IT WAS the night when Alex Ferguson’s infamous hair dryer may well have blown a fuse – and one Phil Neville will certainly never forget.

He was just a raw 18-year-old on Wednesday, September 20, 1995, and Everton’s future skipper learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of underestimating lower league opponents

Amazingly a United team featuring Neville, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Lee Sharpe and Gary Pallister were defeated 3-0 at Old Trafford by lowly York City, then lingering near the bottom of the third division.

The Red Devils recalled Eric Cantona for the second leg but still bowed out of the competition, and for the young man from Bury it was a deeply sobering experience.

Neville is not the type to become complacent in life anyway, but that formative example of the harsh footballing fates and the subsequent tutelage of David Moyes means that the Toffees are always well versed in the need to never drop their focus on potentially awkward evenings like tonight, when they host League One strugglers Leyton Orient in the Capital One Cup at Goodison Park.

“You learn over the years that there really are no easy games. I’ve never experienced playing in the lower leagues but having seen and played for the last 15 years against a variety of teams I know,” he says.

“I once played for Manchester United against York City when they were in the bottom division and we got beat 3-0.

“They’re difficult games because this is Leyton Orient’s chance at the big time. If I was a Leyton Orient player I’d be thinking this is my shop window to do well. We’ve been on the receiving end of cup upsets over the last few years but the Capital One Cup is probably the best chance for us to win silverware and the manager wants us to win the competition. That’s what he wants to do.

“Since I’ve been at Everton we’ve been to places like Brentford and Macclesfield, we’ve played Oldham and Peterborough and the manager is a stickler for over-emphasising how he used to feel when he was in the lower division with Preston coming up against the big boys. It was his shop window and his chance to impress. He leaves us in no doubt what they feel like.”

Even last season en route to the FA Cup semi-final, Everton were given a credible challenge by non-Leaguers Tamworth at Goodison, a game which left an impression on some of the Blues more recent influx of non-English players.

“Tamworth came last year and some of the foreign lads in our dressing room couldn’t comprehend that some of these players they were playing against had normal jobs,” recalls Neville.

“They were saying it was unheard of. Then they went out and got the shock of their lives by how Tamworth performed. I don’t get that shock because I can empathise how they’re feeling.

“It’s funny because I’ve watched a lot of League One and Championship football lately and it’s improving.

“You used to think a lot of these teams are just going to go from back to front and have 6ft4in centre-halves who just lump it to 6ft-4in centre forwards.

“I think Championship and League One football has totally changed to a more passing style of football. I watched Bury against Brentford last week and the teams are trying to play.

“Orient will have no fear. They have one shot – if they win brilliant and if they lose it doesn’t really matter because they’re expected to get beat. They can get their names on the telly and in the newspapers and that’s what makes the cup competitions so good.”

So even if Everton are in store for a refined footballing challenge from Russell Slade’s visitors tonight, Neville is satisfied that they have the defensive players to deal with them – and just about any other team in England.

“As a midfielder when the ball goes over the top and you’ve got Distin and Jagielka running back you feel quite comfortable that one or both of them will get back and sweep them up,” he says. “We’re quite lucky to have what I think is the quickest, strongest back four in the league.”

Neville insists Jagielka has been sensational in the early stages of the new season, and rates one challenge on United’s Danny Wellbeck in their campaign’s opening game as a vintage moment.

“I’d say his tackle on Wellbeck in the second half was probably as good a tackle as you’ll see all season,” he says. “In that first weekend there was a lot of bad defending and goals conceded.

“The art of defending is getting harder with the speed of the play and technique of attackers. I think we’re lucky with the defenders we’ve got – proper defenders who know the distances like Tony Hibbert.

“Jags has got everything you want from a top centre-half. You can see the maturity. He’s 30 now and I think centre-halves only get better as they get older and the recovery of his speed when the ball goes over the top is great.”