James McEveley

Football player infobox
playername = James McEveley


fullname = James Michael McEveley
height = height|m=1.85
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1985|2|11
cityofbirth = Liverpool
countryofbirth = England
currentclub = Preston North End
(on loan from Derby County)
clubnumber = 20
position = Left Back
years = 2002–2007
2003–2004
2005
2005–2006
2007–
2008–
clubs = Blackburn Rovers
→ Burnley (loan)
→ Gillingham (loan)
→ Ipswich Town (loan)
Derby County
→ Preston North End (loan)
caps(goals) = 18 (0)
04 (0)
10 (1)
19 (1)
44 (2)
1 (0)
youthyears =
youthclubs = Everton
Blackburn Rovers
nationalyears = 2004
2006
2007–
nationalteam = England U-21
Scotland B
Scotland
nationalcaps(goals) = 01 (0)
02 (0)
03 (0)
pcupdate = 00:01, 02 Oct 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate = 22:09, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

James Michael "Jay" McEveley (born February 11, 1985 in Liverpool, England) is an English-born Scottish football player who currently plays for Preston as a defender, on loan from Derby County F.C..

Blackburn Rovers

Despite starting his career with Everton, where he played in the same youth team as Wayne Rooney, McEveley never played for the club and moved to Blackburn Rovers, where he was seen as a potential star of the future. He made his first team debut against Walsall as part of a 2–2 draw in the League Cup. In order to gain competitive match experience McEveley was sent out on loan three times whilst at Blackburn, spending time at Burnley F.C. in December 2003, where he made six appearances for Burnley before suffering a knee injury, Gillingham and Ipswich Town. He intermittently featured in the Blackburn first team during this time, including in a match against Liverpool in October 2004 when his challenge resulted in a broken leg for Djibril Cisse. Though the challenge was legal and appeared innocuous, the gruesome footage of the incident shocked many.cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/3971639.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Cisse 'faces anxious injury wait' |1 November 2004] .

Derby County

As he struggled to hold down a regular place at Blackburn, McEveley signed on a permanent deal with promotion chasing Derby County during the January 2007 transfer window for a fee rumoured to be in the region of £600,000. Replacing previous regular left back Mo Camara, McEveley settled in well and played regularly for the rams as they eventually finished third and earned promotion to the Premiership following a 1-0 win over WBA in the Championship Playoff Final at the newly completed Wembley Stadium. McEveley played regularly for Derby upon their return to the Premiership and scored his first goal for Derby County against Liverpool in a 1-2 home defeat. He sustained knee ligament damage in the 1-0 loss to Bolton on 2 January 2008 after a heavy tackle from Kevin Davies which was expected to keep him out for 4 months, though he returned 6 weeks later to play in Derby's 2-0 defeat away to Wigan Athletic at the end of February 2008. McEveley scored his second rams goal against Arsenal at Pride Park to bring the scores level to 1-1, only for the game to end in a 6-2 defeat. He is expected to provide competition at left back for Jordan Stewart for the 08/09 season.

Preston North End

He joined Preston North End on a months loan on the 29th September 2008, and made his debut in the 2-0 defeat against Swansea, conceding the penalty that lead to the second goal.

International career

He represented England U-20 at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship, but has since chosen to represent Scotland at the U-21 levelcite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/5238860.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Anglo McEveley switches to Scots|2 August 2006] and B level.cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/6149066.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Rep of Ireland B 0-0 Scotland B|14 November 2006] McEveley made his debut for Scotland in the 1–0 win over the South African National squad on 22 August 2007. He won his third cap during the 1-1 draw with Croatia at Hampden Park, significant as manager George Burley's first match with the side. McEveley was a second half substitute in this match.

References

External links

*soccerbase|33803|James McEveley