpool manager to Merseyside in the summer, might get a less warm reception from the Kop after his mother became involved in a bizarre internet row with some of the club's supporters.

Responding to criticism of her son by some Liverpool fans, Carol Konchesky used her Facebook page last month to apparently call them "scouse scum" and accused supporters of living in the past. Her remarks have generated a number of online comments and accusations about the abuse that has been levelled at her son. The left-back was signed from Fulham for £4m in August but has struggled to settle at his new club.

Meanwhile, Hodgson could be forgiven for almost feeling wistful about his time with Fulham given the struggles he has endured since leaving Craven Cottage in the summer. "The difficult thing was that it was a good job," he said when asked if there was a wrench when Liverpool's then managing director, Christian Purslow, asked him to succeed Rafael Benitez. "I was very happy living in the apartment we had owned for 10 years. We were 15 minutes from the training ground and I'd worked very hard with the players to reach a certain level and an understanding.

"I did say at the time and I will say it again, that I wouldn't have moved just anywhere from Fulham. Liverpool is a very special club, an institution in world football. When the offer came, sentiment had to be put aside."

However, at Fulham not every defeat or sluggish display demanded the kind of inquests that have pockmarked his six months on Merseyside. "It has been a hardening and a weathering process that I have had to come to terms with but it should be seen as a positive rather than a negative. It is going to be that type of attitude and desire from everybody at the club that will lift us into a better position."

In his first season at least, when relegation would have brought Fulham to its financial knees, the pressure was at least the equal of what he has experienced at Anfield. "Yes, there was pressure, enormous pressure but which club doesn't have it?" he said. "I think Mohamed al-Fayed has done a fantastic job in funding that club, in backing managers to do the job and he has received his reward."