The predictably nicknamed "Taff" was chosen to make his second (and last) Welsh U 21 appearance having made his debut at that level seven months earlier in a 2-0 win over Poland, he'd won National honours at Youth level during his time as an apprentice with Everton.

Colin Harvey was the Manager who gave Marcus his first professional contract at Goodison Park, he was Taff's boss at the time of his U 21 debut but in November 1990 Howard Kendall had taken over the top job in the blue half of Liverpool. Other young pro's on the Toffee's books at the time included Eddie Youds, later of Ipswich and Wrexham, now at Huddersfield,  Tranmere's Stuart Barlow and a graduate of the FA School of Excellence, John Ebbrell, who was to oppose Marcus in the match at Tranmere.

Marcus had been unable to break into the Goodison first eleven, no great surprise when considering that midfielders Pat Nevin, Stuart McCall, Kevin Sheedy and Peter Beagrie were all on the books at Everton in that 1990-91 season when the team finished 9th in the top flight, reached the last eight of the FA Cup and lost in the Final of the little remembered Zenith Data Systems Cup, Palace won 4-1 with two goals from Ian Wright.

However Marcus had a reasonable season in the reserves, Everton finished in 5th place in the Central League, Sheffield Wednesday won that ahead of Forest, Man United and Liverpool and as a result he was noticed by the Welsh scouts and the Management team of Terry Yorath and Peter Shreeves. 

"It was a big occasion for me", remembers the midfielder, "It was my second International having already played against Poland, the England game ended 0-0 and I really enjoyed it, there were some very good players on the pitch".

"Gary Speed was a great player then, he's still a great player now, and it was good to play against John Ebbrell, we trained together at Everton, so that was quite a big thing. One other great thing about it was at the training ground, Neville Southall rang me the night before and had a chat and said to me to get the lads going, he was at Everton at the time like myself, that was the thing I remember most, it wasn't the best game in the World actually, it was a dour nil nil".

The teams that day were:

England: Walker, Warhurst (Charles), Minto, Blackwell, Ord, Ebbrell, Ramage, Shearer, Jemson, McManaman, Blake (Atkinson).

Wales: Roberts, Perry, Coleman, Melville, Law, Symons, Rees, L.Nogan, K.Nogan (Graham), Speed, Ebdon (Owen).

Marcus left Everton at the end of that season to join Peterborough United where he made 147 League appearances before joining Chesterfield late in the season of our Cup run, 96-97. His appearance at Ashton Gate this week was his 172nd League game for Chesterfield and his 200th in all games for us.