That Liverpool would be arriving within 24 hours for the first leg of a League Cup semi-final threw a slight shadow over Ray Houghton's 38th birthday celebrations yesterday. But, with Crystal Palace's biggest game of the season looming large, those celebrations would have been low key. A win for the Londoners tonight and the former Republic of Ireland skipper won't mind even a bit.

Nearly 10 years after leaving Anfield with two league and two FA Cup winners' medals, Houghton admits to having little to link him to his former club these days. Well settled in the south where he moved when he joined Palace as a player in 1995, he has watched from a distance as the old way of doing things at Liverpool was set aside.

At some stage over the course of today he hopes to find time for a chat with Phil Thompson and Sammy Lee, old friends from his time on Merseyside, and maybe Robbie Fowler, "who was just a young lad coming through at the club back then," but otherwise there will be little to connect the home side's coach with the visit of a club where he spent the best years of his playing career.

"There's been quite a turnover up there over the last few years," he says "so, to be honest, there's not much reason for me to see much of them at all. I did see them play against Spurs last season and I always take an interest in what's going on but these days that's about the extent of it." The former midfielder, who scored 28 goals in 153 league appearances for Liverpool between 1987 and 1992, sounds slightly dubious of whether all the changes around Anfield have been for the best but he is generous in his praise of Gerard Houllier's coaching abilities and particularly the way he has brought on players like Emile Heskey.

"He's done a lot with him. I mean, basically he's added scoring to his game. Lack of goals is what he used to be criticised for all the time but now look at him, although that's one of the advantages of playing at a club like Liverpool, there are always so many people around to learn from."

Teaching is now Houghton's main concern. At Palace the bulk of the playing staff are in their early 20s or younger and Houghton, as one of manager Alan Smith's righthand men, spends his time trying to pass on knowledge accumulated over two decades as a leading professional player.

He is still learning as well, though, hoping eventually to move on and up, to take charge of a club in his own right even if he admits his graduation is still some way off.

"I enjoy what I'm doing now a lot. Getting out there with the players, having a day-to-day involvement is terrific. Then, what I love most about the games is the fact that it is you pitting your wits against another management team, both trying to get the team selections and tactics right. "It's like chess which makes it all the more enjoyable when you are up against the likes of Liverpool or Sunderland (who Palace recently put out of the League Cup and who they drew 0-0 in Saturday's third round of the FA Cup) because you are pitting your wits against the best that there is."

To date Palace's attempts to outwit clubs from the higher flight have been impressive, although Houghton puts some of their success down to the fact that they have gone into the games more relaxed than their opponents because they know that have much less to lose.

In the league things have been a little more erratic with a couple of decent runs without defeat punctuated by some awful performances. For a club, however, which was in administration until only a matter of months ago the progress under Smith has been little short of astonishing and Houghton is confident that they are gearing themselves up for the next major step forward.

"We've got a new chairman and the debts that were weighing down the club for a couple of years are all gone. The money is there to buy new players and I think the reason that more haven't been bought at this stage is that there is a determination to get it right: not just to buy players who can help us get out of the First Division but who are good enough to play in the Premiership too."

To help the club to promotion would, of course, be a dream come through for Houghton who has been mapping out his move into management since obtaining his first coaching badges by training his son's team while still a player himself.

First, though, there is the small matter of nailing down a place in a League Cup final. And so this evening at Selhurst Park there will be strangers to be outplayed on the pitch and experienced coaches to be outwitted in the dugout.