Liverpool's Premiership superstars trained at Crawley Town's Broadfield Stadium this week, but only after they had paid for the privilege.

On their previous two visits, Crawley had made their facilities available for free in the hope they might be able to arrange a money-spinning friendly in return.

But Liverpool, who were preparing for Wednesday's Worthington Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace, couldn't offer any guarantees so they had to pay about £325 to hire the pitch and floodlights for three hours to the stadium owners Crawley Borough Council.

Crawley chief executive Steve Duly said: "I had a long chat with their officials and they said they get lots of offers to play lucrative friendlies all over the world and they couldn't make any guarantees about playing a game against us.

"So they made the booking through the council like everyone else. They were very complimentary about the facilities and we have made some friends, but we couldn't afford to pay the hire costs for them this time. That sort of sum is a drop in the ocean for clubs like Liverpool, but it is a player's weekly wage for us."

Liverpool's squad included Michael Owen and new striker Jari Litmanen and they trained for 75 minutes after flying to Gatwick from Merseyside.