BRIAN Howard knows what it takes to defeat Liverpool at Anfield in the FA Cup and is hoping his close friend and former client Conor Hourihane also makes history on Monday evening.

Howard famously netted the injury-time winner in February 2008 to secure a 2-1 win over a Liverpool side who had reached the Champions League final the previous season and started the likes of Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso and Peter Crouch with Steven Gerrard coming off the bench.

Howard fired home from the edge of the box but has to rely on replays to remind him of the moment.

He told the Chronicle: “To this day, I have no memories of that goal.

“All I remember is being extremely out of breath trying to run to the other end and being mobbed by the lads.

“I had done an interview for a national newspaper and I said if I scored the winner at Anfield I’d be more famous in Barnsley than Dennis Priestley who was a friend of mine. So for it to come to fruition was mad.

“My dad had an affiliation with Liverpool and took me to my first game – Southampton v Liverpool at The Dell.

“I always kind of looked out for them and, when we were growing up, you would always pretend to be Liverpool and their players in the playground or in a kickabout.

“I was so lucky to play in some massive games for Barnsley and that was one of them.

“It took a while to sink in and we were absolutely buzzing. I had thousands of missed calls and messages when I got back on the bus.

“The tunes were on full blast and everyone is buzzing. We got back to Barnsley and it was gridlocked.

“We were outside The Mount pub and I said ‘let’s go in and have a drink with the fans because it’s all for them.’

“I just remember walking into The Mount which was buzzing but it went quiet because they couldn’t believe we had all walked in. I remember the bartender sliding pints down to us like you see on the old movies. That is one of my favourite memories.”

The hosts took the lead through Dirk Kuyt but, amidst goalkeeping heroics by debutant Luke Steele, Stephen Foster levelled then Howard got the winner seconds after being felled in the box by Sami Hyypia.

“We saw that Steven Gerrard, Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres were all not starting.

“That gave us a bit of a lift but we knew it was still a really strong team. We started brightly but they took control of the game and took the lead.

“Simon Davey and the coaches were just saying ‘we’re still in it at 1-0, don’t have any regrets.’

“We had Steeley in goal and I had shared a room with him the night before. He was on the Barnsley website looking at players’ names and faces to get used to have team-mates.

“He was just unreal but everyone was – last-ditch blocks and tackles. Obviously we rode our luck at times.

“Fozzy got the goal. The goalkeeper made a good save from myself.

“We should have had a penalty and someone said to me the other day: ‘would that have been reviewed for VAR and the goal never happened?’

“But I don’t think it went out of play so it would have been OK.

“Then a few seconds later it was in.”

Howard did not realise the Reds had once again been drawn at Anfield again for a few hours after the draw.

“My missus had just had a little boy so I’d been busy with parenthood and missed the draw.

“But I checked my phone and it had been going mad. I had loads of people messaging me about the draw and saying clips from the game had been all over the TV.”

Howard is now an agent and one of his clients was Hourihane when he returned to Oakwell in 2024 as player/coach but has since changed representation when becoming head coach.

“Conor is not with us anymore but we did the deal to bring him into Barnsley we are really close mates.

“I know how driven he is to be a successful coach and it’s a great opportunity for him as a young manager.

“Liverpool are the champions of England and have a fantastic squad.

“It will be really though for Barnsley but, knowing Conor really well, he will have the team well-organised, rev them up for it and talk about the history of the game and what is possible.

“He will draw on the emotion of the fixture and that’s what we did as well.”