The invitation of a trial with Falkirk had seemed appealing at the time but, as he readied himself to journey north last summer, doubt began to encroach on his enthusiasm. He called upon the counsel on his stepmother before, his mind having been set at ease, he left his London home. "It's the best decision I've ever made," he said.
Given that he was speaking in the immediate aftermath of this William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final victory over Hamilton Academical, it should perhaps be scant surprise that the striker's assessment was so eulogistic. After all, the notion of playing in a national semi-final is still alien to a man who considers this his first season of full-time senior football.
Still, there is such an earnestness about Taylor that makes his positivity entirely plausible. And why wouldn't it be? Having endured a difficult few years in the Millwall youth set-up, the 22-year-old bounced around the English game before being wooed by Steven Pressley. Now, 25 goals later, he is preparing to play at Hampden and being asked on to Sportscene to talk about it.
"It's going to be the biggest game of my career," he said. "You know, coming up here was potentially a bit iffy; I was a bit anxious and worried because it's so far from home but it's worked out well, even if I still feel there is room for improvement in my game."
On Saturday afternoon, the only deficiency was in his finishing. Powerful, quick and technically adept, the rangy striker was a persistent pest at the apex of Falkirk's young side and offered an ideal outlet for their counter-attacking strategy. His loping runs stretched Hamilton and were complemented by his judicious link-play with a battalion of midfielders. That he spurned the one chance that came his way, crashing a shot against the crossbar after a probing run and clever wriggle into space, was the only disappointment.
As he spoke, though, he shifted uncomfortably, the legacy of Jonathan Page's petulant lunge which earned the Hamilton defender a red card. "It was a disgraceful tackle," Taylor said, this time ruthlessly finding the target. "He was off the ground and thankfully I saw him out of the corner of my eye and my foot wasn't planted. If it had been it could have been a leg-breaker. It's disgraceful that anyone thinks you can tackle like that, but I'll live."
Any suffering Taylor felt, however, was little compared to the mournfulness of those in the Hamilton camp. Billy Reid felt his side were, at least, worth a replay and it was hard to argue, particularly given Andy Ryan missed a glorious chance as the game neared its conclusion.
Instead of a first semi-final in 78 years, the home support were left only with regrets and anger. The latter was directed mainly towards referee Willie Collum for his failure to award two penalties – Reid, tellingly, was not moved to bemoan the decisions afterwards – but also, at times, at the manager for his tactics and even one another, one furious fan having taken exception to the appeals of another that he calm down.
Regardless, this was a third quarter-final defeat in seven years, and a fifth game without a win in all competitions.
"We had plenty of the ball and plenty of pressure but we just came up short," bemoaned midfielder Gary Fisher, who was the hosts' most effective performer. "If we'd got an equaliser we'd have had the momentum, then who knows what might have happened."
