The date of Sunday 8 January is already firmly etched on Graham Carey’s 2017 calendar, as Plymouth Argyle face Liverpool in The Emirates FA Cup.
Carey’s extra-time penalty proved enough to send the League Two side into the third round at the expense of Newport County on Wednesday evening.
And the Irishman, a lifelong Reds fan, is now looking forward to fulfilling a boyhood dream by playing at Anfield.
“Going to Anfield, from a personal perspective – I’ve been a Liverpool fan all my life – is going to be a great day,” said Carey, after the hard-fought victory at Rodney Parade.
“My whole family are Liverpool fans. I’m sure a few will make the trip over and I’ll have a lot of requests for tickets tomorrow!
“I’ve been to a few games there. It’s a great place to play football.
“It’s brilliant, it will be a great day out for the fans.”
The Pilgrims will head north with confidence too, after a strong start to the campaign under Derek Adams which sees them sitting on top of the League Two table and focused on promotion.
The former Celtic and Motherwell forward admits that remains their priority, but it won’t stop them dreaming of a Cup upset against Jurgen Klopp’s side.
“We’re going to enjoy it – but we’ll go there and try to get a result,” added Carey.
“No-one will give us a shot of getting a result, but we’ve shown that we can battle as a team, and it’s The FA Cup. You never know.
“This group of lads have a main aim this season, and that’s to get promoted.
“We’ll enjoy that day [at Liverpool] when it comes, but first of all we need to get back to the league and rack up more points. The FA Cup won’t be a distraction whatsoever.”
Plymouth’s trip to Anfield will be shown live on BT Sport and the winning clubs will receive £67,500 from The Emirates FA Cup prize fund.
