Some players experience a metaphorical ‘journey’ to make it in football – for Keith Bray, the travelling has been literal.
Growing up in the small village of Tong on the Isle of Lewis, Bray had to clock up thousands of miles to become a professional.
The promising youngster and family members endured arduous ten-hour round trips by ferry and road just to play for Inverness Caley Thistle at youth level.
Spotted by the Highlanders aged 11, it was nearly five years before the teenager moved to the mainland permanently.
In between times, he would train at home on Lewis and only head to Inverness at the weekend for matches.
With his breakthrough season with the Caley Jags earning him his move to Dunfermline, he can now look back and appreciate that all the gruelling mileage was worthwhile.
“From age 12 to 16, I would have five-hour journeys and ten-hour round trips just to play a game on a Sunday or a Saturday,” he said.
“I didn’t train with Inverness. Probably, I only trained a handful of sessions before my first first-team training session, which is not normal at all.
“I would always just play on the weekends and train on the island through the week.
“And then when I did move, it was all new to me and there wasn’t too much travelling after that.
Bray: ‘It was all worth it in the end’
“Well, I say that, we still had three-hour trips down to [the central belt to] play games.
“So, I’ve been used to all this travelling since I was young and I just had to kind of get through it.
“But, it kind of shows that it was all worth it in the end
“Getting up at six in the morning and travelling all that way just to play a game of football. It was definitely all worth it.
“All that investment my parents had in me – travelling, hotels, B&Bs, buses, all of that, it all has kind of worked out.”
Bray caught the eye with Inverness last season when he netted 11 goals in helping to keep the administration-hit Highlanders safe in League One.
Signed by Dunfermline in January, the 19-year-old stayed in the north on loan and is determined to now kick-start his time with the Pars.
Having proved his versatility with Caley Thistle, it remains to be seen where Fifers boss Neil Lennon will see the youngster’s future.
But what is certain is it will not be in his original position.
Bray: ‘My dad, the coach, told me to’
“I got scouted as a goalkeeper when I was 11,” he explains. “I was playing for a Western Isles select team and we were playing against Inverness and Ross County, and Orkney and Shetland in a wee competition in Orkney.
“And, for my trial, I asked, ‘will I go put my gloves on’ and they said, ‘no’.
“So, I think they knew that I wasn’t a goalkeeper. But I just had to play in there for a game because my dad, Keith, the coach, told me to.
“So, I didn’t have an option in that – but it all worked out well.”
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