A DECADE ago Andy Pettinger was a team-mate of England star Wayne Rooney – and being groomed as a future first team goalkeeper for Everton.

If all had gone to plan, he could well have been playing for the Merseyside giants in their FA Cup tie against Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park on Saturday.

Instead, now aged 26, he will be turning out seven rungs lower down the football ladder for Brigg Town in their home game with Glapwell in Division One South of the Evo-Stik League.

That's a far cry from the bright lights of Goodison Park that Pettinger sampled as a wide-eyed teenager when he signed for Everton in April 2000.

But as a youngster just out of school, the move to Merseyside proved too much for him.

With the footballing world seemingly at his feet, he found it difficult to settle and ended up returning home after just over two years with the Toffees.

And while he does admit to a few feelings of 'if only', Pettinger insists he is happy now plying his trade with the Zebras – and looking forward to a career in coaching.

It was while playing for Epworth Colts in the Jack Kalson League that the stopper was first spotted and invited for trials at Scunthorpe United.

He signed schoolboy forms for the Iron and thought he was set to sign apprentice terms at Glanford Park when he left school.

Instead, Everton swooped and snapped him up for an initial fee of £45,000 which had add-ons that could have netted the Iron up to 10 times that amount.

"When Everton came in for me, it was a real surprise," Pettinger confessed.

"They must have spotted me while I was playing for United Under-16s.

"I had no hesitation in signing for them – they are a massive club.

"When I went there, they told me they had high hopes.

"They were looking for me to develop into their number one keeper in 10 years time – at the age I am now.

"It was a fantastic opportunity and, from a footballing point of view, I thought I did well.

"Colin Harvey and Alan Harper were in charge of the youth section at Everton at the time and Kevin O'Brien was the goalkeeping coach.

"He had spent most of his career in non-league circles, but was a good coach and helped me a lot.

"I played mostly for the Under-19s and at reserve level for Everton.

"I also got the opportunity to train with the first team squad and work with their goalkeeping coach Chris Woods.

"At youth and reserve level, I played in the same teams as Wayne Rooney, Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert.

"Wayne was a couple of years younger than us, but you could see even in those early days that he was going to be someone really special.

"He was on the bench with me the day I was called into the first team squad for the first time for a match at Southampton.

"Thomas Myhre, the first team goalkeeper, was either injured or ill, so Paul Gerrard went into the team and I was on the bench."

Pettinger was still a day short of his 18th birthday when he made the bench.

He stayed there for the following home game against Blackburn.

But that was the only brief taste of the Premier League he got.

"The club put me in digs with some good families and did everything they could to help me," he recalled.

"But I was still a young lad and I was finding it very, very difficult to settle in Liverpool.

"Looking back, I would probably try and do things differently away from the football.

"I have no regrets because I was given a wonderful opportunity that lots of youngsters dream about.

"But it's not that easy. It takes a massive effort for a youngster to make the grade as a professional.

"Credit to Wayne Rooney and some of the other youngsters who were at Everton with me. They handled it much better than I did.

"I'm just sorry that I could not repay the investment that Everton put in me when they signed me from Scunthorpe.

"Eventually they agreed that if I was not going to settle on Merseyside, then I should go."

Homesickness had got the better of Pettinger and in September 2002 he returned back to Epworth.

Shortly afterwards, he signed for Grimsby Town, who were then in the third tier of English football, finding himself understudy to Aidan Davison.

"But I broke my finger three times in the same place and that is what cost me my chance after I had just got into the team," he said.

"It was really frustrating after the struggle I had to settle at Everton."

In the summer of 2004, the keeper was released by the Mariners and drifted down into non-league football.

He joined Armthorpe, before moving to Brigg Town in the summer of 2009.

This is his second season with the Zebras, a spell he is enjoying.

"They are a great set of lads here and we are doing well," he said.

"We are in and around the play-offs now and hopefully we can stay there.

"I am enjoying my football and give just as much to playing at this level as I would if I was at Everton.

"Yes I do sometimes wonder what might have been and if the opportunity was to present itself again to have a crack at professional football, I would give it a go.

"I did have a trial spell at Oldham, while I was with Armthorpe, but really I was only helping out when they had a goalkeeping crisis and nothing more came of it.

"At the moment I am concentrating on taking my coaching badges and becoming a fitness trainer.

"If I can get all my qualifications I would love eventually to become a goalkeeping coach.

"But for now I want to carry on playing and enjoying my football."