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“The draw happened in the evening time, we weren’t together and so we were obviously all watching it separately but it wasn’t long until the WhatsApp group was pinging”, Conneely explained.

“For me personally, it was disbelief when I saw it, I was actually at my son’s football training, so I was watching on my phone on BBC.”

“We’ve been to the third and fourth round a few times since I’ve been here, and so maybe four or five times we’ve made it to the third round but we’ve never got that big draw.”

“We’ve got some decent ones, we’ve played Leeds at home, we played Middlesbrough away, we played West Ham away in the League Cup one year which was a big one in Olympic Stadium.

“It’s hard not to let your mind wander ahead, so it’s disbelief, then great excitement and then looking forward to the occasion on the 11th of January.”

Accrington Stanley is full of Liverpool fans

Conneely knows there is a strong contingent of Liverpool fans within the club he captains.

While he knows that his teammates won’t let allegiances get in the way of their performance on Saturday, Conneely revealed that some of the players in the squad are as big of Liverpool fans as you’re likely to get:

“You got Liam Coyle, he’s a big Liverpool fan, he goes to as many Liverpool games he can because often our games conflict with Liverpool’s if we’re at Saturday at 3 o’clock but if they’re playing on Sunday or a Champions League night, he’ll be at Anfield.”

It will likely be a ‘pinch-me’ moment for Conneely and the rest of his teammates on Saturday at Anfield.

And our assistant is Ged Brannan, he’s a Red as well.”

“So there’s big ties to Liverpool, there has been ever since our previous management team John Coleman and Jimmy Bell who were both from Liverpool, both Liverpool fans and they brought a lot of players from that area to Accrington.”

“I think when people hear of Accrington Stanley, they don’t know it is actually on the map, and I was like this when I first came over here, I thought it was just on the outskirt of Liverpool, but it’s not, it’s towards Blackburn, it’s more than an hour away from Liverpool.”

“But I think because of the milk advert, and then the effect that John Coleman and Jimmy Bell had on the club and the players they brought to the club, the amount of Liverpool players that have been through the club over the last 20 years there’s strong ties and people automatically presume that Accrington is a lot closer to Liverpool than it actually is.”

“It’s not a million miles away, but we’re closer to Blackburn and Burnley than we are to Liverpool but strong links which was another thing that added to the romance of the draw when it came out.”

Seamus Conneely on the excitement and preparing correctly ahead of playing Liverpool:

“Honest answer is I don’t know, I don’t know yet because I’ve never had a game of this magnitude.”

” I mean I’ve played in big games in the leagues since I’ve been here we’ve been promoted, we’ve won the league, we’ve been relegated so there was big games in the run in of a league campaign on those occasions.”

“And like I said we played West Ham away in the League Cup back in 2016, so that was probably the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of at the Olympic Stadium.”

“But, I mean Anfield with the history that’s in that ground, with the links between the clubs and just how well Liverpool are doing at the moment, they must be the form team in Europe, or one of anyway.

They are the top of the Champions League, top of the Premier League as well, so I’ve never played in a game like this.”

“I will try to prepare for this as normal as I can”

How Accrington Stanley is preparing for Liverpool

The only previous meeting between these clubs came in the 1956 FA Cup third round at Anfield, where Liverpool emerged victorious with a 2-0 win thanks to Billy Liddell’s double2

Interestingly, Liverpool wore yellow shirts that day due to FA rules requiring both teams to change colors in case of a kit clash.

Accrington Stanley is currently embroiled in a relegation battle in League Two, positioned just above the drop zone.

Despite their struggles, Accrington enters the match on a positive note, having won their last two games.

On preparing for the game against Liverpool, Seamus Conneely revealed:

“We were kind of laughing about it the other day on the way back from Colchester, we played Colchester last weekend and we were talking about what it’s going to be like when we do shape because we’d always do shape, the day before a game.”

“So the manager would name the team and then ask another 11 players to set up as the opposition, what we think the other team are going to play like, so on Thursday or Friday this week we’ll have the starting 11 and the 11 players who are going to try enough to play like Mo Salah.”

“We don’t know if Mo Salah will play but we presume they’ll play a 4-3-3, and you’ll have to put fellas in certain positions and ask them to play like Liverpool is going to play.”

“And of course we can’t replicate that we’ll do our best.

I think they might be few Blackburn or Burnley fans who Accrington Stanley is their second team and that will come along and that’s great, it’s great that we got such a following on the day.”

“I’m delighted that these fans will get to see their team who they’ve supported all their lives playing in Anfield in such a fantastic stadium.”

Seamus Conneely on the financial impact of the fixture against Liverpool

Cup competitions, particularly the FA Cup, represent crucial financial opportunities for lower league clubs when they draw Premier League opponents.

Live broadcast selection can earn clubs £144,000 per match, with high-profile TV coverage providing rare revenue for these outfits.

FA Cup rules mandate a 45% split of gate receipts for each team.

Simply put, playing at large Premier League stadiums can generate substantial income – Cambridge United earned £1.2m from their Manchester United replay last season.

And Conneely explains further on the financial prospects of Saturday’s tie:

“It’s massive for the club financially because it’s going to be worth about half a million pounds I think to us between the ticket sales, the gate and the television rights.

It’s been a long time coming, I’ve been here over ten years now, we’ve been to the third and fourth round and we’ve never got this big one.”

“We’ve always dreamed about it, imagined it and finally this year we’ve got it and it’s great for the fans.”

“Whatever the result it would mean that the club is financially stable for a few more seasons which is great for a club of the size of the Accrington Stanley.”

Conneely was born in the UK but spent much of his childhood in the West of Ireland.
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