The first tomorrow night, on the face of it, seem of secondary importance. Championship opposition; lambs to the slaughter at a packed Anfield. Mmm.

Anyone who feels that is being extremely foolish and God forbid it's any player's frame of mind! Brighton are a good footballing outfit managed by an extremely shrewd cookie. They are right out of the Swansea and Norwich book and look how hard we found it to dismiss those two teams earlier this season. And besides, the FA Cup is a strange phenomenon which, without any rational explanation, seems to readily bring about illogical results. (Memories of Barnsley and Reading, not to mention the first half against non-leaguers Havant & Waterlooville!)

The importance of tomorrow lies not only in providing a stepping stone for further glory, but also an education in how to play to your best against underdogs. Our best performances this year have been against top Premiership opposition when the pundits have minimised our chances. Brighton will arrive at Anfield with the support of 6,000 supporters and absolutely nothing to lose. For a whole group of our first team squad this will be a brand new experience.

I'm always harping on about psychology in sport and if the Reds were struggling late on to impose themselves on the game both in terms of play and goals, there would be every chance of that impacting on next Sunday's game at Wembley against very similar opposition.

I firmly believe that the way tomorrow pans out really will have significance for next week. If there are any players whose mindset is casual or even one of fear or at the thought of disgrace in losing out to so-called lesser opposition, then that will be disastrous. Many people have commented on how two or three Reds never turned up at Old Trafford. Well, perhaps we can possibly make an excuse for that in what was a truly unique situation. But these two cup-ties will offer no such escapes.

Tomorrow, Liverpool must engage the tie with a complete killer instinct; not a semblance of negativity. The Kop doubtless will be very noisy early on but, at the first sign of frustration from the crowd, there is a danger of that transmitting itself to the players.

Just like last Saturday, single-minded determination is called for. Except that unlike last week, the bulk of tomorrow's crowd will be in support; not the other way round.

There were feelings of disgrace in losing to Barnsley and Reading, but Rafa could be a touch random with his selections for early rounds in the domestic cups while Kenny has hardly shown an inkling to follow that mindset. I'd expect to see a full strength Liverpool team tomorrow but I'm still anticipating an almighty tough test.

As for next week, I'm a nervous wreck already!