FA Cup third round nostalgia – penalty save hero Kevin Scriven recalls the greatest night in Havant & Waterlooville FC history

All the ingredients were there:

Non-league part-timers hosting a professional Football League team. Tick.

Vast gap between the teams (83 places in the pyramid). Tick.

Cramped ground. Tick.

Capacity crowd. Tick.

Under floodlights. Tick

Wet pitch. Tick.

Non-leaguers riled by opposing manager describing them as a ‘pub team’. Tick.

Huge reward for non-leaguers if they won. A truckload of ticks.

Pitch invasion by fans celebrating a shock win. Tick.

It’s now almost 13 years to the day since the greatest night in Westleigh Park history, January 16 2008.

The night Shaun Gale’s Hawks stunned three divisions higher Swansea City in an FA Cup third round replay. Having grabbed a late leveller in south Wales, the underdogs stormed to a remarkable 4-2 victory.

Their reward - a trip to one of the world’s ultimate sporting cathedrals, Anfield.

Central to a success which thrust Hawks into the huge glare of the national spotlight was Kevin Scriven.

Signed from Farnborough the previous summer, the goalkeeper saved a Leon Britton penalty at a crucial stage of the replay.

‘Before the third round draw you’re hoping for a dream tie - Manchester United or Chelsea away. No disrespect to Swansea, but a few people were disappointed when we drew them,’ Sciven told The News this week.

‘But I always thought we had a great opportunity to reach the fourth round.

‘I don’t think anybody expected us to get a result up there.

‘They scored from a free-kick but Rocky (Baptiste) scored with a few minutes to go - you can’t make up stories like that.

‘We were confident we could cause an upset - we’d played two higher division clubs (beating York City and Notts County away) and didn’t look out of our depth.

‘Going to Swansea, the morale was really high.

‘For the replay, we were fortunate to know whoever won would play Liverpool away.

‘That gave us even more confidence. That was the biggest reward you could have asked for.

‘Their manager (Roberto Martinez) had called us a pub team, so that made us even more determined.

‘The game plan was not to let them settle, get into them straight away, put the pressure on them.’

They certainly did that, storming into a barely believable 3-0 lead after 38 minutes.

Garry Monk's own goal from Brett Poate’s inswinging corner put the sixth tier outfit ahead early on before Jamie Collins and Rocky Baptiste extended the lead.

Guillem Bauza pulled one back for Swansea within 60 seconds of Baptiste’s tap-in and, as a pulsating opening period drew to a close, the Swans were awarded a penalty - only for Scriven to dive to his right to stop Leon Britton’s effort.

‘It was the best penalty save I ever made,’ he remembered. ‘I just thought by the way he was standing and the way he was running up it was going to go to my right.’

Though Jason Scotland added a second for the visitors - who went on to lift the League 1 title that season - Tom Jordan nodded a late fourth from Brett Poate’s cross to send Hawks into dreamland.

‘It was amazing when all the fans came on the pitch after the final whistle,’ said Scriven.

‘Trying to find your own team-mates on the pitch was impossible, there were just so many people on the pitch.

‘No-one can take those memories away - it’s one of the best experiences any footballer can ever have.

‘Knowing we’d be going to Liverpool just added to the celebrations.

‘The bar was packed afterwards, it was a night that will live on in the history of the club.

‘Anfield was amazing, an unbelievable day, but for me the standout game will always be Swansea at home.’

Hawks famously twice took the lead at Liverpool, and had they held on would have caused the biggest FA Cup shock of all time. Instead, they lost 5-2 to a team 122 places above them in the pyramid.

‘When we scored the first one it was a shock to the system,’ said Scriven. ‘When we took the lead again, I didn’t know how to celebrate - you just weren’t expecting it to happen.

‘It was a really surreal moment.’

Prior to the fourth round tie - inexplicably not chosen for live TV coverage - Scriven had been given a series of incentives by The Sun newspaper. He would win a weekend trip to Madrid for keeping a clean sheet for 15 minutes, a VIP trip to Moscow to watch the Champions League final for 30 minutes, and a £20,000 Mercedes for the entire 90 minutes.

‘I got the weekend in Madrid and I was two minutes from the Champions League final when Liverpool scored,’ Scriven recalled. As it turned out, Hawks had a rearranged league game which clashed with the Madrid trip and he couldn’t go. ‘They gave me some compensation instead.’

Scriven only spent two seasons at Westleigh Park, joining Paul Doswell’s Sutton United in the summer of 2009. It was a step down, with Sutton in the Isthmian Premier at the time, but after finishing runners-up in his first season at Gander Green Lane Scriven was a title-winner in his second.

Returning to Farnborough in 2013, Scriven was forced to retire from playing aged just 29 after being diagnosed with arthritis in his shoulder.

‘It was impacting me on a daily basis,’ he recalled. ‘I had to make a decision between my working career and my playing career. It was a tough decision to make, but one that needed to be made.

‘It started off as just a little niggle, but one day my shoulder trapped and I couldn’t lift my arm. Scans showed a bad case of arthritis.

‘I had an operation, they tidied up the ligaments, but the only real solution would have been a shoulder replacement.

‘It’s comfortable now, I don’t get much pain from it.’

Scriven, who lives near Basingstoke, has been a self-employed tiler for over a decade now.

Apart from contracting Covid-19 in November, he admits life under lockdown restrictions since last March work-wise ‘has been ok.

‘It hasn’t been too bad - I’ve been able to take the jobs where I’ve worked on my own.’

After a few years out of the sport, Scriven returned to non-league football last summer when he took over as joint-owner of Wessex League club Alresford alongside his brother Craig.

Craig was appointed chairman with his sibling taking on the executive director role.

Due to poor results, boss Luke Turkington was dismissed in late October with Kevin Scriven and one of the Alresford players, Darryl Phillips, taking over as caretakers.

Due to lockdowns, they have only had four games in charge - the last a 6-0 hiding at Horndean on December 15.

Scriven said: It’s been a bit challenging, definitely a lot different from playing!

‘Once we get back playing again we’ll be looking for a new manager.

‘Trying to run the first team and also run the club is not an ideal situation from my point of view.’

Last season the Magpies were denied possible promotion to the Southern League by the null and voiding of 2019/20 - Alresford were top of the Premier at the time the pandemic struck.

This season, a second successive null and voiding could save them from relegation - they are currently second from bottom.

‘I don’t think we will see any football until March and you’ve still got 75 per cent of the season left to play,’ Scriven stated.

‘I don’t think anyone wants the season to be null and void, but you have to be realistic …’