Jamie Carragher admitted that the Liverpool crowd would have gone ballistic if he had let Michael Owen score at his testimonial.

Owen had played at the Liverpool veteran's testimonial against an Everton XI for the Reds, which marked his first time putting on Liverpool's colours since leaving the club in 2004.

However, his presence was not well-received by the Anfield crowd and Carragher admitted he had to stop plans to let Owen have a last hurrah from the penalty spot.

According to quotes from the Sun, Carragher said: "I asked the referee to give us a penalty before half-time because I was thinking about Michael as I wanted him to score.

"He's my best mate in football and I think it took a lot of courage to come back today and do it for me knowing he would take a lot of stick.

"But I think the crowd would have killed him if he'd taken the penalty listening to their reaction."

Instead, Carragher took the penalty and scored, and followed up later with another penalty goal- this time against his own side!

The 32-year-old explained: "As an Everton fan as a kid I've always dreamed about scoring against Liverpool so that is why I did that."

Carragher also gave his thanks to the English Football Association for allowing Steven Gerrard to play, despite being in the midst of their 2010 Euro qualifiers. The England captain played for only ten minutes in a brief cameo.

"A big thank you to the people at the FA because it is not easy as they had two massive games - but I think it helped they won last night.

"He is the best player I've ever played with so I'm delighted he was involved.

"England always have to do a warm-down the day after so that was his warm-down", Carragher added.