Source: Liverpool_Echo
Royal Blue: Everton FC stars who lost their way and slid down the non-league ladder
Gareth Farrelly[LNB]THE number of players who have jumped from non-league to the big league at Everton can be counted on the fingers of one hand.[LNB]Eamonn O'Keefe (no relation to the usual face at the top of this page - and certainly better at penalties than our Greg) and John Barton (the marauding and moustachioed 70s full-back) are the most recent - unless Echo readers know better.[LNB]But the number who have made the opposite journey are increasing in number.[LNB]It's a sweet and sour experience seeing players who once had so much hope invested in them, running out in front of a couple of hundred customers.[LNB] Sweet, because it's heartening to see players still so in love with the game that they will carry on playing regardless of the level.[LNB]Sour because such great things were once expected of so many of these 'fallen' stars.[LNB]Michael Branch was genuinely considered to be the Evertonian equivalent of Michael Owen.[LNB](It's about time the journalist who worked on this newspaper who wagered that Branch would get to 20 league goals before Owen paid up).[LNB]Now he's leading the line for Evo-Stik League side Burscough.[LNB]Neil Moore achieved fleeting fame at Everton in the early 90s as a commanding centre-half who lived so close to the ground he used to walk there on matchdays - boots slung over his shoulder.[LNB]Howard Kendall decided he didn't quite have the quality for top flight football, but after a solid career in the lower leagues he now turns out regularly for Conference North side Solihull Moors at the ripe old age of 38.[LNB]Still in demand, last summer he turned down offers from Bedworth United, Nuneaton Griff, Hinckley United and Shepshed Dynamo before opting for Solihull.[LNB]Jamie Milligan once formed the most lightweight forward line ever seen at Goodison when he partnered Francis Jeffers for the final few minutes of the 1-0 win over Newcastle on the night Duncan Ferguson was sold.[LNB]Now he pulls the midfield strings for Fleetwood Town.[LNB]But perhaps the biggest eye-opener is Republic of Ireland international Gareth Farrelly.
