So Liverpool travelled back up the M6 having not managed to balance the aggregate against Aston Villa for the season.
Having lost here 7-2 against Villa’s first team last October, they could only win by three against this team of callow youngsters. On one of the strangest nights in FA Cup history, this was a superb and heartening effort by this team of young Villains.
Hero of the night was 17-year-old forward Louie Barry. There may have been some rancour in these parts about how he went from West Brom to Barcelona and then to Villa in the space of just five months.