February 4 2003

Dave Swindlehurst

Twenty six years ago Third Division Crystal Palace made the Liverpool work hard for their FA Cup Third Round replay victory.

Palace had stuffed Enfield 4-0 and eventually beat Brighton 1-0 after two replays (2-2 and 1-1) in previous rounds of the competition.

They had surprised many by holding Liverpool to a 0-0 draw up at Anfield against a Liverpool side who had the likes of Kevin Keegan, John Toshack and David Fairclough playing for them.

And a few days later on January 11, 1977, some fancied them to cause an upset in the replay at Selhurst Park.

It looked like it could have happened as Paul Hinshelwood gave Palace a surprise lead after 17 minutes to the delight of a packed Selhurst Park. His 35-yard thunderbolt flew into the top corner of the Whitehorse Lane end goal, leaving Ray Clemence with no chance.

But just three minutes later, Keegan levelled for the visitors after good work from Steve Heighway. In the second half, Keegan returned the favour to set up Heighway to give Liverpool a 2-1 lead from close range.

Heighway added another to put the tie beyond reach six minutes later and make it 3-1.

With two minutes to go, Palace's George Graham scored, but the match ended with Liverpool safely through to the next round after a disgraceful amount of time-wasting.

Palace: Hammond, Hinshelwood, Sansom, Holder, Cannon, Evans, Chatterton, Graham, Perrin, Swindlehurst, Silkman (Harkouk 70).

Liverpool: Clemence, Neal, Jones, Thompson, Kennedy, Hughes, Keegan, Case, Heighway, Fairclough, Callaghan.

Attendance: 42,664.

Referee: Jack Taylor.