Published: Friday, 1st January, 2010 8:00am

Howard vows to sink Liverpool - AGAIN!

by Anthony Smith

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BRIAN Howard wants to recreate giant-killing history by knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup for the second time in three seasons on Saturday (5.15pm ko).

Howard became the king of cup shocks when his stoppage-time goal at Anfield secured a stunning 2-1 victory for Barnsley in February 2008 in one of the biggest upsets for years.

The Tykes then went on to dump Chelsea out of the competition and Howard (pictured below) is desperate to repeat his fifth-round heroics against the Reds in the weekend's mouthwatering third round tie at Madejski Stadium.

If, as expected, Howard starts it will be his first appearance since breaking his jaw in the league defeat at Derby County in late November.

He has been an unused substitute in Reading's last two games - the 1-1 home draw with Swansea City on Boxing Day and the 4-1 drubbing at Plymouth on Monday.

And he believes the greatest cup competition of them all will be a welcome relief from the team's struggles in the Championship.

"I think it's a nice distraction for us and a good cup run can improve spirits, get the fans back behind us and energise the whole town," declared the former Sheffield United ace.

"We need that winning habit, be it in the league or the cup. It's amazing the confidence one win can breed because you can push on and build on that.

"I'm desperate to get back on that pitch and everyone knows how much I want to play. I was pretty disappointed I wasn't involved at Plymouth so hopefully I will be in the team on Saturday.

"I scored against Liverpool for Barnsley in the Cup once and it would be nice to prove that lightning can strike twice.

"If I can get another winning goal it really will be Roy of the Rovers stuff. You only read about things like that in books."

Howard needed an operation to fuse together his shattered jaw but he says he feels fitter now than before the horror injury.

"I feel absolutely fine," he explained. "I only missed five or six days of training and I've been back in full-training for a week.

"Fitness wise I'm probably fitter than when I got injured and the surgeon has given me the all-clear to play.

"I've been on the bench for the last two games but obviously it's up to the manager whether he plays me, not the surgeon."

Howard was spared the humiliation of the 4-1 defeat at Plymouth, but he had strong words to say after observing the carnage from the bench.

"We were second best all over the park from the first minute to the last and you get what you deserve in football," he fumed.

"It's not acceptable from management right down to the 21 players who travelled. We need to be better, that wasn't us out there.

"We spoke about it in the dressing room afterwards. The gaffer had his say and some players said their bit. We know that wasn't good enough and we need a better performance at the weekend."

Caretaker boss Brian McDermott will tinker with his team, though wholesale changes are unlikely against Rafa Benitez's Premier League giants and seven-time FA Cup winners.

"Everyone can see where we need to improve," argued Howard. "We need to win our tackles and headers and win the second balls. Once we've done that we need to pass the ball better and push on from there.

"We got the basics wrong at Plymouth. I felt if we had got those basics right the game was there for us to win."

The Plymouth debacle left Reading just two points above the relegation zone and Howard stressed: "There's no beating around the bush, we are in a dog fight.

"There's the old cliche about a team being too good to go down. But no team is too good to go down. Unless we pull our fingers out we are in a relegation battle.

"There's still a long way to go and hopefully if we don't have any more performances like Plymouth we can pick up some wins and pull away from trouble.

"But we do need a reality check. We are in a relegation fight and we need to get out of it."