Rafa Benitez: Havant hopefuls given will get respect they deserve

Jan 26 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

A RATHER bad joke put to Rafael Benitez during yesterday’s Press Conference at Melwood saw him asked whether he was concerned about facing two sides in the shape of Havant AND Waterlooville this afternoon.

However, with bookmakers offering a record 100-1 for the Blue Square South minnows to triumph at Anfield and with Liverpool a symmetrical 1-100 for the victory, the reality is that Benitez’s side will have far less trouble overcoming the non-Leaguers than their manager admits he has pronouncing their name.

Certainly the FA Cup can still produce a few shocks – just look across Stanley Park to ask Everton, who were humbled by League One Oldham Athletic earlier this month – but for all that Havant & Waterlooville have done with their glorious achieve-ment of reaching the fourth round, their long road to Wembley will surely end this afternoon.

Liverpool have been beaten three times by non-League opposition as a League club but two of those defeats came during the Edwardian period to clubs who would later went on to play in the top flight – 4-1 at Southampton in the second round in 1902 and 3-2 at home to Norwich in the second round in 1909.

The only humiliation in any way comparable to the possibility of defeat today is the 1959 2-1 reversal at Worcester City.

However, Liverpool was a much different football club back then.

Languishing in the Second Division and midway through an eight-year struggle to get back into the top flight, the club had never even won the cup in more than 60 years of trying.

Yet things would change forever later that year as manager Phil Taylor resigned and was replaced by a certain Bill Shankly.

One record that might be more relevant looking up is Liverpool’s record winning scoreline in the FA Cup. Discounting the 9-0 thrashing of Newton in the club’s debut 1892-93 season – it came in the second qualifying round rather than the competition proper – Liverpool’s biggest FA Cup win was 8-0 against Swansea (the team Havant & Waterlooville defeated in the last round to earn their dream trip to Anfield) in a third round replay in 1990.

But despite the enormous gulf in class between the two sides, Benitez insists that he has prepared his side for the tie as he would do for any other game.

He said: “I’m sure that the FA Cup is really important for us so I will go with a strong squad.

“I have a lot of confidence in my players but you know what can happen in football.

“We will approach the game with a lot of respect and will try and use the right players for winning this game.

“Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Jamie Carragher will all be in the squad.

“We’ve watched two or three of their games on video. We have done everything the same as our other games, including Champions League games, in regards to our preparation.”

Although there will be no special welcome as such for the Hampshire club on the pitch, Benitez, who is not worried about the non-League players hurting his own superstars through over-enthusiasm, acknowledges it will be a big day out for his opponents.

He said: “After the game we will have a drink with them no problem, especially because some of them are Liverpool supporters. We are professionals and know that to play in any game there is a little bit of a risk (of injuries) but this will be no different to any game.”

With a whole 123 places between the sides in between the respective sides in the football pyramid, Benitez admits that he hasn’t been involved in a game that featured such a gulf in class and said: “I’ve not played a team who were five divisions below before.

“I’ve played a team three divisions below in the cup in Spain but now they have changed the system so you play two legs so it is very difficult for a small club to progress there.”

However as a former part-time player himself, Benitez does have a certain insight into what it’s like playing in these kind of matches from the underdog’s perspective.

He said: “I was playing in League One in Spain (second tier) for Parla, a village team on the edge of Madrid, working at a school as a PE teacher and going to university so I know what it means for the other team.

“I remember we played Atletico Madrid and it was a massive game. It’s something nice in football that you can see a team playing in this stage of the competition at Anfield.

“I was training in the afternoon but in the mornings I was working. I was living one hour away from the training ground and in Spain you need to train at 7.30pm so I was arriving home at 10.30pm.”

He added: “We played in the Calderon Stadium. I had been at Real Madrid for 10 years so I had experience of the Bernabeu but some players, especially the local players, were filled with awe.

“I remember we could have won it but we ended up losing 3-1, I think.

“We had two or three chances, we had some players on loan from Real Madrid who were young but very good players.”

Benitez might have been given the full backing of the club’s US owners yesterday as they attempt to move on from the admission from Tom Hicks that he approached Jurgen Klinsmann regarding the Liverpool manager’s job in November but the Spaniard acknowledges the best way to try and bring stability back to the club is through good results on the pitch.

After four consecutive draws, Liverpool will be expecting to return to winning ways today and build a sequence of victories.

He said: “You know that when you can win games in a row at a football club then everything is good so we will try to do our job if it’s possible to start doing that and then I think it will be easier for everyone.

“I always use the analogy of a football club being like a ship. We are all together on the ship – the players and the staff.

“Everyone must row together in the same direction.”