Born in
Buxton, Derbyshire, Higgins is the son of former
Bolton Wanderers's centre-back
John Higgins. Higgins represented England schoolboys prior to signing for Everton. Higgins joined
Everton as an apprentice and earned his first team debut for the Toffees on 5 October 1976. He made a total of 183 appearances for the club, scoring 6 goals. Higgins later picked up a severe injury, which forced him to temporarily retire from the game in May 1984. Defying all expectations, Higgins returned to the game 18 months later, when he joined
Manchester United for
£60,000 in December 1985. He made his Manchester United debut in a 2–0 home win over
Rochdale in the
FA Cup Third Round on 9 January 1986. However, he was unable to recover the form he had shown while with Everton and, after just eight appearances for United (six league, two cup), he was allowed to go on loan to
Bury in January 1987 before the transfer was made permanent in February 1987 for a fee of £10,000. At
Gigg Lane Higgins played 82 times for the club in three seasons before joining
Stoke City in September 1988. He played 37 times for Stoke in
1988–89 scoring once against
Chelsea. In
1989–90 he played nine times for Stoke before being released at the end of the season. He then joined
Burnley on trial but injured his back and decided to retire from playing. He now does stadium tours for Everton. ==Career statistics==