Liverpool hero Peter Crouch says he had "elbow-off" with Marouane Fellaini

Crouch faced Fellaini six times while the Belgian midfielder was at Everton and had a remarkably good record against the Toffees, scoring twice and losing just one game

Peter Crouch has revealed that he had an "elbow-off" with Marouane Fellaini during one of the many times he faced Everton.

The striker faced the Toffees 26 times over the course of his career, including five Merseyside derbies during his three years at Liverpool. Fellaini meanwhile spent five years at Everton after arriving at Goodison Park in 2008.

In six of his 26 clashes against Everton, Crouch came up against former Belgian international Fellaini, once for Portsmouth, twice for Tottenham and three times for Stoke. Crouch had had remarkably good record against Fellaini during the midfielder's time at Everton, scoring twice and losing just one game.

Crouch and Fellaini were both known to be physical players and routinely came up against each other. And the former striker has even claimed that the duo would have "elbow-offs" whenever they played.

"I played when Everton had a tough side. I remember me and Fellaini had an elbow-off a few times. He’d always come and mark me from goal kicks and he was probably just as bad as me for the elbows. So me and him had a few scraps over the years," Crouch told Paddy Power.

"You’d always have a big battle with defenders like David Weir, or players like Lescott. They’d always be tough games and David Moyes’ Everton were a tough proposition. They had big strong players in every position, and we did struggle at times.

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"I remember scoring at Goodison and I scored my first goal in the derby, which was a really special moment, we won 3-1, and I always remember on the bus on the way in Stevie [Gerrard] was saying to me that if you score in this one, you’ll be remembered forever. And I got the first goal, it was a great moment.

"Some might call it the friendly derby but I’ll have none of that – you have to be joking! There’s nothing friendly about it when it gets going. Some of the Merseyside Derby games I played in, especially the ones at Goodison, the atmosphere, you’d feel it, even on the bus. It’s intense but it’s a great game to play in and a privilege to have played in it."

Peter Crouch was speaking exclusively as an ambassador of Paddy Power.