Raith Rovers' Dougie Imrie: Me and several others made it to top in pro football after starting in junior ranks
Dougie Imrie is proof that players can shine in the upper reaches of Scottish football having cut their teeth at semi-professional level, with the former Lanark United star having gone on to play for Clyde, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Hamilton Accies (in two spells), St Mirren and Greenock Morton in a professional playing career spanning from 2006 to 2019.
And 43-year-old Imrie, who has since forged a successful coaching career with a spell at Livingston followed by managerial stints at Greenock Morton (for four years) and current side Raith Rovers, knows that several players within Scottish football have also gone on to star for some big clubs having initially plied their trades at non league level.
He told the Fife Free Press: “It’s not just myself who did it. There's other players, Kris Doolan played junior, Darian McKinnon played junior, the big fellow at Ayr United, the centre-back Luke McBeth was junior, Josh Fowler was junior at Beith.
"So there's players there, there's players in the juniors, it's just getting your eyes on them and them getting an opportunity.”
When asked if he ever scouts the junior market to look for new players, Imrie added: “It's difficult for me to get games, you know.
"Deryn Lang, who's playing at Dumbarton now, he was at Lanark a couple of years ago and got a move to Stranraer.
"So at times you look for contacts to give you names.
"There's been names given to me this season, not just in junior football but other competitions all over the country.
"So you're always looking but there's certainly players there that could make a step up.
"Whether they can make a step up straight away to the Championship I don’t know but certainly I'm sure they can build their way up through the leagues.
"Kai (Raith Rovers player Montagu) came from East Kilbride when they were Lowland League.
"So yeah, there's players out there. It's just trying to find them and then can they make the jump and can they deal with the day-to-day full-time football rather than being part-time?
"No disrespect to part-time players but they're only training maybe once a week and playing a Saturday so it’s demanding when they are then asked to train every day and the intensity of that. But there's players there, the evidence has shown that.”