JOE Parkinson will be calling in a few favours from big mate Alan Stubbs today.

The Everton midfielder regularly supplies Stubbs with tickets for Goodison Park on his nights off from Wanderers duty.

Now it's his turn as Tyldesley lad Parkinson looks to meet the demand from his family and friends to see the Merseysiders play his local club.

"My family still live in Tyldesley and I've got friends there so it's my turn to ask him for tickets," smiles Parkinson who made his name with Wigan and Bournemouth before blasting onto the Premiership scene with Everton. "I've got to know Stubbsie over the last couple of years because he's a mad Evertonian and he's always asking me for tickets. I got some for him for the Millwall game the other night."

Parkinson was looking forward to meeting his pal on the pitch today until he failed a fitness test on a foot injury yesterday. Now he must sit on the sidelines and hope his team can build on the boost of having flying front men Andrei Kanchelskis and Daniel Amokachi back by getting their first Premiership victory since August 30.

He admits that even if he passed the fitness test he wasn't guaranteed his place after suffering a dip in form recently.

"We started the season well and I was quite pleased with my form but I've not been too happy with the way I've played in recent weeks

"But we had a worse start last year and we know what we have to do to turn it around. It's just not bubbling for us and we have to stick together to get it right." Parkinson was still learning his trade in the lower divisions on the famous night when Wanderers came from behind to inflict a stunning FA Cup defeat on Everton at Goodison Park.

But he still has sufficient recollections of playing Wanderers to give today's match added spice.

"I played against them loads of time when I was at Wigan and it was always a grudge match with the two clubs so close," he recalls.

"The last time I played them Stubbsy played in midfield and we marked each other."

There was a chance of a midfield re-match today if manager Roy McFarland decided to play Stubbs just in front of the back four as he did in the last match at Brentford ten days ago. And Parkinson would have given Stubbs all the respect due to a £4 million player.

"He's a good lad and a good player," praised Parkinson, "and I think a lot of people forget how long he has been at the club." The two 24-year-olds have enjoyed massive upturns in their careers over the last two years. But while one-club man Stubbs has always been tipped for the top, Parkinson took the scenic route to stardom at Springfield Park and the South Coast.

"I was at Wigan for six or seven years straight from being a schoolboy and I had gone a bit stale," he reflects.

He got his act together in a big way after his £70,000 move to Bournemouth and eight months later Everton gave him his passport to the Premier League after striking an £800,000 deal with then Dean Court manager Tony Pulis.

"I enjoyed every minute of my time at Bournemouth. It's a lovely way of life with the beach and the weather and when I finish playing it would be hard not to go back and live there," he says.

"Tony helped me a lot. He's a good man manager and I'm pleased to see him doing well with Gillingham at the moment.

"He gave me a lot of confidence in my own ability and played a lot of things around me.

"The team was doing well at the time and it just clicked for me."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.