THE careers of Paul Lambert and Ricky Gillies provide the perfect illustration that precociousness can work in two ways.

Both arrived at St Mirren as 16-yearolds, but while Lambert's talent has blossomed, Gillies will look back on an unfulfilled life as a footballer.

The Celtic and Scotland midfielder is, at 35, the elder by seven years and in his last season before moving into management. Almost everything about his playing career has been distinguished, whereas Gillies, although still only 28, is facing a premature end to his in Division One.

On Wednesday night, at Love Street, Lambert and Gillies will face each other for the latter's testimonial match with Celtic the opponents. An interested spectator, and early mentor of both players, will be Tony Fitzpatrick, the former St Mirren manager.

"They had very similar abilities although they are different kinds of players, " said Fitzpatrick, who is now in charge of youth development at Livingston. "Paul chose the right road and Ricky chose the wrong one."

If that sounds harsh, Fitzpatrick doesn't mean it to be. As a top-quality player himself, he rues the fact that the talent of Gillies hasn't flourished.

"I had very high hopes for him, and I think he's been very unfortunate throughout his career, " he said. "With no disrespect to Aberdeen, he made the wrong move when he decided to leave St Mirren for them [in 1997].

"They were a club on the way down.

Ricky was down at Liverpool for a week and impressed them, while Newcastle were among those also interested.

"Liverpool wanted to sign him. I spoke to Roy Evans, who was their manager then, and he was keen.

Kenny Dalglish wanted to sign him for Newcastle. But when neither of them took him there and then, Aberdeen came in with the right money.

"I told Ricky to hold on, but it was easy for me to say and he was young and anxious to move. He probably thought the whole transfer thing might slip, so his reasoning was that he could make the move to Aberdeen and then move from there if he wanted." For Gillies, who at Anfield on his week's trial had trained alongside Steve McManaman, Stan Collymore and Robbie Fowler, the move to Aberdeen turned into a disaster. At the time he was playing for the Scotland under-21 side and the manager, Tommy Craig, was assistant to Roy Aitken at Pittodrie. Three months later, Aitken was sacked.

Gillies has since said that his time at Pittodrie, both on and off the pitch, was a nightmare.

Aitken was replaced by Alex Miller, who in turn gave way to short terms for Keith Burkinshaw and Paul Hegarty before the equally disastrous reign of Ebbe Skovdahl kicked in.

Throughout this three-year turbulence, Gillies was frequently injured and infrequently picked - which in turn, he has said, led to abuse from some fans when he took his wife, Kate, out.

Gillies was loaned back to St Mirren in March, 2000, and helped Tom Hendrie's side win promotion before the deal was made permanent.

At one point in his career, after Gillies had starred for Scotland under-21s against Italy, Fitzpatrick rather injudiciously said that his player was good enough to play for AC Milan.

Does he regret the prediction?

"I also made the assumption years ago that Paul Lambert would be a pounds-1m player and I got slaughtered for it, " he said. "Once you play and work with a player you see their full potential.

"I always thought Ricky could play at the really top level. In that under-21 game against Italy he was by far the best player on the park. I said afterwards that he was capable of playing on any stage - whether it was Rangers, Celtic or AC Milan. I feel sorry for him - he's the type who could have played at a very high level. He was fantastic for me at St Mirren. He had a very good left foot, a very good right, was good in the air, very quick, could tackle, and had a football brain. There's not much more you can have, and he had the lot.

"It's his misfortune that he played in struggling teams. He just took the wrong turns in life, but that happens.

He's played at a decent level, but I just cringe at times because what Paul Lambert has done Ricky could have done."

As well as marking Gillies' 10-year service to the club, St Mirren fans will have the opportunity to see Lambert play his last game at the ground.

The Celtic midfielder played in the Scottish Cup-winning side of 1987 before leaving for Motherwell and Borussia Dortmund.