Barnsley boss Simon Davey rubbed salt in Liverpool's FA Cup wounds by hailing David Moyes' part in their downfall and his path to football management.

Welshman Davey, 37, achieved "the best moment of my career" by masterminding Barnsley's epic fifth round triumph at Anfield, a 2-1 win that puts the Tykes into the quarter-finals thanks to an injury-time winner from skipper Brian Howard.

But it was the manager of Liverpool's cross-city rivals Everton who won instant praise from Davey as Barnsley's achievements stunned Rafael Benitez's shell-shocked men.

Moyes is believed to have given Davey help with his preperation for the trip to Anfield and Swansea-born Davey said: "I owe David Moyes a lot.

"When I joined Preston from Carlisle, David was still a player. But he became assistant manager and then the boss.

"My career was ended when I was 27 after a back injury. David gave me the job running the youth team, and I will always be grateful.

"When your career ends like that you worry about where the next pay cheque is coming from, and I will always be thankful for what David Moyes did for me.

"I went on to take my coaching badges and now here I am with a side one step away from the FA Cup semi-finals, which will be played at Wembley this season."

Davey's other claim to fame, he recalls, is his part in David Beckham's formative years when the soon-to-be England star was sent out on loan to Deepdale by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Davey recalls: "I played a few games alongside Beckham in midfield. And although I was the man who took our free-kicks, Beckham asked me in his first game if he could take one.

"I stepped aside and he belted it in. That's how it all started for him, he went on to become a world star and I ended up with my career finished by injury."

Davey, a Liverpool supporter as a boy, admits he was surprised and encouraged by seeing Steven Gerrard's name among the substitutes when the teams were announced at Anfield.

He said: "I looked at the sheet and saw that Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Jose Reina were not involved. I accept that they have top stars to come in, but when I put the names of their players up on the board before the game I felt we had a chance, it gave us hope."

And Davey explained the Tykes' tactics, saying: "We made sure we stopped the supply up to Peter Crouch, and got into their faces.

"We played Crouch well all day and then our centre-half Stephen Foster managed to get above him at the other end to head home our equaliser."

Dirk Kuyt had put Liverpool ahead in the first-half, but a stunning display from on-loan 'keeper Luke Steele stopped the home side taking a firm grip on the game.

Steele had only arrived at the club on Thursday, due to a serious knee injury to Heinz Muller while Tony Warner was cup-tied.

Davey said: "We needed to get someone in quickly, and we had been keeping tabs on Luke.

"When I rang Tony Mowbray at West Brom asking about him, the lad was in his car straight away. The chance of making his debut at Anfield was a pretty good incentive.

"He had a couple of training sessions with us, but still didn't know the names and faces in front of him. So he went on the Internet on Friday evening to study the players, their faces and tried to learn their names.

"Then he went out and produced a string of world class saves to keep us in the game. Some of our fans raised their eyebrows when we put a 23 year-old who couldn't get a game at West Brom, into our side at Anfield.

"But he was magnificent. Now there will no doubt be pressure on me to buy him!"

Steele, a former Manchester United youngster, said: "I'd never even been to Barnsley beforehand, so I only had a couple of days to get to know the lads.

"It was obvious that I needed to know the names of the players I was shouting at. And the lads defended brilliantly, there were heads and legs everywhere and a stack of last-ditch tackles going in."

Davey admitted he had settled for an Oakwell replay when skipper Brian Howard drove home the injury-time winner.

He said: "I was trying to get them all back behind the ball to protect the draw. But we have some ambitious lads, and they wanted to make a name for themselves."

Howard should have been awarded a penalty for a foul by Sami Hyypia seconds before his winner, and he said: "It was a certain penalty, I have seen it since on the TV monitor, and my ankle was grabbed by someone's hand.

"We worked so hard and believed we could get something from the game.

"As the match wore on we believed even more. Luke was magnificent and they were throwing everything at us, but we still had the confidence to attack like that in injury-time."

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