即使当我还是个孩子的时候，我也总是踢房子周围的任何东西。我记得在我的客厅里踢过这些橡胶形状。但我第一次真正的足球经历是在我去卡莱尔联队的时候。我加入学院时才九岁。我小时候是卡莱尔队的球迷，那是我的家，他们是在联赛中踢球的大俱乐部。我来自威格顿，这是一个距离那里 15 分钟路程的小镇。那是一个非常小的村庄，我在那里上过三所学校，和我所有的朋友一起长大，现在我仍然和他们说话。有趣的是，我收到了威格顿婴儿学校一位老师黑尔小姐的消息，她告诉我，当我在那里我会为英格兰队效力。一路上我遇到了一些很好的老师，在休赛期我仍然和他们中的一些人一起训练。这对他们来说很好，我认为来自威格顿的人在足球方面做得很好。

My first team was Abbeytown. I remember going to my first session aged eight and I didn't want to train. After a few sessions I got into it and after one season I signed for Carlisle. Before that stage I was a football fan but I was doing all sports I could. I wasn't very confident about my football and it was my dad who said I should properly give it a try. I had to stop playing for them once Carlisle started properly. The academy stuff kicked in and we trained twice a week and games on Sundays.Aged 14 I suffered from Osgood-Schlatter disease, which was a huge setback at that time. I was out for 18 months. The first 12 I literally couldn't do anything, I was in that much pain, and then the last six months I was building back up but I still couldn't train on astroturf through the week because it was such a hard surface. On Saturday we'd train on grass and I'd play maybe 20 minutes of the game on Sunday just to stay involved. It was a difficult period because once my scholarship ended they said they hadn't really seen enough of me and they'd give me a four-week trial to show myself. I didn't really want to do that but again my dad said I should give it my all and then I'd have no regrets.

I was a central midfielder until the Under-16s at Carlisle and it was one game where I played for the reserves where it changed. I moved into centre-back and I played well and enjoyed it. Ever since then it's where I've played. If it wasn't for that game then maybe I wouldn't have moved and I wouldn't be here so it shows how little things in football made a big difference.I made my Carlisle debut aged 16 under Stephen Pressley. He set me on the path I'm on now. I played 15 games and signed for Everton. It happened quite quickly. And the last year of my career things have taken off. If you said to me at the start of the 2023/24 season that I'd have played as many games as I have for Everton I wouldn't have believed you. It's been a whirlwind of a season. I went to PSV on loan the season before and that helped me bring it this season. Sean Dyche has been massive for me. He gave me an opportunity and he's stuck with me throughout. I can only thank him for that.