WOULD SHREW BELIEVE IT?
Super-sub Cummings is talk of the Town as minnows earn Anfield replay
THEY streamed on to the pitch at the final whistle.
Hundreds of Shrewsbury Town fans giddy at what they had just witnessed. The magic of the FA Cup alive and well after a fabulous fourth-round tie.
Shrewsbury are 16th in League One, Liverpool are 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League,, but it was a day when the minnows matched them after refusing to give up.
There is still nothing like the FA Cup. Nothing can match the David-and-Goliath upsets and, even though this ended in a draw, it felt like a victory for this wonderful old competition.
Supersub Jason Cummings stepped off the bench to score twice and write one of the best stories of this year’s FA Cup, one that will go down in Shrewsbury folklore. Shrewsbury get their dream replay at Anfield but that now eats into Liverpool’s winter break and is another fixture for Jurgen Klopp to worry about in a season when his team seem to be playing every other day.
Klopp gambled this time by making 11 changes, fielding a mix-and-match team of fringe players, kids and fitagain first-teamers, but he still brought the cavalry with him because Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino came off the bench late on.
Liverpool did switch off, they were slack in defence, and yet no one should take anything away from Shrewsbury. They battled, scrapped and never gave up from first whistle to the last. You could not have failed to get caught up in the moment. The drama, the noise, the colour and the memories will last a lifetime.
Cummings, on the bench because he is only just back to fitness, won the Scottish Cup with Hibernian in 2016 and this was another unforgettable day.
In the space of 15 minutes he turned the game on its head.
Liverpool had been on Easy Street. Curtis Jones, the 18-year-old who put Everton out in the last round, latched on to Pedro Chirivella’s exquisite pass and raced through to slot home.
Shrewsbury kept going and twice Shaun Whalley went through. He saw one effort blocked by Liverpool keeper
Adrian and fired the other just wide. But the tie looked over 28 seconds into the second half. Liverpool right-back Neco Williams floated over a cross and Shrewsbury defender Donald Love inexplicably stabbed the ball into his own net. Love hurts.
However, Shrewsbury refused to give up. They could sense their moment as Liverpool switched off.
Klopp was growing angrier on the touchline, roaring at Joel Matip and Harvey Elliott as he could see his players losing their grip. When a Cummings pass put in Josh Laurent, Liverpool rookie left-back Yasser Larouci tried to block him and, even though his challenge started outside the box, ref Simon Hooper gave a penalty. Cummings kept his nerve to send Adrian the wrong way.
He was not finished. The 24-year-old capitalised when Dejan Lovren failed to clear and fired an equaliser past Adrian. The roof came off the place.
Both teams could have won it in the final stages amid frantic scrambles and appeals. But not even Salah and Firmino could find a way past gallant Shrewsbury.
What an incredible, unforgettable cup tie.