THE careers of Tom Cairney and Ryan Kendall have gone in different directions since they played together in Hull City’s youth side.

Whereas Cairney broke into the Tigers’ first team, appearing and scoring in the Premier League before his move to Blackburn Rovers, Kendall never made the senior breakthrough at the KC Stadium.

Instead he dropped into non-league, where he has forged a reputation as a prolific goalscorer, most notably with North Ferriby United.

But tonight it will be Cairney attempting to follow in his friend’s footsteps.

Should Rovers win their FA Cup quarter-final replay with Liverpool at Ewood Park it would seal the club’s first trip to Wembley in 20 years.

It would also be the first time that Cairney will have been given an opportunity to play at the home of English football.

The same, however, cannot be said of Kendall, who scored twice at Wembley last month as North Ferriby stunned Wrexham to win the FA Trophy.

During the thrilling match, which the Conference North outfit won 5-4 on penalties after coming from two goals down to draw 3-3 after extra-time, Cairney was quick to congratulate the striker.

“I tweeted him when he was scoring,” said Rovers’ reigning player of the year, whose only previous experience of Wembley was watching Hull’s Championship play-off final victory over Bristol City in 2008.

“He scored two and then text me afterwards saying, ‘it’s your time to get there now’, and I said, ‘cheers mate’.

“It’s amazing, I played in the same youth team as him, we used to play up front together.

“He’s a nice lad and I’m over the moon for him.”

No-one would more be more delighted for Cairney to make it to Wembley than his father, Ian.

“It’s crazy to even think about playing in the FA Cup semi-finals,” said Nottingham-born Cairney, who qualifies to play for Scotland through his dad.

“My dad used to talk about the FA Cup all the time when I was little. He’d go on about Hereford beating Newcastle and I’d be like, ‘all right, dad, bore me later’. He just loves the FA Cup.

“But he’s right, the FA Cup is special.

“My dad used to play four and five rounds before the third round and he thought that was good so he can’t believe I could be playing in an FA Cup semi-final.

“What was my dad like as a player? If you spoke to him you’d think he was Maradona!

“To be fair he has got a touch but sometimes he tells me things and I’m like, ‘dad, shut up, you were playing against drunken keepers on Sunday mornings’!

“He loves his football and all my family do so it would be a dream to get to Wembley.”

Standing in Rovers’ way is a Liverpool side who remain red-hot favourites to progress despite their loss of Premier League form since the initial 0-0 draw between the teams at Anfield a month ago.

Gary Bowyer’s side have, however, knocked out two of Liverpool’s top-flight rivals at Ewood Park on their way to the last eight.

“We’ve definitely deserved to get this far,” said former Scotland U21s international Cairney.

“We haven’t ridden our luck, we hammered Charlton away, Swansea we deserved it, we hit four goals past Stoke, and I believe we deserved to get the draw at Liverpool.

“We weren’t exactly under the cosh for 20 or 30 minutes, we had to defend for a certain amount of time, but we earned this replay.

“Now we’ve got to go and earn it again and get through to the semi-finals.

“And I don’t see why we can’t do it again.”

Top-flight opposition has brought the best out of Rovers this season and that certainly applies to Cairney. 

“I enjoyed the Premier League when I was younger and I just love top players, I watch them and I love trying to test my ability against theirs,” said the midfielder whose bravery on the ball impressed in the first match at Liverpool.

“I think you do get more time. When I was playing in the Prem I found it not be as relentless as the Championship.

“When they do press, they press, but it’s not like the Championship.

“The difference with the Premier League is that when you do make a mistake you get punished a lot more.”

Rovers produced a near faultless team performance at Anfield and Cairney believes that was a mental triumph more than a physical one.

“I don’t think we ran as much as would have done in a Championship game,” said the 24-year-old.

“I just think mentally it sometimes feels like they’ve got 15 players and you’re hearing, ‘right, left, he’s here, he’s not’ – it’s more concentration that it is running.

“The centre-backs play like full-backs, it’s crazy, with people in the hole, people running in behind.

“It’s great the way they play and how much ability they’ve got.

“But we’ll not be afraid to take that challenge on again.”