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Every season, someone starts a thread before the 3rd round draw asking which team people want us to be drawn against. Year after year, I suggest either Nottingham Forest (home or away) or Sheffield Wednesday (away). We have faced neither in the 21st century, not even in the League Cup, believe it or not. Forest dropped out of the Premier League in 1999, and Wednesday followed a year later. Both our games against the Owls were before the New Year, before Y2K was going to send the planet into meltdown, and at a time when the then-(New) Labour government had OK’d not one but two major infrastructure projects in London that would spiral out of control financially in a way that would make the average Tory weep with pride. Both the Millennium Dome (now the O2 Arena) and Wembley Stadium have eventually managed to see significant returns on investment, but both were examples of the fiscal madness at the tail end of the 20th century. Anyway, my point is that, though not in the 3rd round, we have finally been drawn against one of these sides in the FA Cup. It’s a chance for the team to reach Wembley and the semi finals, so what is required? Skill. Control. Application. Bravery. Strength. I don’t ask for much. As I pointed out above, it has been ages since we played this lot. The last actual fixture was in early April 1999 when we travelled to the City Ground and came away with a point against a side that had been demolished 8-1by the Mancs a couple of months earlier. Redknapp and Owen had scored for the Reds either side of a Dougie Freedman equaliser, and Pierre van Hooijdonk was allowed to claim an equaliser in the final minute. 1998/99 had been a dogshit season for Liverpool, full of lowlights. Well off the pace in the league, out of Europe and the domestic cups early, and having to watch the Mancs claim the treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. The absolute nadir of the season was not even being incapable of beating a piss-poor Forest side that would finish rock bottom, 11 points from safety. It was the night we meekly fell to a home defeat to Leicester on the same night that the Mancs clawed back a 2-goal deficit to win in Turin against Juventus to reach the Champions League final. The gods were definitely smiling on them that year. April 1988 wasn’t the last time these two met in the FA Cup (that would be a year later), but the 1988 semi final at Hillsborough showed a Liverpool team that rated as one of the very best in the club’s history. The attacking firepower of Aldo, Beardo and Barnesy meant that the Reds overcame Brian Clough’s men 2-1. It was merely 4 days later when they put on a masterclass at Anfield against the same opponents to win 5-0 with a performance that left Preston legend Tom Finney to proclaim it as the finest display of football he’d ever witnessed. The cup semi saw Aldo give us the lead from the spot after Barnes had been felled in the box by Steve Chettle. He got the second with a goal that was awarded Goal of the Season by Match of the Day. Barnesy and Beardo worked the ball brilliant down the Forest right, with the brilliant Barnesy picking out Aldo in the middle. The Ireland international slid in to fire a fire-time volley past Steve Sutton at the Leppings Lane end, and we had one foot in the final and an opportunity to claim the club’s second league and cup double. A defensive mix-up involving Brucie following a long throw-in gave Forest hope as Nigel Clough pounced to fire home, but in truth Forest were outclassed. An unwanted stat: every time Gary Gillespie played for Liverpool in a final, Liverpool lost. The big film at the box office in April 1988 was Tim Burton’s brilliant horror/comedy Beetlejuice. Starring Michael Keaton in tip top form, ably supported by Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones and Winona Ryder, and soundtracked by the calypso strains of Harry Belafonte, the film is a wild ride. Burton’s films, whether they work or not, have always been visually inventive and Beetlejuice is a prime example of Burton’s flair. So many standout scenes, and though I haven’t read anything suggesting it, I’d imagine that Jim Carrey’s The Mask was heavily influenced by Beetlejuice. More cartoonish than horror/comedy, but the humour in both is very similar. Burton and Keaton would go on to even greater success the following year following the release of Batman. Forest this season have done pretty well. They’re on the fringes of the play-offs in the Championship under former Liverpool academy coach Steve Cooper, and a number of their players have caught the eye this season. The most notable is Djed Spence, on loan from Middlesbrough, who from what I’ve seen is almost a clone of Trent in the right back position. An excellent attacking outlet blessed with quality delivery, he’s one to watch. Welsh forward Brennan Johnson is another who has caught the eye. In the FA Cup, Forest have had their best season in decades and have seen off Arsenal and Leicester, amongst others. I’d expect Klopp to rest one or two for this one as we’ve had a hectic schedule over the past couple of months. We’ll probably see Kevin in goal, Ibou, Big Joe and Kostas at the back, perhaps the likes of Curtis and Ox in midfield, and Taki in attack. The manager has strength in depth, but whoever is picked needs to ensure they are up for it. We have come this far, we can go even further. The right level of motivation, attitude and application will see that we do.