LIVERPOOL supporters of a certain vintage would have no doubt winced when they saw the balls being pulled from the tumbler.

As first out, a home tie in the FA Cup fifth round beckoned. But that Brighton and Hove Albion were the next team immediately prompted memories for many fans of an infamous exit in the competition.

When Liverpool entertain the Seagulls on Sunday, it will be almost 29 years to the day they were dumped out of the competition at the same stage by the same opposition at the same venue.

Defeat signalled the end of Bob Paisley’s last chance to lift the FA Cup, the famous trophy having eluded the Anfield legend both as player and manager.

That the winner came from the boot of one of his former charges, Jimmy Case, only compounded the misery on a day Phil Neal’s spot-kick miss proved crucial.

“It was always going to be a tough game for me, going back to Anfield,” recalls Case, who won four league titles and three European Cups with Liverpool before moving to Brighton in 1981. “I’d only left two seasons prior to that.

“Brighton’s league form at the time was awful, but we came alive in cup games. The whole atmosphere of the town changed, and from the Tuesday before the game the whole thing began to snowball.

“We went up to Anfield and, let’s be honest, when you are drawn against Liverpool you expect to go out.

“On the day I was in central midfield alongside Tony Grealish and Liverpool had Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness playing in there, so we were up against it. We needed our football brains switched on.

“When I scored the winner, it was a bizarre feeling. But because it was quite late in the game, we knew we had a chance of going through and we survived a real onslaught.

“Although it was against my former club, I still celebrated because I had scored a goal that could help a great set of lads and football club get nearer to achieving something.

“But even though I’d put their team out, as I was coming off the pitch at full-time the Kop was still singing my name. That’s a mark of the stature of the support of Liverpool.”

History repeated 12 months later when Brighton, then in the second division, became the only team to beat Liverpool in successive seasons in the FA Cup with a resounding 2-0 triumph at the Goldstone Ground.

Case had departed the Seagulls by the time the clubs were paired together again in 1991. Kenny Dalglish’s side threw away a two-goal at Anfield before squeaking through 3-2 in the replay.

But it is that 1983 shock that will give Brighton the greater hope this weekend and act as a cautionary tale for the home side.

“Brighton are a well-supported club whose fans have got through an awful lot in recent times,” says Case. “They will love it at Anfield. They know it’s a tall order, but there’s always that element of a little bit of a banana skin in the FA Cup. And Liverpool have been dumped out of cups in recent years by teams from lower levels.”

Indeed, lower league opposition have proven troublesome for Liverpool during the past two decades, particularly at Anfield.