With just seconds remaining, Jamie Carragher's trip on the twisting and turning Freddie Ljungberg gave the England Under-21 midfielder the chance to finally give West Ham United victory over the Reds at the 12th attempt.
And he made no mistake as he sent Rafa Benitez to a dreaded defeat that left the Spaniard unconvincingly insisting that he is still confident that he will be given time to turn things around and still gain Champions League qualification.
Unchanged following their draw at Manchester City ten days ago, the tenth-placed East Enders had kicked off without a win over the miserly Merseysiders since autumn 1999.
But the red-faced Reds had struggled to overcome Havant & Waterlooville in the FA Cup on Saturday and, in the end, only ex-Hammer Yossi Benayoun's hat-trick had put any shine upon a 5-2 win over the non-leaguers.
And that was the cue for Benitez to make eight changes as skipper Steven Gerrard, Jose Reina, Carragher, Fabio Aurelio, Harry Kewell, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres and Dirk Kuyt returned to the Liverpool line-up, alongside the retained trio of Steve Finnan, Sami Hyypia and the incessantly booed Benayoun.
Unbeaten since mid-December - and with former Upton Park misfit Javier Mascherano suspended - the re-shuffled Reds started brightly as Torres sent a hopeful long-range daisy-cutter wide in the opening seconds before Benayoun clipped over.
With the Hammers struggling to retain possession, Torres looked set to opening the scoring on 20 minutes when he raced clear but the exposed Robert Green came to his side's rescue with a well-timed sprint from his goal-line to clear the danger.
Slowly but surely, though, the Hammers started to claw their way into the match and they certainly finished the half stronger as Luis Boa Morte fired over before Noble's inswinging free-kick was headed onto his own crossbar by the flustered Finnan.
And only Reina's well-executed punch prevented hard-working, lone striker Carlton Cole from getting a header in on the Spaniard's unguarded goal.
Just after the break Ljungberg failed to connect with George McCartney's cross into the danger zone and then Boa Morte bundled wide from six yards to the annoyance of the home crowd, sensing that such chances simply had to be taken.
Both Matthew Etherington and Dean Ashton arrived in place of Lee Bowyer and Luis Boa Morte as Curbishley bravely went for an attacking 4-4-2 formation but it was Liverpool substitute, Lucas, who looked more threatening with a couple of shots that flew just wide.
Although Torres forced Green to save with his legs and Cole, Ljungberg and Lucas Neill went close, it looked like draw specialists Liverpool were heading for their 11th draw of the season.
But with just seconds of the three added minutes remaining, the escaping Etherington conjured up a dramatic finale, when he found the supporting Ljungberg, who was upended by the inconsolable Carragher.
And that man Noble kept his cool to rifle a low, spot-kick beyond the extended left palm of the diving Reina to give Hammers that long-awaited first win of the 21st century, over the Rafa's Reds, who are now 17 points adrift of the leaders.