Liverpool v Shrewsbury Town: My best mate is a Red...it's a weird situation – Shaun Whalley

“I used to sit in the Kop quite a bit,” the Shrewsbury Town winger said. “My best mate Danny has season tickets up in the Centenary, he has three and sometimes his cousins don’t go and I pinch one.

“I went to the Tottenham game (2-1 win) earlier in the season and sat in the Upper Centenary, it’s an unbelievable stadium. It’ll be brilliant to look up, I might not be able to see – it’s pretty high!”

The Scouser, Town’s longest-serving player of five years, admits he has waited 32 years for the chance to play at Anfield.

Whalley, a boyhood die-hard Red, worked his way up from non-league. There was no Reds or Blues academy experience for the Prescott-born flier – but a footballing education at Southport and Chester City.

So the chance to run out on to the hallowed Anfield turf in the FA Cup tonight, home of the Premier League champions-elect Reds he so idolises, is undoubtedly a career highlight for the Shrewsbury favourite.

But the 32-year-old insists it will only truly be a night to remember if Sam Ricketts’ men can deliver against the Reds’ youngsters just as, or even better, than they did in the thrilling first tie against a strong Jurgen Klopp-led outfit at Montgomery Waters Meadow.

“It does depend how the game goes, when we played Man United at home a few years ago, obviously I’m not a Man United fan, but it was the first massive club I played against,” Whalley said.

“We lost 3-0 and it was a total write-off, I came off the pitch and didn’t even get anyone’s shirt, I was disgusted in myself and the team.

“It could’ve been about six or seven. We kept it to three but we didn’t hardly touch the ball from what I remember. But from the first Liverpool game (it shows) I don’t think we will (freeze) anyway.”

Whalley has ordered 20 tickets for his family members to be part of the 8,000 capacity travelling support packing out the Anfield Road end opposite the Kop.

It will be Shrewsbury’s biggest away following since more than 10,000 went to Molineux for the Cup quarter-final of 1978/79.

But he hasn’t needed to grab any tickets for his closest pals – they will all be in the home crowd anyway, including best mate and best man Danny.

“Honestly it was weird before the first game,” Whalley recalls with a buzz. “My best mate, we were best man at each other’s wedding, is a massive Red.

“It was weird talking to him. Normally he says good luck but he didn’t know what to say, it was a weird situation for him.

“Obviously I wanted to win and I want to beat Liverpool even though they’re my favourite team, I still want to beat them.”

Much has been made of Klopp’s decision to jet out his European champions for a pre-scheduled Premier League winter break that had been pencilled in regardless of the Reds contesting an FA Cup fourth-round replay.

Liverpool have equalled their own 48-year top flight record of 20 home league wins on the spin. It has now been more than a year since they failed to win at Anfield and have taken 100 points from the last 102 available.

Even as an ardent Red, Whalley’s viewpoint is clear. The proposition of playing Liverpool’s crop of kids – talented as they are – gives Shrewsbury a shot at progressing to the fifth round and landing another plum tie, a trip to Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.

But, by his own admission, the former Luton and AFC Telford wideman is biased as, like any Liverpool supporter, the German can do no wrong in the eyes of the red half of Merseyside – barring a cataclysmic never-seen-before collapse from their huge top-flight lead.

“From a personal point of view it gives us a much better chance of winning at Anfield which is only good for me,” Whalley, whose dad Neil was a former professional with Preston in the 90s, added.

“I know a lot of the fans didn’t want the replay to begin with. Whatever Klopp says the fans stick with him because of the unbelievable job he does.

“He’s got a lot of backers and I’m one of them! So I’m glad he’s playing the young lads.

“I’m another Liverpool supporter who thinks Klopp can’t do any wrong.

“If he thinks the lads need a week off then by all means they can have a week off.

“Overall (for us) it’ll still be really hard, we’ll still be underdogs, but it gives us a much better chance to progress.”

After a promise to Danny, Whalley managed to get hold of Fabinho’s match shirt after the Jason Cummings-inspired Meadow comeback nine days ago, and kept the shirt of unused substitute and fellow Liverpudlian Trent Alexander-Arnold to himself.

“In the first game Salah and Firmino came on, they had a strong team out. Matip and Lovren at centre-half,” Whalley, who is closing in on 200 Shrewsbury appearances, added.

“I feel like we’ve played them now and we have got a much, much better chance than if Salah, Mane and Firmino are playing so I’m looking at it as a positive

“The Liverpool young players are brilliant, but let’s have it right they’re not as good as the names I reeled off in the first team – they’re 22 points clear in the Premier League, unbeaten all season, I wouldn’t rate our chances much against that team.”