Heroic non-league side reached FA Cup 3rd round and led twice away at Liverpool

Liverpool once escaped a giant-killing in the FA Cup despite twice trailing to non-league outfit Havant & Waterlooville.

The Premier League giants looked set for a comfortable afternoon against the club in January 2008 in the fourth round of the domestic competition. Coming off a 5-0 win against Luton Town in the third round, most fans expected a thrashing but boy were they surprised.

It was Havant & Waterlooville that stole the headlines and silenced the Anfield crowd after Richard Pacquette opened the scoring in the ninth minute for the away side. It was a remarkable journey just to get to the historic stadium having won seven ties on their FA Cup journey including a 4-2 win over Swansea City who were playing in League One at the time.

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The thrilling victory earned them the trip to Anfield where they were suddenly in the lead but it was only a brief moment of elation, as Lucas Leiva equalised less than 20 minutes later with a stunning strike. However, the unthinkable happened again, as Martin Skrtel's own goal put the non-league side back in front.

Pacquette – who enjoyed a two-year stint with the club – opened up about the famous game last year and said then-Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez knew it'd be a tough game considering he started the likes of defensive colossus Sami Hyypia, Argentina legend Javier Mascherano and then England frontman Peter Crouch.

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"Liverpool did put out a strong team because I think they knew it was going to be tough," he insisted. "We were a team going there with nothing to lose and I’m sure they looked at our results and knew it wouldn’t be an easy 90 minutes. I remember watching Soccer Saturday before the game and the pundits were talking about it being 8-0 or 9-0, I think we used that as a bit of extra motivation."

While Liverpool eventually turned up the heat with Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun's hat-trick and Crouch's 90th minute goal ending the game 5-2 in their favour, it was a special day for the non-league team and their fans. Pacquette, 40, was proud that he and his team-mates didn't just roll over for the Premier League giants but did admit he was frustrated not to play the entire game.

"We showed we wouldn’t be an easy game," he said. "We went 1-0 up, then 2-1 up and went in at the break at 2-2. I think we did ourselves justice. "I was actually a bit disappointed to come off after an hour. We’d just gone 3-2 down and were still in the game. I felt I still had more to give."

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