Liverpool followers could also be enthusiastic about Richard Hughes now, however 20 years in the past, he inflicted a very totally different emotion on them.
The Reds confirmed the appointment of their new sporting director on Wednesday.
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Hughes is anticipated to report into Michael Edwards, who has agreed to return to the membership having been named as CEO of football at Anfield.
The pair will work collectively to assist Liverpool navigate the post-Jurgen Klopp period, with the Reds boss leaving the membership on the finish of this season.
It’s possible that Liverpool followers again in 2004 would by no means have predicted Hughes could be a person serving to to run their membership, although.
The previous Scotland worldwide broke Liverpool hearts, netting his first of solely two targets for Portsmouth towards them – and what a purpose it was.
Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso have been among the many big-name stars in Gerard Houllier’s Liverpool aspect dealing with Harry Redknapp’s Pompey at Fratton Park.
A spot within the FA Cup quarter-finals hung within the stability, and people inside Pompey’s iconic floor bought to see a tasty conflict that noticed the Reds knocked out.
With the primary tie at Anfield ending in a 1-1 draw and Portsmouth additionally taking part in of their debut Premier League season, the percentages appeared to be within the Reds’ favour.
To everybody’s shock, Pompey gained the sport 1-0, with none apart from Hughes scoring the all-important purpose to interrupt the impasse within the 71st minute and ship Fratton Park into raptures.
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The scoreline didn’t do the tie justice, although.
Liverpool had been given a controversial penalty simply earlier than Hughes’ purpose. Nevertheless, Shaka Hislop was Pompey’s hero as he dived the appropriate approach to save Owen’s penalty.
The Reds had loads of probabilities to place the tie to mattress, however have been in the end made to pay for losing them.
With 20 minutes to go, Hughes tucked the ball into the underside right-hand nook to inflict one other 12 months of Cup heartbreak on the travelling Liverpool followers.
Portsmouth went on to be knocked out by Arsenal within the subsequent spherical, however Hughes nonetheless appears again at his half of their cup run as one among his finest profession moments alongside the eventual FA Cup win in 2008.
Talking after his retirement in 2014, the now-Liverpool chief stated: “I do know profitable the FA Cup was nice, Liverpool within the Cup was nice for me and beating Southampton 4-1 was, as a result of I used to be an adopted Pompey fan.”
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Now he’s going to have an enormous job at Anfield and Pompey look set to win League One… Soccer is a humorous outdated sport!
