MARK LAWRENSON: Nuisance FA Cup tie is last thing Liverpool or Everton would want

Jan 6 2009 Mark Lawrenson Liverpool Daily Post

Nuisance tie is last thing either club would want

MY first reaction when I heard the first tie out of the bag in the FA Cup fourth round draw was “Oh no – surely not!” And I bet that was how Liverpool and Everton reacted to it as well.

It’s a nuisance tie and the last one either side needed.

The sort that make you want to turn the clock back a few seconds and start the whole draw again.

For Liverpool, when they heard their name come out of the bag first and they knew had a home tie they must have been hoping for Kettering or Hartlepool to be next out.

Okay so they lost at home to Barnsley last year, but the odds of something like that happening again are remote and getting a similar draw is far more preferable than being paired with Everton, or anyone else from the top 10 of the Premier League for that matter.

You’d take awkward over tough any day.

As for David Moyes, well he has had some shockers but he’s also had some stinkers in his time in terms of draws.

Yes, you do have to knock out the best to win a cup but you also need luck as well so getting the top of the league away from home, whoever that might be, suggests that’s not on your side this year.

While the managers and players won’t like the draw, I’m not convinced the supporters will be too keen on it either.

I do think it is great that some of them have recognised the significance of a repeat of the 1989 final and are making the most of this opportunity to commemorate the 20th anniversary Hillsborough disaster.

But that is the closest I think anyone will come to creating any kind of a sense of occasion.

After all, the game will come just a few days after they have met in the league at Anfield.