Exeter City v Liverpool: 35 years on

Holders Liverpool started their 1981-82 push for Wembley against the Devon outfit in the second round of what was then known as the Milk Cup - the first major cup competition to bear the name of a sponsor. 

The giants of European football were put up against a team who, incredibly, lost money whenever they travelled on the road for matches and relied on lotteries to get by.

Of course, football matches aren't won on paper so the tie had to be settled over two legs, with the first encounter being played at Anfield on October 7, 1981.

The two sides had met in the same competition two years prior, with a brace from David Fairclough seeing the Reds comfortably prevail on the night. 

However, despite the visitors struggling to navigate themselves away from the bottom in the Third Division at the time, Paisley was wary of the visitor’s threat as an underdog.

In the season before, City had gone on an unlikely run in the FA Cup, taking down First Division sides Leicester City and Newcastle United - and the Liverpool boss didn't want his side to suffer a similar fate.

“We meet Exeter as the holders of the League Cup, and - as you'd expect - we're hoping to go all the way to Wembley again,” Paisley wrote in his programme notes.

“While we have home advantage tonight, there is still the return leg of the League Cup tie to be played at St James' Park. But we know we need to do the business here.

“A good result for us tonight IS important, and I have no hesitation saying that Exeter have shown that they cannot and must not be underrated.”

Liverpool were flying high in this period under the man who had succeeded Bill Shankly in 1974, but the same couldn't be said for their opponents.

Managed by Brian Godfrey, Exeter had suffered from a high turnover of players due to financial constraints since their last meeting with the Reds 23 months earlier.

Seven players who had not featured in that fixture were part of Godfrey's line-up, a figure which was viewed as vast in an era where just one substitute was permitted.

The Exeter manager's budgets were tight with the club struggling to survive off the revenue from their low attendances. 

In fact, it was that much of a struggle at times that they would find themselves in the red as a result of simply playing an away game.

Godfrey said: “When your average gate is around 4,000, you're not in the situation which allows you to spend a great deal of money on players, though we've loaned one or two as well as bought.

“We're dependant quite a bit on the lotteries, and so on. 

“When we have to travel to place such as Carlisle, it actually means an overnight stay and, in fact, we actually lose money on such long-distance trips. So, in effect our home-gate money has to cover two weeks. 

“For a club like us, it's essential that we make extra money from a run in the League Cup or the FA Cup, and being drawn against Liverpool is now a bonus. For if get we get anything like a decent result at Anfield, we can look forward to a 17,500 full house for the second leg of the tie.”

There may have been difficulty in signing players, but Godfrey was able to bring back fan-favourite striker Tony Kellow in 1980 for a club-record £70,000 fee from Blackpool. 

Compare that to the £900,000 Liverpool paid Brighton and Hove Albion in the summer of 1981 for the services of Mark Lawrenson, a player who appeared in both legs of the tie.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Kellow and his teammates didn't get much of a chance at Anfield, or St James Park, either.

The Reds fielded a full-strength side featuring some of the best players in the world at that time and completely took their opponents apart in the home leg. 

Liverpool were dominant in every aspect as they took a 3-0 lead into half-time through goals from Ian Rush, Terry McDermott and Kenny Dalglish, before Rush grabbed his second and Ronnie Whelan made it 5-0 after the interval.

Paisley’s warning to his players before the game had clearly been heeded, but the foot wasn't about to be taken off the gas for the return leg three weeks later.

Exeter could have expected the visitors to field a weakened side having been almost certainly put out of sight - but that wasn't the case.

Rush (twice) and Dalglish found the net again along with Phil Neal and debutant Kevin Sheedy in a rampant 6-0 win. 

It was the perfect start to the Reds’ route back to Wembley, where they would go on to lift the crown again by beating Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 in the final.