Resigned to a career on the footballing periphery Danny Williams can hardly believe his good fortune in finding himself preparing to take part in a Scottish Cup final at Hampden.
Like Jamie Vardy, his fellow product of non-league football who has just earned a placed in the England squad, however, the 27-year-old's emergence provides evidence of the calibre of player operating in that environment who boast the skill-sets and attitude to be capable of doing a job at a much higher level for those with the vision to see how they can best be utilised.
"I was playing non-league until I was 24 and didn't see this coming. I never expected this," admits the Inverness Caledonian Thistle left winger, who was signed by Terry Butcher two years ago.
"I was enjoying the non-league football with Chester and Kendal and thought that was me, but luckily I got out."
In the unlikely event that any of his team-mates quibble about the fact that Hampden is not full for tomorrow's final Williams will be able to offer perspective.
"When I was at FC United they were getting 5,000 and Chester also got a few, but at Kendal and Clitheroe it was two or three hundred," he noted.
"It sometimes helps being a late developer having chased buses down the motorway trying to catch the team when I played non-league. I think I worked hard and hopefully it shows on the pitch that I'm a bit of a grafter."
Whatever the turn-out tomorrow, then, there is a heightened sense of being part of a community in which something special is happening in footballing terms.
"We feel as if the city of Inverness is embracing the cup final and we are feeding off that," said Williams.
"I had a walk through the town the other day and saw our photos on buses and taxis and things like that and I've never seen that before anywhere I've been. So it's a big thing for me.
"The whole city has got behind us looking in shops and that. There's talk of 10,000 going to Hampden and it's big for us."
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