GIVEN his perch on the Premier League pedestal over the past week, it is unsurprising that Matt Ritchie has no qualms over his career path to date.

Seven days ago, that goal did as much to signal the Scotland winger’s intent on the ultimate stage as anything he may achieve with the Tartan Army.

With one sumptuous chest down and shot, his name was lit up in a way that must have seemed unlikely, even unbelievable to those who recall his early days.

After being cast to the sidelines by his boyhood club, getting relegated from England’s third tier three months after signing permanently elsewhere and spending more than four years trying to navigate a way through the lower leagues, top billing on Match of the Day must have seemed a distant prospect, surely?

Not for Ritchie...

“I always believed because if you don’t, nobody will,” he said.

“I had a taste of the Premier League at Portsmouth when I was 20. Avram Grant gave me a chance in the season the club got relegated. He played me at Wigan and felt like I held my own. That gave me great confidence.

“From that day, it didn’t quite pan out how I had hoped. I had to go back down the leagues to work my way up but luckily enough, I am now a Premier League footballer at a fantastic club that is still moving forward.

“I have no regrets in my career whatsoever. The way things have panned out probably gave me the desire I had to have to get to where I am today.”

Naturally, there were low points.

Alongside defender Joel Ward, now with Crystal Palace, Ritchie trialled at Cherries, then managed by Kevin Bond, in the summer of 2008. Ward was taken on loan but Ritchie got sent back.

“I was 18 and came to try to gain some experience with the first team. It was very good, it showed me how all clubs are different,” he added.

“From what I remember, I think they could only sign a certain number of players and wanted to strengthen certain areas.

“Wardy signed that season and did really well but they couldn’t take both of us. I didn’t quite fit the bill but that’s football.”

The dream of doing battle with the elite for his club was reignited as rookie Ritchie walked the few hundred yards home after wowing the locals with a pre-season hat-trick at Gosport Borough.

Ritchie set about earning his Pompey bow with a loan spell laden with 12 goals at League Two Dagenham & Redbridge and followed that with temporary stints at Notts County and Swindon.

But under a new boss, his opportunity to instigate a Portsmouth renaissance quickly got curtailed, prompting the most testing period of his career so far.

“I started the first six games in the Championship and the manager then, Steve Cotterill, brought in more experienced players,” said Ritchie. “I ended up on the bench and going on loan to Swindon where I signed in the January.

“We were 16th in the league at the time with a very good squad. No one ever thought the club would get relegated but it happened and that was a time in my career where I thought ‘have I done the right thing here?’

“But I believe that once you have made a decision, you have to stick with it. Only hard work can get you out of bad situations.”

Or create good ones, a canny knack Ritchie reckons Cherries possess with most of his colleagues, and his boss, having clambered up a similar slope to stardom.

“I think it is something that runs through the football club,” he said. “From the manager and throughout the squad, nobody has been chucked straight into the Premier League, we have all had to graft and show grit and determination to get where we are.”