Worsthorne wonder enjoying limelight

But moving up football's pecking order takes on a double meaning for the likeable full-back - the last man to fire the Reds into this afternoon's third round showdown with Colchester following their gripping second round penalty shoot-out with Bournemouth.

For Howarth's first real taste of the beautiful game didn't take place on the playing fields of Worsthorne, where he has lived almost all his life, or in the local primary school team, but on a plot of stone, rubble land where Hen Pen Rangers was formed soon after he first learnt to kick a ball.

"Me, my brother and my grandad founded the team when I was about five, or even younger. That's where it all started," he laughed.

Hen Pen Rangers' ground was situated on a patch of land off Rossendale Road, near where Howarth's grandad, Austin, lives.

"I got a move to Burnley straight from there!" joked the 22-year-old, who was also a star striker for his primary school, Worsthorne County, and later at QEGS, where he was following in the footsteps of Southampton ace and England international James Beattie.

"I still hold the record for the most goals at Worsthorne. I got 60 goals in two seasons - 30 each season."

But while his footballing career has started to move forwards with John Coleman's Reds, Howarth has moved backwards on the pitch.

Up until signing for Shrewsbury as a trainee, the financial advisor was an out and out centre forward.

At Gay Meadow, however, he was handed an attacking midfielder's role.

But suspensions further along the line meant the rearguard needed a boost. Howarth's height and strength in the tackle made him a perfect candidate to fill the void, and he impressed so much that he became a permanent fixture at the back.

But after earning a professional contract with the Shrews, the versatile footballer, who had brief trials at Portsmouth, Tranmere and West Ham after leaving Burnley's Centre of Excellence at 15, came perilously close to falling out of love with the game when Kevin Ratcliffe replaced Jake King as manager in 1999.

"We won the youth league and I was captain then. We had some good players in the side, like Luke Rodgers, who's still there now," Howarth explained.

"After that there were six or eight of us who were offered professional contracts. There's usually about one in 10 YTS players who make it, but we had an excellent crop of young lads.

"He (Ratcliffe) came in and just tried to ruin everyone, abusing us and belittling us. I've got broad shoulders but that type of behaviour doesn't do anything for morale.

"I can remember looking at the clock when I was playing and wishing the game away."

Howarth was ultimately released from the Third Division club after his two-year pro contract ended in 2001.

"I thought my life was over because playing football was all I ever wanted to do," he revealed. "I left on bad terms with the manager and the last six months were difficult. It was hell down there and I'd had enough.

"I adore football but, then, it wasn't important to me."

Howarth was so disenchanted with the game that, instead of searching for another club to take him on full-time, he got a job labouring in an aerospace factory in Blackpool, travelling from his Worsthorne home to the resort virtually every day for four months.

As luck would have it though, word about Howarth's availability and value to any team spread to the then Crown Ground, and Stanley manager Coleman had no hesitation in snapping him up after a trial.

"Now I want time to freeze. I don't want the games to end, and that's how it should be," said Howarth, who is looking forward to fatherhood as fiance Rebecca is due to give birth to their first child in May.

But his experiences at Shrewsbury have made him stronger, not bitter; more philosophical and, arguably, more level-headed. So much so that he refused to get carried away with all the hype surrounding him and Stanley's dramatic penalty shoot-out when they dumped Bournemouth out of the FA Cup at the Interlink Express Stadium earlier this month.

"At the end of the day, it's a penalty. I've hit the back of the net from 12 yards," he said. "It's a dream and great for the club but it's nothing massive."

The fact that it was only recently that Howarth re-emerged in Stanley's starting line-up once more could be another contributing factor in his tempered approach.

Sidelined with a knee injury last season, once fit he couldn't forge a way back into a winning team.

This term, he came in for the suspended Peter Cavanagh in the 0-0 draw at Gravesend and Northfleet in October, but it wasn't until the initial FA Cup second round game at Bournemouth, following an early injury to defender Jonathan Smith, that Howarth really made his presence felt as he helped to secure a draw and take the Cherries back to Accrington.

He has since got on the scoresheet in the 4-2 win at home to Aldershot, rammed home the winning spot-kick against Bournemouth and scored in the 2-1 win at Leigh before helping to shut out Morecambe on Boxing Day.

His immediate aim is to cement his place in Stanley's starting line-up, then hopefully earn Football League status with the Reds. Other ambitions include becoming a fully qualified financial advisor, learning the piano and owning a racehorse.

If he shows the same steely determination in living his dreams as he does on the pitch then he seems destined to achieve them all.