EVERTON legend Neville Southall is making a special trip from Ireland to play in Jamie Speare's testimonial at Accrington Stanley tomorrow.

The former Welsh international goalkeeper is currently on location with the Wales Under 19s squad but is cutting short the trip to feature in tomorrow's match at the Interlink Express Stadium, before travelling to his home in Dover.

But he says he is more than happy to make the effort for former team-mate Speare.

"Jamie's a nice lad and I have a lot of respect for him," he said.

"I'm looking forward to the game, and it's always nice to be involved in things like this because it's for a good cause."

And Southall explained how he took Speare under his wing as fledgling stopper at Goodison Park.

"When he first started as a YTS player at Everton, he was a bit of a lazy geezer! But after the first season the penny dropped and he worked really hard," he said.

"I thought he might have gone on a little bit longer, but Everton let him go when he was playing at his best, which I found quite strange.

"But he's done all right for himself, to be fair.

"When he left Everton he could have ended up not doing very much, but the fact that he stayed in football, has a good job and a nice family is his success story."

And Southall hopes Reds fans and the people of Hyndburn will come out in force tomorrow to celebrate Speare's six years of loyal service to Stanley.

"It would be nice for everyone to turn out for him," said Southall, who will play alongside former Toffees team-mate Dave Watson in Speare's special match, as well as players from the 2000 UniBond First Division championship side - including manager John Coleman and assistant boss Jimmy Bell, when they take on the current Stanley side.

"It's going to be a long weekend for me, but myself and Dave certainly think he's worth the effort.

"I like Jamie a lot and I've got a lot of time for him."

And Southall put the former Stanley stopper, who signed for Lancaster City in the summer, in the same mould as England number one David James.

"When Jamie puts his mind to something, he is first class," he said. "He is the spitting image of James in lots of ways. He's a good athlete and has got a good spring, it's only his concentration that can let him down.

"But he has got good qualities and the older he gets, the higher level of consistency he'll get."

He added: "I thought he was going to be at Accrington for a long time. But with the club going full-time not everyone can afford to give up their job to play football, unless you're on a really good contract.

"So hopefully the weather will stay nice tomorrow for him and he'll get a good crowd."

Tomorrow's match kicks off at 3pm and admission prices are £7 for adults, £4 for concessions and £2 for under 12s.