Mansfield Town captain John Dempster will be taking on the club he has supported all his life when Liverpool travel to Field Mill later today.

Although Dempster is from Kettering, his father was brought up close to where Bill Shankly was born and supported Liverpool, even exchanging letters with the then-Anfield boss.

"My dad picked up on Liverpool because of the Shankly connection," said Dempster. "We used to go there on family holidays.

"My dad wrote letters to him as a boy and he still has the letters Shankly sent him in reply in the loft somewhere."

Dempster junior also adopted Liverpool as his team and added that he hopes Liverpool play their big names, such as Luis Suarez.

He continued: "You can't plan for him. As we've seen in the last couple of games he can be unplayable.

"Whoever plays it will be a strong side, but you want to see the likes of Suarez, household names you see on Match of the Day on a Saturday night."

Mansfield take on Liverpool at 4pm this afternoon.