LIVERPOOL BECAME THE fifth Premier League team to go out of the FA Cup to lower-league opposition in three days after crashing 3-2 at third-tier Oldham Athletic on Sunday.
Matt Smith scored either side of a Luis Suarez goal to put Oldham 2-1 up at half-time, with Reece Wabara’s magnificent header early in the second period securing a famous upset despite a late goal by Joe Allen.
Defeat at a rain-lashed Boundary Park meant that Brendan Rodgers side followed Aston Villa, Norwich City, Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur in being ousted from the competition by a team they were expected to beat.
Currently 19th in League One, Oldham are 56 places below Liverpool in the English league pyramid and join Millwall, non-league Luton Town, Milton Keynes Dons and Leeds United as fourth-round giant-killers.
Beaten FA Cup semi-finalists in 1994, Oldham made a storming start and took the lead inside three minutes when Smith climbed above his marker to head Youssouf M’Changama’s hanging cross past goalkeeper Brad Jones.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers made several changes to his starting line-up but star striker Suarez was included and he claimed an equaliser in the 17th minute.
Wearing the captain’s armband, with Steven Gerrard on the bench, Suarez darted towards goal from a deep position and after an attempted pass came back to him, he coolly stroked the ball inside the right-hand post.The Urugayan thought he had put Liverpool ahead moments later, but as he wheeled away to celebrate after glancing in a Jordan Henderson free-kick, the assistant referee raised his flag for offside.
The two sides exchanged chances but the half-time whistle looked set to arrive with the scores level until a big mistake by Jones gifted Oldham a second goal.
The Australian goalkeeper allowed Wabara’s cross to squirm from his grasp and Lee Croft reacted quickly by squaring the ball to Smith, who tapped in his second goal.
Liverpool claimed there had been a foul on Daniel Sturridge in the build-up to the goal and things got even worse for the visitors when Wabara made it 3-1 three minutes into the second half.
Carl Winchester motored past Raheem Sterling on the Oldham left and whipped in a high cross that Wabara met with a towering header that hit the underneath of the crossbar before bouncing over the line.
Rodgers reacted by introducing Gerrard from the bench, and the skipper almost made an impact when he saw successive shots bravely blocked by Cliff Byrne and former Everton youngster Jose Baxter.Stewart Downing header over the bar and Jonjo Shelvey flashed a shot over, while Robbie Simpson spurned a chance to put the game to bed when he lashed a volley wide at the other end.
It looked set to prove costly when Allen planted a deflected volley in the bottom-right corner in the 79th minute to reduce the arrears and claim his first goal for Liverpool.
Liverpool’s efforts to find an equaliser proved in vain, however, with their best effort seeing Gerrard rattle the crossbar from outside the box.
Change the hash tag – it would have been an upset 20 years ago. Liverpool are a famous club with a great history but they are no longer a top team that would be expected to win these types of games – #hasbeens
I blame Alex Ferguson
A some Liverpool fans think they are still a big club. Yeah right
Liverwho?
Ha ha
Fair play to Oldham
Good to see Liverpool have turned the corner……….. again
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha so funny.
i bet the 12 thousand liverpool fans that are tagged and on curfews are glad they could not go to the match
To be fair. Oldham. Top team. Fit team. Lot of heart. Liverpool contained them well. They have what 1 point in 8 games in league 1. Can’t blame Rodgers as not every manager can be bad. The players and their commitment is what’s at fault in Liverpool. Lucky though. Could not have handled defeat to Everton in the next round had we have gone through.
Fantastic logic, Rodgers was not at fault! Most managers would play their strongest team when they have no other chance of domestic silver-ware. Surely Everton finishing higher up the able will be a bitter pill to swallow. Considering the pool have spent 10 times as much money on players in the last 10 yrs!
Next year they’ll be back…..he he he.
Funny that because Liverpool made the 2 finals last season. No complaints, could have whinged about the Sturridge foul for the 2nd but no point, 2nd best on the day. Oldham fully deserved it and good luck to them.
They should extend rogers contract doing a great job
Liverpool are now in the third tier of prem football. 4th tier comprises the relegation battlers. Slippery slope
Oh Manchester, is wonderful, oh manchester is wonderful!
It is where the champions come from!
And the champions before that and more than likely one of them will be the champions this year. Oh and also the scouse busters of Oldham!!
Never rated Rodgers and to be fair to Liverpool he wasn’t their first choice,but his signings have been awful and his “3 envelopes” trick in pre season and the easy laudrup has vastly improved Swansea has shown him to be what I always thought he was and that’s a bluffer
Souness, evans, houllier, thommo, Benitez, hodgson, dalghish.. Some bunch of losers… Now rogers lol
Surely now rogers must be sacked
Not a chance. Inherited a very poor team and has little or no money to spend. He is not a miracle worker. Still think he is the right manager for liverpool. Lets be honest all the big managers wouldnt touch ye with a 40 foot barge pole.
bitterly disappointed with the loss, we are a shadow of the team of years ago,no belief, no edge and no leadership, we are going no where fast and our key players won’t hang around!!that’s the fact that we have to acknowledge as a pool fan these days but we will remain loyal to our club
19th in league one isn’t 80 places below Liverpool… I make it about 57?