Mighty Liverpool were given the fright of their lives by tiny Havant & Waterlooville before beating the non-league side 5-2 in an astonishing FA Cup fourth round tie at Anfield on Saturday.

The part-timers from Hampshire, six divisions and 123 places below Liverpool in England's football pyramid, twice led against the seven-time FA Cup winners at Anfield.

However, a hat-trick by midfielder Yossi Benayoun saved Liverpool from what would have been the greatest upset in the FA Cup's 137-year history.

Havant & Waterlooville, whose team includes a refuse collector, a trainee taxi driver, a teacher and a security officer, normally play in front of only about 600 fans.

But they stunned the 42,000 crowd at Anfield when Richard Pacquette, who once played in the same Queens Park Rangers youth team as Liverpool's England striker Peter Crouch, put the visitors ahead after eight minutes.

It took Liverpool until the 27th minute to equalise when Lucas scored with a 30-metre shot, but the part-timers went back in front four minutes later when a shot from Alfie Potter took a deflection off Martin Skrtel to put Havant 2-1 ahead.

Benayoun got Liverpool back on level terms again in the 44th minute and put them 3-2 ahead with a well-taken shot on the turn after 56 minutes.

The Israel international completed his hat-trick and put Liverpool 4-2 ahead three minutes later before a late goal from Crouch made the game safe.

PROUD MAN

Havant & Waterlooville manager Shaun Gale said he was a proud man afterwards.

"You have dreams and beliefs and we came here today and thought we might get something. We knew the enormity of the task but to be twice in front at Anfield takes some beating and not too many teams have done that," he told Sky Sports News.

"It would have been nice to go in 2-1 ahead at halftime but my lads have been magnificent today and I am proud of them. It has been a fairytale. It will be a long time before anyone else does anything like this."

The only real upset of the day came at Pride Park where Championship (second division) strugglers Preston North End won 4-1 at the Premier League's bottom club Derby County, who had Wales defender Lewis Nyatanga sent off late in the game.

Arsenal, coming back from their humiliating 5-1 League Cup semi-final defeat at arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday, won the first all-Premier League game of the day.

They beat Newcastle United 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium with two goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and an own goal by Nicky Butt.

After two games in charge new Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan has yet to see his team score but although they had their chances against Arsenal they were well beaten in the end.

Top flight Portsmouth and Middlesbrough reached the fifth round with Pompey coming from behind to beat Championship side Plymouth Argyle 2-1 and Middlesbrough winning 2-0 at Mansfield Town in the day's early kick off.

In Saturday's late game FA Cup holders Chelsea visit Wigan Athletic. Three matches are being played on Sunday including Manchester United against Tottenham Hotspur.

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