Steven Gerrard: Liverpool's away-day blues could have cost the Reds Champions League football

By Sportsmail Reporter Updated: 06:03 EST, 6 April 2010

Steven Gerrard has conceded Liverpool's poor form away from Anfield has all but cost the club Champions League football next season.

The Reds skipper scored at St Andrews on Sunday but his side stumbled again in the race to claim fourth spot in the Premier League after they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Birmingham.

And Gerrard admits that such results could prove Liverpool's undoing come the end of the season - although he did stress that, with five games remaining this term, his team-mates cannot give up just yet and must continue the fight to retain their place among the top four.

He told LFC Weekly: 'If leagues and trophies were won on just home form, it would be a successful season. But we haven't been good enough on the road; if you look at the stats, they don't lie.

'Away from home it has been frustrating. There is still time to put that right by sneaking into the top four.'  

Gerrard's goal against Birmingham and fine performance in the 3-0 home win over Sunderland last week suggest that Anfield's talisman is at last returning to somewhere near his peak form.

But the England midfielder also admitted that this had been a season full of personal disappointment at his own form.

He added:  'I'm always honest with myself, first and foremost. I always know when my form is there, or when it's slightly under what it should be at. Whenever I come off a football pitch I know straight away.

'The challenge for me now is to finish the season strongly. It has been frustrating at times this year with injuries and dips in form. I haven't been reaching the level I want to play at, but it can't always be possible. I've got to accept that.'