nullpointer with @Autowired AuthenticationManager

This is making me crazy - am trying to integrate a custom Auth bean and i am getting this a null pointer error when i reference my autowired auth manager.

the null pointer is thrown at:
Authentication result = authenticationManager.authenticate(request);

my bean

/*
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package com.security;

import java.io.IOException;
import javax.annotation.ManagedBean;
import javax.annotation.Resource;
import javax.enterprise.context.RequestScoped;
import javax.faces.application.FacesMessage;
import javax.faces.context.ExternalContext;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.inject.Inject;
import javax.inject.Named;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Qualifier;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;
import javax.validation.constraints.Size;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.security.authentication.AuthenticationManager;
import org.springframework.security.authentication.UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken;
import org.springframework.security.core.Authentication;
import org.springframework.security.core.AuthenticationException;
import org.springframework.security.core.context.SecurityContextHolder;

import org.springframework.security.web.savedrequest.HttpSessionRequestCache;
import org.springframework.security.web.savedrequest.SavedRequest;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@RequestScoped
@Component
@Named
public class AuthenticationBean {
    @Autowired
    @Qualifier("authenticationManager")
    protected AuthenticationManager authenticationManager ;
    
    @Size(min =1, message = "Username cannot be empty")
    private String username;
    
    @Size(min =1, message = "password cannot be empty")
    private String password;
    
    public AuthenticationBean(){}
    
    
    public String login() throws IOException, ServletException{
        try{
            Authentication request = new UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken(this.username, this.password);            
            Authentication result = authenticationManager.authenticate(request);
            SecurityContextHolder.getContext().setAuthentication(result);
        } catch(AuthenticationException e) {
            FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, e.getMessage(), e.getMessage()));
            return null;
        }
        
        HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest)FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequest();
        HttpServletResponse  response = (HttpServletResponse )FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getResponse();
        HttpSession session = request.getSession(false);        
        SavedRequest savedRequest = new HttpSessionRequestCache().getRequest(request, response);
        ExternalContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext();
        //DefaultSavedRequest defaultSavedReqest = (DefaultSavedRequest) context.getSessionMap().get(savedRequest);        
        context.redirect(savedRequest.getRedirectUrl());        
        FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().responseComplete();
        return null;        
    }

public String getUsername() {
        return username;
    }

public void setUsername(String username) {
        this.username = username;
    }

public String getPassword() {
        return password;
    }

public void setPassword(String password) {
        this.password = password;
    } 
    
    
}

my app context:
[COLOR=#000080][/COLOR]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:security="http://www.springframework.org/schema/security"
  xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
          http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd
          http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
          http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.1.xsd
          http://www.springframework.org/schema/security
          http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-3.1.xsd">

<security:http pattern="/resources/**" security="none" />
    
    
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.security, org.springframework.security" />
    <context:annotation-config/>

<security:http use-expressions="true" access-denied-page="/errors/accessDenied.xhtml">
        <security:form-login login-page="/login.xhtml" default-target-url="/" />
        <security:intercept-url pattern="/admin/**" access="hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN')" />     
        <security:intercept-url pattern="/errors/**" access="permitAll" />
        <security:logout logout-url="/index.xhtml" invalidate-session="true" />
    </security:http>

<security:global-method-security secured-annotations="enabled" jsr250-annotations="enabled" />

<security:authentication-manager alias="authenticationManager">
        <security:authentication-provider>
            <security:user-service>
                <security:user name="admin" password="admin" authorities="ROLE_ADMIN" />
                <security:user name="user" password="user" authorities="ROLE_USER" />
            </security:user-service>
        </security:authentication-provider>
    </security:authentication-manager>

The bean must see AM in my context because if i change the alias of the AuthenticationManager in my context the app wont compile. please advise....

I don't see the problem either. I know this sounds strange but did you c+p any of the stuff in the code below? If you did delete those pieces and re-type it out. I have had weird stuff like this happen to me when I have copied stuff into eclipse from a different place. It looks exactly the same but re-typing it makes it work