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Havant's Anfield fairy tale
(FIFA.com) Friday 25 January 2008
For those cynics who believe that the romance of the FA Cup is dead, a trip to Anfield tomorrow afternoon must surely be in order. It is there, after all, at the home of the seven-time cup winners and five-time European champions, and in front of the fabled Kop, that non-league outfit Havant and Waterlooville will take on Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres et al in the tournament's fourth round.
This, as Havant's Liverpool-supporting coach Shaun Gale has said in the build-up to the match, is "the stuff of dreams", with the Conference South Side - beaten in last season's division play-offs by Braintree Town - set to do battle with one of the world's most iconic football institutions. Gale's side booked their trip to Anfield with a memorable 4-2 win over League One's Swansea City, a club 83 places higher in English football's hierarchy, and now the Hampshire towns of Havant and Waterlooville - whose teams came together in a 1998 merger - are gearing up for the match of their lives.
Enthusiasm for the tie can be measured by Liverpool's remarkable allocation of 6,000 tickets for the travelling support, every one of which club secretary Trevor Brock expects to have sold out by the time the buses depart for Merseyside.
"Looking at all the figures we could take half a million pounds plus £250-300,000 worth of add-ons," said Brock, envisaging a massive and utterly unexpected windfall. It would be unseemly, however, to focus on the financial benefits - however significant - of a tie that has pitted some of the world's finest talent against a team of bricklayers, binmen, teachers and trainee taxi-drivers.
'I'll be ready to explode'
Goalkeeper Kevin Scriven, for example, who saved a crucial penalty against Swansea in the third round, is a builder by trade, while Phil Warner - the man who will be expected to shackle Torres - earns his living driving a van. Midfielder Jamie Collins, meanwhile - Gerrard's opposite number - will return to his job as a primary school teacher on Monday morning, and striker Richard Pacquette will also be heading back to school in his role as a caretaker.
Fellow striker Rocky Baptiste, another boyhood Reds fan, is training to be a London cabbie, while centre-half Tom Jordan - son of Scotland legend Joe and scorer of the winning goal against Swansea - is a personal fitness trainer. Yet if there is one Havant player who sums up the gulf between the haves and have nots in English football, it is Tony Taggart.
The left-winger's day begins at 5am when, with Gerrard, Torres and the rest of Liverpool squad tucked away in their beds, he heads out on the streets of West London to empty rubbish bins. It is a job for which he is rewarded with £200-a-week, and Taggart - who does not own a car - relies on being driven to training sessions and matches by team-mates Baptiste and Pacquette.
"My aim is to get back into full-time football and I will never give up hope," Taggart told The Times this week. "Saturday is going to be one of the biggest days of my life. To get a chance to play at Anfield against players like Fernando Torres is unbelievable. Every day that goes past, I get more excited. Come Friday, I think I'll be ready to explode."
Taggart is also well aware that, romance of the cup or not, he can expect little mercy from the Kop - and is ready to see the funny side. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm ready for the 'what a load of rubbish' chants."
Longest odds in history
Havant have certainly earned the right to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame, having advanced through six rounds - past Bognor Regis, Fleet Town, Leighton Town, York City, Notts County and Swansea - to progress to this advanced stage of the world's most famous domestic cup competition.
Liverpool, by contrast, have faced just one FA Cup opponent thus far, yet despite requiring a replay to eliminate liquidation-threatened Luton Town, their inspirational captain has warned Havant not to expect anything but a clinically efficient performance from Rafa Benitez's Reds.
"Beating Luton has set up a cracking tie for the romantics," admitted Gerrard. "Sadly for [Havant], there aren't any romantics in our changing room - well, maybe Carra (Jamie Carragher)! Seriously, they've done brilliantly to get this far and their result against a Swansea side that's flying in the league was maybe the result of the round. But for them, that's as far as they are going. No-one at Liverpool will take them lightly. They've earned their place in the fourth round and also they've earned our total respect."
As for the price they've earned with the bookmakers, that stands at 100-1: the longest odds every offered for an FA Cup match. And who knows? The romantics out there might just be tempted.
(FIFA.com) Friday 25 January 2008
For those cynics who believe that the romance of the FA Cup is dead, a trip to Anfield tomorrow afternoon must surely be in order. It is there, after all, at the home of the seven-time cup winners and five-time European champions, and in front of the fabled Kop, that non-league outfit Havant and Waterlooville will take on Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres et al in the tournament's fourth round.
This, as Havant's Liverpool-supporting coach Shaun Gale has said in the build-up to the match, is "the stuff of dreams", with the Conference South Side - beaten in last season's division play-offs by Braintree Town - set to do battle with one of the world's most iconic football institutions. Gale's side booked their trip to Anfield with a memorable 4-2 win over League One's Swansea City, a club 83 places higher in English football's hierarchy, and now the Hampshire towns of Havant and Waterlooville - whose teams came together in a 1998 merger - are gearing up for the match of their lives.
Enthusiasm for the tie can be measured by Liverpool's remarkable allocation of 6,000 tickets for the travelling support, every one of which club secretary Trevor Brock expects to have sold out by the time the buses depart for Merseyside.
"Looking at all the figures we could take half a million pounds plus £250-300,000 worth of add-ons," said Brock, envisaging a massive and utterly unexpected windfall. It would be unseemly, however, to focus on the financial benefits - however significant - of a tie that has pitted some of the world's finest talent against a team of bricklayers, binmen, teachers and trainee taxi-drivers.
'I'll be ready to explode'
Goalkeeper Kevin Scriven, for example, who saved a crucial penalty against Swansea in the third round, is a builder by trade, while Phil Warner - the man who will be expected to shackle Torres - earns his living driving a van. Midfielder Jamie Collins, meanwhile - Gerrard's opposite number - will return to his job as a primary school teacher on Monday morning, and striker Richard Pacquette will also be heading back to school in his role as a caretaker.
Fellow striker Rocky Baptiste, another boyhood Reds fan, is training to be a London cabbie, while centre-half Tom Jordan - son of Scotland legend Joe and scorer of the winning goal against Swansea - is a personal fitness trainer. Yet if there is one Havant player who sums up the gulf between the haves and have nots in English football, it is Tony Taggart.
The left-winger's day begins at 5am when, with Gerrard, Torres and the rest of Liverpool squad tucked away in their beds, he heads out on the streets of West London to empty rubbish bins. It is a job for which he is rewarded with £200-a-week, and Taggart - who does not own a car - relies on being driven to training sessions and matches by team-mates Baptiste and Pacquette.
"My aim is to get back into full-time football and I will never give up hope," Taggart told The Times this week. "Saturday is going to be one of the biggest days of my life. To get a chance to play at Anfield against players like Fernando Torres is unbelievable. Every day that goes past, I get more excited. Come Friday, I think I'll be ready to explode."
Taggart is also well aware that, romance of the cup or not, he can expect little mercy from the Kop - and is ready to see the funny side. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm ready for the 'what a load of rubbish' chants."
Longest odds in history
Havant have certainly earned the right to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame, having advanced through six rounds - past Bognor Regis, Fleet Town, Leighton Town, York City, Notts County and Swansea - to progress to this advanced stage of the world's most famous domestic cup competition.
Liverpool, by contrast, have faced just one FA Cup opponent thus far, yet despite requiring a replay to eliminate liquidation-threatened Luton Town, their inspirational captain has warned Havant not to expect anything but a clinically efficient performance from Rafa Benitez's Reds.
"Beating Luton has set up a cracking tie for the romantics," admitted Gerrard. "Sadly for [Havant], there aren't any romantics in our changing room - well, maybe Carra (Jamie Carragher)! Seriously, they've done brilliantly to get this far and their result against a Swansea side that's flying in the league was maybe the result of the round. But for them, that's as far as they are going. No-one at Liverpool will take them lightly. They've earned their place in the fourth round and also they've earned our total respect."
As for the price they've earned with the bookmakers, that stands at 100-1: the longest odds every offered for an FA Cup match. And who knows? The romantics out there might just be tempted.
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