It’s been 10 years since Liverpool last reached an FA Cup final and 16 years since they last won the oldest national football competition in the world. Such a drought is their longest since they first won the tournament in 1965, at a time when it was the Reds’ most desired trophy.
But while the FA Cup might have fallen down the list when it comes to elite club’s priorities these days, with Liverpool ’s main focus remaining the Premier League and Champions League, Jurgen Klopp ’s men will be determined to set up a third trip to Wembley when they take on Man City on Saturday.
Chasing an unprecedented quadruple, it’s a sign of just how far the Reds have come over the past decade that they can treat an FA Cup semi-final with such nonchalance. But that’s a far cry from the last time they reached the final in 2012, when they had to overcome local-rivals Everton at Wembley.
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Coming during a transitional period for the club, in FSG’s first full season at Anfield after ousting Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the Reds had already won the League Cup, like Klopp’s current ranks, but were struggling in the Premier League as the FA Cup swiftly became their main priority.
Nikica Jelavic had opened the scoring for David Moyes’ side before Sylvain Distin gifted Luis Suarez an opportunistic equaliser, with then-record signing Andy Carroll then providing the highlight of his Liverpool career with a late headed winner to send Kenny Dalglish’s side to the final.
But the £35m man wasn’t the only Reds player making headlines that day as third-choice goalkeeper Brad Jones started in goal with both Pepe Reina and Doni absent through suspension. Signed from Middlesbrough in a £2.3m deal in August 2010, it was only the Australian’s fourth appearance for the Reds and his first start for the club for 16 months.
Despite being born and bred in Perth, with his mother a Scouse Liverpool fan the goalkeeper was a boyhood Red. Following from afar, he watched on as compatriot Craig Johnston impressed for the Reds in the eighties, even scoring in an FA Cup Wembley win over Everton himself in 1986.
By running out at Wembley against Everton himself in April 2012, Jones was following in his boyhood hero’s footsteps and living the dream.
“Favourite game for me would be the FA Cup semi. I don’t think it gets bigger, playing at Wembley against Everton. That was pretty special,” Jones admitted in an exclusive interview with the ECHO.
“I was brought up a Liverpool fan, my mum is from Liverpool, so it was one of those moments. It was difficult (following them in Australia) because we didn’t get the games on TV, so we used to listen to them on the radio. But that was if your parents let you stay up late enough to listen to it.
“My dad and brother used to stay up and listen. It was either that or on TV when it was a cup final. I remember watching a few cup finals. I remember one of the cup finals I watched as a kid was Liverpool vs Everton. I can’t remember which year it was but I remember the game.
“We once went to an event in Perth and Craig Johnston was the guest. I was actually sat back-to-back to him so I spent the whole night sitting back in my chair, trying to listen to everything he was saying. It was really special. But to meet him!
“We got a few bits signed, and on the way home we were like, “That guy played for Liverpool!” At that time it was crazy, the fact he was in Perth and telling all these crazy stories of how he ended up making it.
“And then it was me! And I was playing against another mate of mine in Tim Cahill, who was playing upfront for Everton, so I definitely didn’t want him scoring! I’d never have heard the end of it.”
Yet Jones’ Wembley appearance wasn’t just the highlight of his Liverpool career, after years of dreaming of playing in such games. It was also an occasion tinged with sadness.
Prior to joining the Reds, the goalkeeper’s son Luca had been diagnosed with leukaemia, prompting Jones to withdraw from the Australia squad for the 2010 World Cup. After a year-long battle, Luca sadly passed away in October 2011. He was just six years old.
“It’s the worst period you can ever go through,” Jones recalled. “My wife, my family and I have always said about the way a club can get around you, the fans’ support.
“I knew I was never going to be the big name or anything like that, but to have that warmth of the people and helping, and we were doing things for charity and the amount of people who were interested or who helped out or put money in, all that kind of thing, was amazing. It makes you feel like you’re part of the family.
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“It was really crazy to have that feeling in such a huge club. But Liverpool being a fairly small city, everyone always comes together. That’s the way Scousers are. Whenever there’s a problem, people come in and try to help.
“You’ve seen it over the years with ‘Justice for the 96’ and all that sort of stuff. The way people get together and try to push and help in one big group was incredible. We’re forever indebted for that. You don’t want to go through it but the fact we had so many people there to help was amazing.
“That was something that sticks with you as well. It’s a strange one because you go through so many emotions in all of that. I’d even thought of packing it in. You don’t know what to do and you’re all over the place.
“But then I was almost born again as a footballer. ‘I’m going to have a crack and just go for it.’”
Sent on loan to Derby County in March 2011 following Kenny Dalglish ’s appointment as manager, the signing of Doni the following summer had seen Jones drop down the pecking order at Anfield. As a result, it was only after Pepe Reina was sent off against Newcastle United in April 2012, that the Australian was granted his return to the matchday squad and first such appearance since losing Luca.
An unused substitute in a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, the door was unexpectedly thrown open for Jones in Liverpool’s next outing away at Blackburn Rovers, when Doni was also dismissed. Brought on as substitute, he memorably saved a penalty from Yakubu with his very first touch before emotionally celebrating by pointing to the sky in dedication of Luca.
It was only after the final whistle that the reality of playing at Wembley was pointed out to him, as Jones embarked on the most whirlwind of weeks as a Liverpool player. And it was one that, after everything that had happened to Jones and his family over the previous two years, inevitably took its toll on the goalkeeper.
“Opportunities came up and that Blackburn game was crazy,” Jones recalled. “Pepe had already gone and got sent off, Doni played one game and then he got sent off against Blackburn. And then to have my mate take the penalty in Yakubu.
“The minute that game was out of the way, I remember I did an interview afterwards and they mentioned the FA Cup. I hadn’t even thought about it! I was like, “Oh yeah, I’m going to have to play at Wembley against Everton.” It was crazy.
“That was a rollercoaster because all of a sudden you’re in and you’re playing and everything starts happening really quickly. Everyone turns their attention to you. “Oh, you haven’t played for a while. We need to work you in training and do this and do that.” It gets really intense, really quickly.
“Both games were amazing, to have that moment to come on and save the penalty, but then to walk out at Wembley for Liverpool. That was another goosebump moment.
Yet rather than being full of adrenaline at reaching an FA Cup final by beating your local-rivals, the feeling Jones actually felt come the final whistle was the polar opposite, with the Australian just relieved to get through the week unscathed.
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“You kind of suppress all the emotion to try and get through the game,” he said. “I remember the final whistle going and I was just drained. I had tried to hold everything in for so long.
“And as a number two, you have that fear of, “Just don’t mess up!” You might not play again and then everyone is just going to remember that one moment. You might not get the opportunity to go and do anything else.
“So to get the game done and win, that was amazing. I was just so drained after that. It was incredible, it literally took everything out of me.”
While Liverpool’s FA Cup semi-final win would ultimately be the highlight of Jones’ time with the Reds, they were actually also involved in one of his earlier most memorable moments while still with Middlesbrough.
As a boyhood fan, the Australian inevitably cherishes the first time he played at Anfield, coming with the Teessiders in April 2005. And with the Kop famous for the reception they give to opposing goalkeepers, Jones’ first taste of such an experience is something that he’ll never forget.
“It was phenomenal but it was a bit surreal,” he said. “You come out and at any other ground that did that, you’d be waiting for the punchline. You’d be waiting for them to give you stick the minute you clap back.
“I knew about it coming out, it’s a special place. Just to be on the pitch, if there was no crowd it would have been amazing, but the fact it was full, absolutely heaving, it was amazing to get that experience.
“It was probably one of my biggest moments up to that time, the fact I got to play at Anfield. Playing the game, I had goosebumps. It’s funny, I think people who don’t get to do it think, ‘It’ll be amazing but…’ No, no, it’s literally like that.
“Playing the game, the game’s about to kick off and you’re stood there with goosebumps. It’s incredible. I had a couple of games playing for Liverpool at Anfield. It’s crazy. When the crowd really gets behind you, what a place.”
That first game in question is best-remembered for one of Steven Gerrard ’s greatest Liverpool goals, with the Reds legend firing home an incredible 35-yard half-volley in front of the Kop. Fans might not realise Jones was the opposing keeper beaten by such a strike, after all his team-mates certainly didn’t! While he would be handed frequent reminders of the goal, following his move to Merseyside, it would take the Anfield dressing room a little while to realise he had once been the victim of his new captain’s brilliance.
“He’s welcome!” Jones laughed at the mention of Gerrard’s goal. “I got reminded of that a few times because I think on every highlight reel, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, there I am again.’ It’s funny because it does tend to come up on the highlight reel quite a lot. I think LFC TV tended to play it every day. But I don’t think he (Stevie) realised it was me for a while actually!
“That was actually the first time I got to play at Anfield. I was walking out for Middlesbrough, looking at the sign as we walking down the tunnel and thinking I want to touch it but I couldn’t do it.
“But that goal. Wow, it wasn’t bad. I think he scored a couple like that past me in training as well to be fair, but not quite with the same noise behind it.”
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Five years later Jones would be able to touch the famous sign, though, when completing his move to Liverpool. Establishing himself as first-choice for Boro following their relegation to the Championship, the goalkeeper was aware about the possibility of a Premier League return with Fulham, only for manager Roy Hodgson to leave the club for Anfield.
You can imagine Jones’ shock when he heard Hodgson was still interested in signing him. And while his move to his boyhood club might have come as a result of boosting the Reds’ homegrown quota, the goalkeeper didn’t care. He was joining Liverpool Football Club and fulfilling a boyhood vow in the process!
“I was pinching myself,” he admitted. “I heard that there was some interest. Roy Hodgson was interested in taking me to Fulham, but then he left so that was the end of that. I thought it was finished.
“And then I had a call and it was, “Roy is still interested in you.” I was like, “But he’s at Liverpool. What?!” That was my dream move. I get reminded by my family quite often that when I was eight years old, I said that was what I’d do. ‘I’ll play for Australia, I’ll go to a World Cup, I’ll play for Liverpool.’
“It’s funny because a bit of me always thought it, yeah. I don’t know why. I was a kid from Perth. At my primary school when I made that comment, I think I was probably one of the only ones who played football. All the other kids were Aussie rules or cricket. It was just fixed like that was going to be it.
“It’s a funny one because I’m sure a lot of people say it. It’s the dream for millions of people but it was fixed. I was going to do it and by luck, chance, whatever, that day eventually came.
“When that opportunity came, a little bit of it was difficult because I had established myself more at Middlesbrough and it was the chance to play regularly, although it was Championship by then, but I couldn’t say no to Liverpool.
“With the ruling on homegrown players, I was classed as homegrown because I came through Middlesbrough’s youth system, so that’s what made it an option for the club to come and get me. I understood that. I think that was the only reason why they swapped me for Diego (Cavalieri). So what?! I knew what I was walking into but to get given that first shirt with my name on it and number one was pretty cool. I’ve still got it.
“It was the challenge to go in and test myself every day against the best and see where it took me. In the end I was there for five years, which was incredible. It was my dream as a young boy to go there and for it to come true was amazing.”
Jones was never going to turn down the opportunity to join Liverpool, but the process of actually joining his boyhood club proved to be both a rather quick and pretty surreal experience.
“When you move to any club, it’s pretty hectic,” he admitted. “Getting everything done, moving up and more or less the minute the deal is done, they expect you to be up, ready, suitcase, training.
“You have a whole house full of stuff, what are you supposed to do? My wife was like, “So we’re just leaving now and that’s it?” So everything happens pretty quickly.
“We got there and I went through the medical, then walked into the dressing room and met the lads, not knowing what to expect from the group. But it was a pleasant surprise, to walk in and it was good people. All welcoming.
“Stevie made a point to come over and say hello and kind of, “Anything you need, just give me a shout.” It kind of takes you aback because it’s Stevie G, the guy’s a legend! And he’s saying, “Whatever you need, just give me a call,” or, “I can do this or speak to this person.”
“All of a sudden you are out there training, within 24 hours of signing the contract. It’s mind-blowing but you are caught in the moment, everything is happening so fast and then all of a sudden you are there, that’s it and it’s all done.”
While Jones was fulfilling his boyhood dream by joining Liverpool, the side he was signing for was hardly the heavyweight he had been cheering on from afar in the eighties. One of the final signings of the Hicks and Gillett era, he joined a club in transition who would avoid administration by the skin of their teeth after being taken over by FSG.
With the manager who had signing him, Hodgson, quickly dismissed, club legend Kenny Dalglish was appointed as interim manager. And while the Australian thinks it was a smart appointment by the club’s American owners, he describes that stint of his Liverpool career as a ‘write-off’.
“At the time when I came in, that was part of the change over if you like,” he said. “Christian Purslow was in, making the deal. Obviously you could see it was a transitional time, you could tell. Certainly the players that had been there for a while, they knew that things weren’t right.
“I think people were worried about the direction the club was going in. Roy came in and it just didn’t work for him. I wouldn’t say that he wasn’t a good coach because I think he is and I think he proved that after leaving where he did an amazing job. But maybe his style just wasn’t suited to that sort of club.
“The club was smart bringing Kenny in because it was all about morale. It wasn’t so much about the players, they had good players there but they needed to boost morale and they needed the fans onside.
“What Kenny is is a man-manager. He got the players together, he kept people happy and he brought good coaches in with him in Steve Clarke and Kevin Kean. They made training enjoyable and just lifted that mood. That was exactly what was needed at that time.
“But for me personally, that was the worst time because that was when my son was sick and I was away for quite a bit of that. Then Doni came in. For me, that was kind of a write-off, that period at the club.
“At the same time, we still won the League Cup final with Kenny and we went to the FA Cup final. The fact I got to play in the semi-final was amazing. In that period, it was pretty successful for what was happening at the club.
“You could see it was like stepping stones. The club had hit a point where the problems were there and then bit by bit they started coming back. That period, two cup finals.
“League position wasn’t where it should have been, obviously. But if that’s going to be the case, you’ve got to go and try and get a trophy and that’s what Kenny was managing to do.”
Dalglish was dismissed at the end of the 2011/12 season, despite winning the League Cup and reaching the FA Cup final, with Brendan Rodgers named as his replacement. And the Northern Irishman quickly decided that Jones was free to leave the club.
However, despite holding talks with Norwich City, the goalkeeper wasn’t ready to give up on his Liverpool dream just yet.
“Brendan was very different to both Kenny and Roy,” Jones said. “Very much part of the new-age coaches. All about the style of football.
“I actually had a meeting with Brendan during pre-season when we were over in America. He said to me, “Look, I’m going to be honest, I don’t know if it’s going to work out for you.” I was like, “Oh, okay. Alright, I’ll start having a look around.”
“I actually spoke to Norwich about leaving. I spoke to the goalkeeping coach, who was Dave Watson, and I spoke to my agent. I said to him, “I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to leave. If they throw me out, then I’ll go. I just want to have a go.”
“I think Brendan liked that, the fact that I was willing to roll up my sleeves. I wasn’t necessarily his type of keeper in terms of playing out and the football. I’d never really done it before, I’d never been asked to do it. Probably his first impression was exactly that, that I couldn’t do it.
“But as time went on and he saw me in training day in, day out, he ended up giving me a couple of chances. I probably gained his trust a bit in that period.
“To think I was almost on my way out and all of a sudden I was being put in was a good moment. It justified it to myself, that I could do it and that I could show I could do it.”
Come back for part II of Brad Jones’ exclusive interview with the Liverpool ECHO on Easter Monday as he reveals all on his Reds career under Brendan Rodgers, offering the lowdown on the highs and lows playing alongside the likes of Luis Suarez and Mario Balotelli, the infamous ‘Being Liverpool’ documentary and nearly winning the league in 2014.
