It was the summer of 2006 when Calum Woods decided his career needed a new direction. For a boy who had grown up in the shadow of Anfield, leaving Liverpool the city was almost as hard as leaving Liverpool FC.
At one point, the Melwood training ground rivalled John Lennon Airport for departures. Players left daily, as Rafael BenÃtez offloaded 24 in a frenetic pre-season. Blink and you would almost have missed Woods. He had plenty of prestigious company, with Djibril Cisse, Fernando Morientes, Scott Carson and Dietmar Hamman among those making an exit.
Rather than stay in his comfort zone of the north-west of England, Woods opted for a fresh start in Scotland. The young defender convinced Dunfermline Athletic that his football education at Liverpool's youth academy would make him a potential first-team player far quicker than if he had remained at Anfield.
Now, aged 22, he is on the verge of an appearance in the Homecoming Scottish Cup final if Dunfermline can overcome Falkirk in Sunday's semi-final at Hampden Park and Coca-Cola Championship clubs are tracking the pacy right-back. Woods was named the man of the match in Dunfermline's quarter-final replay triumph over Aberdeen by the Sky Television analyst, Davie Provan, which is quite an endorsement from a man who was a winger for Celtic and Scotland.
Many of the players who accompanied Woods though Liverpool's youth academy have dropped off the football radar in the three years that the young Scouser has been at East End Park. “Not many from my age group are still playing professionally,” Woods said. “There are only a couple. Lee Peltier is at Yeovil Town and Danny Guthrie is now at Newcastle United. The others packed it in.”
Woods's problem was not unique. Liverpool currently have 16 players out on loan, including Andrei Voronin, one of the top scorers in the Bundesliga with Hertha Berlin. “Liverpool are such a big club now that they can buy any top-class player they want, so it is harder for the players from the youth set-up to get noticed,” Woods said. “It's hard to even get a game for the reserve team.
“I saw the youth team on television last week and they had Tom Ince, whose dad, Paul, played for Liverpool when I was a kid. Even the youth academy attracts the best players from all round Europe now. It is an unbelievable set-up. I signed for Liverpool when I was ten and left when I was 19 and it was really special. It made my dad proud because he's a Liverpool fan.
“We lived in Anfield, close to the ground. Every kid from round there wants to play for Liverpool and I don't think the fact that the first team, or even the reserves, is full of foreign stars will put local youngsters off. They will still believe they can make it and come through the ranks like Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard have done. Michael Owen was my hero when I was a kid and he came through the Liverpool system.”
Woods has made more than 70 first-team appearances for Dunfermline and one of those would have included the 2007 Scottish Cup final if he had not been dropped from the squad by Stephen Kenny, the then-manager. “I did not discover I was out until the manager named the side and the substitutes in the hotel on the morning that we played Celtic,” Woods said.
“I did not think I would be in the starting line-up but I had played a few games in the cup run, including the round where we knocked out Rangers, and I was hoping to get on the bench. It was not a good experience but hopefully we can get to the final again and this time I will play.” Jim McIntyre, the Dunfermline manager, was so impressed with Woods's progress that he gave the right-back a new two-year contract earlier in the season.
He has lived in the Fife town for three years and if the accent is still more Stanley Park than East End Park, Woods understands how much another appearance in the final would mean to the club and its supporters after another season's exile in the Irn-Bru first division.
“We've missed out on promotion, so it would help the club's finances if we got to the final,” he said. “This is a great club to learn your trade. I really enjoy being here and I have been given the sort of first-team experience I would not get at Liverpool.”
A return to England would save Woods senior from clocking up the sort of mileage on the M6 that would put a trucker to shame. “My dad drives up to all my games,” Woods said. “Even though he has a Liverpool season ticket, he will be at Hampden with my mum. If he had to choose between coming to see me or Liverpool win the league, it would be me.”