The much-travelled Celtic forward first made his name with a wonder effort in the FA Cup at Barnet, during a spell on loan at Plymouth from Chelsea
It was quite the calling card. With his team a goal up but under the cosh against lower-league opposition, a 17-year-old with fewer than 50 minutes of first-team football to his name was summoned from the bench and proceeded to settle matters with his first senior goal. And how – seven or eight seconds of carefully controlled chaos, it was one of those show-stoppers worthy of a more prestigious platform, but many among the 5,204 present on that perishing January afternoon left the ground speaking of little else but the moment of improvised brilliance with which this hitherto unheard-of teenager had put the fourth round FA Cup tie beyond the home side.
A decade, a host of clubs and millions in earnings later, the boy who scored has grown up, spending several of the intervening years flitting between the shadows and the tabloid glare. He continues to enjoy what is by most standards a stellar football career as a much loved staple in a team of all-conquering champions. But despite his success, the prevailing and possibly unfair view seems to be that at the age of 28 his is a talent that remains resolutely unfulfilled. Only Scott Sinclair knows for certain when he felt happiest and most alive on a football pitch, but around 4.42pm on 27 January, 2007 at Underhill is probably as good a guess as any.
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Related: Golden Goal: Mick Ferguson for Coventry City v Norwich City (1984) | Simon Burnton
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