Steven Gerrard’s Wembley dream alive as Liverpool march on

Liverpool fought back to reach the FA Cup fifth round with a 2-1 victory over 10-man Bolton Wanderers to keep alive talismanic captain Steven Gerrard’s hopes of a Wembley swansong.

The Liverpool captain turns 35 on the day of the FA Cup final and Reds supporters had seemingly already pencilled a trip to Wembley into their diaries.

But with Liverpool trailing with just four minutes of the 90 left in this fourth-round replay at the Macron Stadium, the dream of Gerrard climbing the steps to lift the famous old trophy appeared to be in their dying embers.

However, Raheem Sterling cancelled out Eidur Gudjohnsen’s penalty before Philippe Coutinho scored a quite brilliant injury-time winner to seal a meeting with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the next round.

“You have to keep your patience and keep the width in the game, especially against 10 men,” a relieved Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers told the BBC.

“It was a great pass by Emre Can for the first goal and a great finish for the second goal.

“This is a competition we want to do well in and thankfully we’re into the next round against Crystal Palace.”

His Bolton counterpart Neil Lennon, who has engineered a revival in the club’s fortunes since taking over in early October, was fuming over the referee Roger East’s performance.