Ryan Babel scored the only goal as the Reds beat the Turkish Cup winners 1-0 in the first leg of their Europa League play-off at Anfield.

Victory would have been much more comfortable had Joe Cole converted a second-half penalty and debutant Christian Poulsen not had a goal disallowed.

"I think with our second-half performance we can probably count ourselves unlucky," said Hodgson, who made seven changes and gave captain Steven Gerrard a night off.

"We probably did deserve the extra goal which would have made the trip to Turkey more comfortable. Now it won't be comfortable at all.

"If you miss a penalty you can't blame anybody but yourselves but I thought we were unlucky with the disallowed goal.

"Overall I am very pleased with the result and performance, especially second half, but whether it will be good enough to take to Trabzonspor, only time will tell."

Cole's miss continued a miserable week for the former Chelsea midfielder, who was sent off against Arsenal on Sunday and found guilty of speeding on Wednesday.

He now begins a three-match domestic suspension starting with Monday's Barclays Premier League trip to Manchester City.

Cole was quick to shoulder the blame after missing the penalty.

Asked when he last took a penalty, Cole told ITV1: "When I was about 13, and I scored that one.

"It was a bad penalty (tonight). It was pre-determined that I'd take it but you can't dwell on those things.

"It was a bad penalty but we won 1-0 so we'll take the positives from that."

On his new playmaking role for Liverpool, Cole said: "It's nice. I'm finding my feet in there.

"It's my job to do that, to make goals, and it was nice to do that for Ryan tonight. He's a terrific player. I'm enjoying my time here, I've had a decent start."