STANLEY skipper Peter Cavanagh is riding the biggest roller-coaster of his footballing life - and loving every minute of it!

The chirpy Liverpudlian could have been forgiven for thinking he was on the big dipper after his childhood heroes showed him the Anfield door in 2001.

A slippery slide into non-league football could have been the last straw for a rookie defender who had devoted 10 years of his life to trying to battle his way through the Liverpool youth ranks.

But just two seasons later, Cavanagh is at an all-time high after captaining the Accrington Reds to their stunning Unibond League title success.

The 21-year-old, who made several reserve team appearances for Liverpool, admitted: "Being told you are not wanted by Liverpool was the low point of my life, never mind career.

"I'd been there 10 years and you always dream of playing for your team.

"I was devastated at the time but you read between the lines and I was always quite confident I would get fixed up somewhere else.

"At that time I was playing some of the best football I have ever played and broken into the reserve side.

"But I was still only 20 and realistically knew I wasn't going to get into Liverpool's first team.

"When I joined Accrington I had only really heard about them from the milk advert.

"But I instinctively knew it was the right move for me in the long run and after this season, it looks like it's turning out that way!"