Carra's Wembley dream

There is little missing from Jamie Carragher’s CV. The Premier League title is one obvious omission. Oh, and he has never played at Wembley for Liverpool.

Hard though it may be to believe, one of the game's most consistent and respected players has never worn the red shirt on the biggest stage. And Carragher has played there only once for England, against Brazil in 2007.

Before announcing his international retirement, Carragher played 34 times for England, 17 at home, but they came at a time when the twin towers were being replaced by the arch, leaving the defender with a void in his life. Not that he was thinking too far ahead on a freezing Berkshire evening when Liverpool stuttered again. At least they have another chance to put down the dreamers of Reading, who with more belief could have pointed Rafael Benítez closer to the Anfield exit door.

Carragher, with more than 600 appearances under his belt, won two FA Cup winners' medals, in 2001 and 2006, at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, where he also claimed two League Cup successes and played in two Community Shield games.

With the FA Cup Liverpool's only chance of domestic honours, priorities have changed. "The Cup is massive," said Carragher. "It's always been massive for me,'' said the 31 year-old. ''I've been around for long time but I've not played at Wembley for Liverpool, only England. I've not even been to the semis at Wembley, I've not been able to do that. I know I haven't got that long left, so I'm desperate to get to Wembley this season because it's massive for Liverpool and rightly so.

"My son is six or seven years old and I'd love to take him to Wembley to watch Liverpool. I went as a kid to watch games. Cardiff was great but to go up Wembley Way in the coach with all the fans is something we want to do, but obviously we have to improve on this performance."

With Liverpool fan Jobi McAnuff crossing for Grzegorz Rasiak to set up Simon Church's early goal, Liverpool began to panic, the horror of recent nightmares returning to haunt them. Steven Gerrard's reply, with Dirk Kuyt dummying the ball to confuse goalkeeper Adam Federici, hinted at a comeback.

But overall Liverpool were insipid again, as they have been for the past two months, and the fact they need a replay comes as little surprise. Even losing their goalkeeper for the last 20 minutes did not prevent Reading, 33 places below Liverpool in league standings, from claiming the replay they deserved.

So Liverpool now face two crucial - and potentially problematic - games. Firstly, on Sunday, they host Spurs, one of their main rivals for a Champions League berth and then Reading visit Anfield hoping to derail them on one of only two routes to silverware.

As Benitez admitted: "More or less every game for us has to be a must-win game." But with the Europa League being Benitez's only other hope of success, the prizes on offer to Liverpool this season look very limited.

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the views or position of Liverpool Football Club.