SIMON Eastwood may not be one of Blackburn Rovers’ most recognisable names, but the goalkeeper will reflect on a remarkable climb back from non-league if he is chosen to take on Liverpool in an FA Cup quarter final at Anfield in a fortnight’s time.

Eastwood joined Chris Taylor in visiting local youngsters at a Blackburn Rovers half term football camp this week when the children were asked if they knew his name.

“Is it Jordan Rhodes?” one asked. Eastwood laughed. He might not be as talked about as Rhodes, but his impact on Rovers’ run to the FA Cup quarter finals has undoubtedly been greater.

While Rhodes has featured for only 13 minutes, in the fourth round against Swansea, Eastwood has started in all three rounds and made some crucial saves early in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Stoke City.

Back-up to Jason Steele in the Championship, Eastwood has been given his chance by boss Gary Bowyer in the FA Cup and has provided a persuasive case to feature again in the sixth round at Anfield.

If he does, it will be a significant moment for a keeper who thought he would have to settle for a move to Bradford Park Avenue when he departed Halifax Town only two-and-a-half years ago.

Early in his career Eastwood featured in the same England under-19 team as Andy Carroll and the same England under-18 team as Daniel Sturridge, with whom he could be reunited in two weeks’ time.

But he was later made available for transfer by Huddersfield Town, before being released by Oxford United.

It would have been easy for those events to affect him but just as he was about to join Bradford Park Avenue he got a call to attend a trial at Portsmouth, and he has never looked back.

Even at the lowest point, he insists he always believed he could return to the higher echelons of football.

“I think I did,” Eastwood says now. “I think if you look into my career it’s definitely been up and down. It just shows that in football, careers don’t always go smoothly.

“But if I could give anyone some advice, the key is just to work hard and believe in your own ability.

“If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody is going to do it for you. I had a big step back, but I came through it at the other end.

“It was good to play first team games at Halifax because at a young age I needed to get my games in and I did that.

“But it was part time and I didn’t want to stay part time. It was only two nights a week and it was hard. We were training indoors so the facilities weren’t great and I wanted to try to better myself in full-time football again.

“Bradford Park Avenue were interested in signing me and then I got a call from Portsmouth the next day asking, ‘Could you come and train with us?’.

“I said I would go down, train for a week and see how it went.

“Everything else is history from there.”

A season at Portsmouth was enough to earn his move to Rovers.

Eastwood admits his journey has made him appreciate things more.

“100 per cent,” the 25-year-old says. “Some young kids growing up in football don’t understand how lucky they are and what they’ve got.

“I think to myself that I’ve been to the bottom and to the top in the space of a couple of years, so I know how lucky I am and how hard I work, because I know that I don’t want to be back where I was.”

Eastwood did actually feature in last season’s third round replay at Manchester City, but only as a surprise half-time substitute for the injured Paul Robinson, and Rovers lost 5-0

. He said: “It was a good experience but at that level - the Man Citys, the Man Uniteds, the Liverpools - the finishing is unbelievable. It’s something we’ve got to be careful of. I think that’s a good little bit of experience to take into the game against Liverpool.”

Eastwood does not yet know for certain whether he will feature in that match, and is keen to stress that he is also determined to push Steele for a place in Rovers’ league side.

He returned to the bench at Cardiff on Tuesday but produced two fine league performances against Middlesbrough earlier in the season, when Bowyer joked that Boro boss Aitor Karanka had offered £200m for the keeper.

“It has been nice to be involved in every round of the FA Cup and to get to the quarter finals is brilliant,” he said.

“We all want to play the league games as well but it’s the manager’s decision, he knows what he’s doing and everyone sticks by him.

“As kind of a second choice goalkeeper it’s hard because you come in and out, and you want to stay in the team. But when you come in you just hope you can do enough to make a good impression. I think I’ve done okay when I’ve come into the team.

“I don’t think any of the lads know whether they’ll be playing in the next round but everyone wants to play. “We’ll just have to see who gets the shirt.”