Readers can live out their own football fantasy in a new game created for a regional daily’s website.

The Liverpool Echo’s adventure game gives web users the chance to score the winning goal for either of the city’s rival football clubs, Liverpool and Everton.

The game, devised to mark the upcoming Merseyside derby between the two clubs on Saturday, casts the player as a new attacking midfielder for the team of his or her choice who is brought on as a substitute with 20 minutes of the match remaining.

As they go through the match they answer a series of multiple choice questions which can lead them to different outcomes, including scoring the winning goal or being sent off.

At the end of the game they are then given a video analysis of their performance by either the Echo’s Liverpool FC reporter James Pearce or its head of sport John Thompson, depending on which side they have chosen to play for.

The script for the game was written by Neil Macdonald, the Echo’s head of web and data development, who was inspired by the adventure game books he read as a child.

There are 32 different playable pages available for each team – although a player would only see between eight and 15 in any one game.

Said Neil: “So far it has been very well received by our website users and social media followers, who enjoyed the nostalgic feel of the game – I think many of them read the same books as me when they were little.

“We have seen tweets talking about the results of the ‘match’ or bragging about scoring an overhead kick.

“For me, I enjoyed working in a different way to create content that would get people excited about the Derby and I am delighted with how it has turned out.

“It has generated plenty of page views and we will promote it through the week as we build up to the match on Saturday evening.

“The idea has plenty of potential too for other events – like a treasure hunt through Liverpool maybe – for other sports and in other formats such as a coded, embeddable game, but that is for the future.”