The Liverpool fan set to play at Anfield for Accrington

Josh Woods sung You’ll Never Walk Alone while cheering on Liverpool to a Champions League victory over Bayer Leverkusen two months ago in the Kop at Anfield.

Accrington Stanley’s 24-year-old forward is a Liverpool fan who grew up idolising Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.

He still watches them whenever he can, but thanks to the FA Cup, he will have access to a pitch for his boyhood team on Saturday.

When League Two Accrington take on the Premier League leaders in the third round, Woods will leave Anfield for League Two Accrington.

He watched the Reds defeat Chelsea at Wembley in the 2022 FA Cup final before returning to the national stadium when the two teams met in the Carabao Cup final in February of last year.

Despite another victory, Liverpool’s return to Wembley 11 months ago turned awry as a result of problems getting into the ground.

This weekend, there won’t be any access issues.

Woods is expected to play for the team in League Two, which is 19th overall and six points clear of the Premier League.

“When I go and watch Liverpool I always think to myself, ‘ I’d love to play at Anfield one day'”, he tells BBC Sport.

Woods ‘ love of Liverpool is partly down to his dad, Dale, who used to be a steward at Anfield, while brother Connor, 26, was once part of Liverpool’s academy and now plays for Warrington Town in National League North.

Saturday will not be the first time Woods, who was brought up in Skelmersdale, west Lancashire, has stepped foot on Liverpool’s pitch.

After watching his brother play an academy game, he recalls being chased off the Anfield playing surface.

“I was only five, I jumped over the wall and ran on”, he laughs. “I was just running around in circles. My parents yelled at me to leave, but they were so loud.

Soon after Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool defeated AC Milan in a dramatic 2005 final, he was photographed with the Champions League trophy around the same time.

Woods also recalls meeting Ian Rush, Liverpool’s record scorer with 346 goals, when he was growing up.

He claims that he and my mother took a photo together in Liverpool.

In a well-known 1980s television milk commercial featuring two young Liverpool supporters, Rush’s name appears.

One claims that Rush told him that Accrington Stanley, who were in the Northern Premier League at the time the advertisement first aired, would only allow him to play for them if he didn’t drink milk.

The other fan asks, ” Accrington Stanley, who are they?”, to which the first replies, “Exactly.”

Before being spotted playing for Skelmersdale-based team Clay Brow, Woods was intended to pursue a career as a barber. He then signed for Accrington in 2021.

Since he was 12 years old, he has used the money he has earned to pay for Liverpool.

“I started barbering, working as a Saturday lad in Skelmersdale”, says Woods.

“I never thought I would be a professional footballer. I never excelled on the school team, though. I only wanted to watch football while cutting my hair.

“I would take the train to Kirkdale from Ormskirk and walk 15 minutes to Anfield.” I loved watching Liverpool. “

Woods only realized he had gotten better at football once he started playing with his friends after dropping out of school.

“I can’t recall having a race with a student who was the fastest in our class that year, and I won.” Both my body and my mind felt completely different.

Woods quickly improved his skills playing Sunday league and was scheduled to start trial at non-league Warrington Rylands when he was invited to join Accrington, where he now wears the number 39 shirt.

Despite having a 2 434 average League Two attendance this season, 2 434 of those who travel from east Lancashire to Anfield cheer on John Doolan’s underdogs.

According to Woods, “Liverpool are the best team in the world right now, top of the Premier League and top of the Champions League,” Woods said after learning that his beloved team had been drawn against Accrington.

Zeus of thousands of people have watched a video of him dancing around his living room while jumping off his sofa.

He says, “I was shocked for the first hour, but all of my emotions vanished,” referring to the draw. Connor was with me and it got a bit emotional.

This season, Accrington are playing a team that has only lost two of their 29 games.

Meanwhile, the League Two club have lost 10 of their 23 league games.

Woods, whose middle name is Stanley after his grandad, not the team he currently plays for, says, “We had one or two bad results in December.”

“But we’ve managed to turn things around in the past two games, and we can enjoy this weekend.

We’re going overnight, and I want to take everything, from Liverpool to Liverpool, before leaving Anfield.