Kevin McLeod must be miffed to be missing out on Albion’s glamorous clash with Manchester City.

McLeod has a knee operation tomorrow, which will sideline him from next week’s Carling Cup tie at Withdean.

He would love to be taking on City’s superstars but there is some consolation for McLeod. He has already performed in the Premier League.

As an Evertonian through and through it does not get much better for him than playing at a packed Goodison Park and beating the best.

That is exactly what happened after a dream came true for the former Colchester winger and Everton took him on as a trainee.

His debut, shortly after his 20th birthday, was memorable for the wrong reasons.

Walter Smith’s side were already 3-0 down against Ipswich when he was called off the bench for the last 15 minutes.

McLeod’s next two appearances, two months later, were unforgettable. Again he was on the bench but this time he featured in a winning team against Arsenal and Chelsea.

Fellow youth team product Danny Cadamarteri had already given Everton a second-half lead over the Gunners when, within a minute of McLeod’s introduction, Kevin Campbell sealed the points against his old club.

The following week, the same two goalscorers gave Everton a 2-1 victory against a Chelsea line-up including the likes of Marcel Desailly, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Gianfranco Zola.

Not many players can claim to have been a part of back-to-back victories in such illustrious company.

McLeod, 28, said: “That’s not bad to have on your CV is it? Being an Evertonian it was great.

“When you are on the same pitch as Dennis Bergkamp, Ashley Cole, Ray Parlour, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown and the rest of them you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“It was a good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In my age group there was Cadamarteri, Leon Osman, Francis Jeffers, Tony Hibbert, George Pilkington, Peter Clarke, so there are a few of us still around playing in the League.”

The Arsenal-Chelsea double was as good as it got for McLeod. He made two more substitute appearances that season, in defeats at Ipswich and Chelsea.

The following season he made his only start for Everton as a team-mate of Paul Gascoigne in a League Cup defeat on penalties at home to Crystal Palace.

The following year, after David Moyes had replaced Smith as manager, he featured for the final time in a blue shirt as a last minute substitute in a shock FA Cup exit at Shrewsbury before he was sold to QPR for £250,000.

McLeod said: “I didn’t like it at first when I moved to London. I didn’t want to go but I sat down and talked about it with my family and they said you can stay here and work hard or go and play League football.

“I went away and enjoyed it and got promotions (in his first season with both QPR and Swansea).

“You look at Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert. They stayed there for the extra year and now they are playing week in and week out but I am not one of those people who looks too much at the past.

“I’d rather go forward. I made my decision and I live with it to this day.”

The clash with Manchester City will evoke thoughts of what might have been for another member of the Albion squad.

David Livermore’s last goal for Hull last season was against Stoke. Both clubs went on to be promoted to the Premier League but the former Arsenal trainee is content to be pushing for a place back in the Championship with Albion.

Livermore said: “It is everyone’s ambition to play at the highest level and, barring international football, the Premier league is where you want to play, but there comes a point in your career where you have to be honest with yourself and ask if you are good enough.

“Possibly not in my case. I have played all of my career, apart from two seasons (with Millwall), in the Championship and that is where I want to get back to.

“That was part of the reason for coming here. When I sat down with the gaffer in the summer his ambitions were the same as mine.

“He wants to take this club back into the Championship, especially with a new stadium just around the corner.”