Steve Cotterill on Liverpool FA Cup tie: Let’s savour the day
Manager Steve Cotterill has told Shrewsbury Town to sample every second of the unforgettable Anfield experience.
Cotterill, 57, has been in management for almost 27 years but tomorrow heads to the home of Liverpool for the first time as player or boss.
Town visit the red half of Merseyside for the second FA Cup occasion in just over two years looking to get one over Jurgen Klopp’s side – who are plagued with Covid-19 availability issues – after a youthful Liverpool outfit knocked Town out of the competition in 2020.
“We know we’re going to go to Liverpool and it’s going to be a full house, a brilliant ground, a brilliant football club, with a brilliant team and a brilliant set of supporters,” Cotterill said as Town head to Liverpool two rounds after facing non-league step three outfit Stratford Town.
“It’s going to be one of those occasions for our lads that they will never forget.
“We’ve worked our way through a couple of really difficult Cup ties in the earlier rounds to have earned the opportunity to play against one of the world’s biggest clubs.
“The support – when they sing You’ll Never Walk Alone – if that doesn’t get the hairs on the back of your neck up, nothing will. It’s just a magnificent football club.” Cotterill does have previous against the Reds. He scored in Wimbledon’s 2-0 top flight win over Liverpool at Selhurst Park in January 1993 before masterminding Burnley, then of the Championship, to a famous FA Cup victory over Rafa Benitez’s side at Turf Moor in 2005.
The manager is looking to enter the stadium as early as possible to soak in all of the surroundings.
Cotterill insisted it is ‘irrelevant’ to him what happened in the February 2020 Anfield replay.
“When we first entered the FA Cup we had Stratford away and then Carlisle away, in those games – even though you don’t want to publicly – you always want to talk about the third round,” he added.
“If you’ve been around long enough, which I have, the third round has always been an intriguing point in our calendar where you get these type of games.
“For our football club to be drawn against Liverpool – I don’t know if there’s too many better draws for a club at our level to get in the FA Cup.”
Meanwhile, it still remains to be seem whether Reds boss Klopp will be in the dugout tomorrow. The German finishes his isolation today but must return a negative Covid-19 test.
