Former Liverpool youngster Adam Hammill has recalled how he once came to blows with Manchester United legend Gary Neville. Hammill started his career with the Reds but never made a competitive appearance for the club.

The 37-year-old signed for Barnsley permanently in August 2009 following a successful loan switch to Oakwell, and found himself up against Liverpool's bitter rivals in the League Cup fourth round just two months later.

Hammill was in impressive form for the Tykes prior to facing off against United, boasting four goals and two assists from his first 15 appearances of the season. And he caused Neville a torrid time at Oakwell in October 2009.

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United, who would go on to win that season’s League Cup, had just gone 2-0 up through Michael Owen when Neville was sent off for a horror tackle on Hammill on the edge of the Barnsley box.

Launching into the former Liverpool man with a knee-high challenge, the winger furious as he remonstrated with the defender after getting back to his feet.

And recalling the altercation on The Football Historian Podcast, Hamill admitted such a clash had been building up and already threatened to bubble during a bitter battle between the pair.

“Gary Neville, I got him sent off,” Hammill recalled. “In my first season there (at Barnsley) I got him sent off, I think it would have been the Carling Cup then.

“And he was just… I was having a really good game, I was up against him, taking him on and he just didn’t like it. I think he was coming to the back end of his career.

“And I just kept getting the ball and it always kept coming over to the left. I’d go to go inside, outside and he didn’t have the legs.

“And then I cut inside, and then he’s just started calling me a Scouse c-word, you know what I mean, all through the game. And I was like giving him it back. I was like, ‘you little Manc. You look like a rat!’. You know what I mean.

“And then he’s giving it to me, and then he’s elbowing me off the ball and we’re going at it.

“And then the ball’s bouncing and it was one of them, all he had to do was kick the ball up but he’s purposely kicked the ball up and just gone bang, right into my knee, studs first, and obviously seen the red card.

“But that game, yeah, I just remember him pinching, elbowing, constantly down my ear, just trying to throw me off my game.

“And he didn’t realise that just spurred me on even more. I used to love that. I’d think I’m gonna get one over on you.”

Neville, who would serve a three-match ban as a result of the red card, blasted referee Chris Foy for sending him off as he insisted he got the ball, despite manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitting it had been the right decision to dismiss his captain.

“The referee said in his report that I made no attempt to play the ball, which is blatantly wrong,” he said at the time. “But I won't appeal it. There is no point in the current climate.

“The ball was at an awkward height and I thought their player would come in at that height with me, but he didn't. I got the ball, but it's impossible to stop in mid-air at that speed.

“My biggest disappointment is that I've got a three-game ban because I don't think it is warranted. Did I deserve a red card? I think it should have been a yellow-and-three-quarters! I had no intent.”