Everton league game more important than cup showdown

The draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup rather fittingly pits us against Everton in this the 20th year of the Hillsborough disaster.

Coming six days after our league meeting on January 19th and two days after Steven Gerrard's appearance at Sefton magistrates, it is sure to be an eventful week on Merseyside.

How we emerge from it may determine the course of our season. I'll put my neck on the line now by saying I'm more concerned about the league game then the cup one.

Of course there is a lot of emotional involvement in the cup tie given the year that's in it. As well as this it's our first cup meeting the Blues since 1991, when an epic three game marathon included a 4-4 draw at Goodison that would ultimately lead to the resignation of Kenny Dalglish and the end of 20 years dominance of English football.

Ironically here we are, 18 years on, top of the league and on a run that many now feel could end the lengthy 19 year wait for a league title.

This is why I'll take three important league points at Anfield over progression to the fifth round of the FA Cup even if there's an added incentive to winning the competition this year as acknowledged by Jamie Carragher, a man who invests more emotion than most Scousers in a Merseyside derby having experienced both sides of the increasingly bitter divide.

Gerrard's court appeareance in between the two games will not help matters. Everton fans are already putting the finishing touches to vile chants about our captain to go alongside the awful vitriol they spew about his family.

It is two derbies that would be of high intensity in normal circumstances but the surrounding factors are likely to ensure an extra bite both on and off the pitch later this month.