Liverpool 5 Havant & Waterlooville 2:Havant and Waterlooville filmed their arrival at Anfield and departed as the scriptwriters and stars of an outlandish mockumentary. This was not an FA Cup fairytale but football's Spinal Tap.
Twice in front against Liverpool, their goals prompted tears among the 6,000 throng from Hampshire and nervous laughter from the Kop. Steven Gerrard jostled for position at a corner and was serenaded with You'll Never Walk Alone by the opposition captain, Jamie Collins. Fernando Torres was submerged as the cabbie, binman and gas fitter wrestled for his shirt on the final whistle, and afterwards a Champions League-winning manager sighed: "This could never happen in Spain."
Rafael Benitez was referring to the bar on non-league teams entering the Copa del Rey. But the relief in his voice illustrated the richness of its English counterpart, the beauty of this glorious afternoon on Merseyside.
"The first thing I said to Steven Gerrard was 'Can I have your shirt?' He said: 'Sorry, the little man has already asked', talking about Alfie Potter," Collins said. "Then we were down at a corner in front of the Kop and I just started singing You'll Never Walk Alone by him. He looked at me like I was a weirdo. I don't suppose he gets that in the Premier League. I'm a West Ham fan and was at Cardiff when Gerrard scored that 30-yard screamer in the FA Cup final two years ago. I told him: 'You broke my heart'. I don't suppose I was ever going to break his."
That Gerrard was given palpitations, shaking his head at supporters during his first substitutes' warm-up, was enough.
Only in the division of spoils did Havant & Waterlooville's nerve and camaraderie waver on Saturday, when Potter and Rocky Baptiste reneged on a promise to pool their Liverpool shirts and draw them from a raffle.
"I'm a Liverpool fan," said the striker Baptiste. "I got Jamie Carragher's shirt and he signed it for me, so that isn't going in no draw, that's for sure."
It was Shaun Gale who inadvertently captured the sheer ridiculousness of the contest best. "The most disappointing thing was to concede the second goal on the stroke of half-time," said the proud Havant & Waterlooville manager.
Here was a manager of a Blue Square Conference South team, not some Premier League luminary, dwelling on a turning point, but Gale's regret said everything about the visitors' disciplined first-half performance.
Liverpool were dreadful before the break and two goals and two leads did not flatter the non-league side 123 places and five divisions below the seven-time FA Cup winners. Only the home supporters impressed, applauding Richard Pacquette's eighth-minute header from Mo Harkin's corner, Potter's deflected dink over Charles Itandje and chanting Benitez's name even with their side embarrassed.
When the manager of a team that cost more than €100 million in transfer fees can trail to a non-league outfit and still hear his name reverberate around a stadium, it underlines how fireproof Benitez is in the eyes of Liverpudlians. The row with Tom Hicks and George Gillett - now healed, according to Hicks - has only elevated the Spaniard's place in the affections of his public even though current performances warrant fierce scrutiny.
Liverpool's equalisers were out of context with their football. An exquisite shot into the top corner from the Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva and Yossi Benayoun's nonchalant finish in the 44th minute diluted the half-time wrath of the Kop.
With wingers to the fore after the interval Liverpool exploited the space behind a tiring Havant & Waterlooville and professionally brought reality into the romance. Two predatory finishes from Benayoun brought the Israel captain his second Anfield hat-trick, and an offside Peter Crouch tapped in in the final seconds.
The visiting chairman, Marcus Hackney, missed the fifth, an irrelevance on an incredible afternoon, as he was running from the directors' box to join his team in soaking up genuine applause from the entire stadium.
Hackney, whose club made £240,000 in gate receipts alone to secure their immediate future and enhance plans for a football-in-the-community project, said: "It was a magical experience - absolutely awesome. Getting to this stage of the competition and drawing Liverpool in itself was unbelievable. Then to go into a 2-1 lead was sensational and the experience for everyone associated with this club will always remain. I will go to my grave with this memory."
