Plymouth Argyle: Paul Sturrock was proved right with £110k signing of future Cardiff City star | OneFootball

Craig Noone went on to have a top career after the Pilgrims plucked him from non-league

Delving into non-league to find a hidden gem can have mixed results, and every Football League club will have their own tales to tell from giving a part-time star a shot at becoming the real deal.

That phenomenon reached a peak when Jamie Vardy went all the way from playing with Stocksbridge Park Steels to winning the Premier League with Leicester City, with every club in England seemingly scanning below the fourth tier for talent ever since.

But Plymouth Argyle had their own star that they plucked from obscurity long before Vardy was setting the King Power Stadium alight, with Craig Noone making the four-tier jump to join the Greens in 2008.

The wide man went on to have an illustrious career in the EFL after signing from National League North side Southport, with Paul Sturrock seeing his potential at an early age.

Paul Sturrock jumps at the opportunity to sign Craig Noone from the sixth tier

Noone’s rise through the football pyramid was rapid; having only joined Southport a matter of weeks before moving to Devon, after initially stepping up from fellow non-league side Burscough.

With his searing pace and wicked delivery into the penalty area, the Liverpudlian was as raw as they come, but at a fee in the region of £110,000, he would prove to be an absolute bargain for the Pilgrims, as he developed into a fully-fledged EFL talent.

Noone could barely believe it himself, having gone from roofing Steven Gerrard’s house to being a professional footballer within a matter of months: "It's the move of a lifetime. It's just sinking in now that I'm going to be full time,” he told the club website, via the BBC.

One man that could believe it was Sturrock, who knew he had a top talent on his hands, and it wouldn’t be long before he was taking the second tier by storm.

The Argyle boss said at the time: “I am very excited by this signing. Craig comes to us with a glowing reputation. It is now up to him to prove that it is merited.

"He has an opportunity to impress me and force his way into my thinking. Whether he takes that is up to him.

"I see him as one for the future, but if he shows me he can make the step up to the Championship the door is open for him."

In many ways Noone was the perfect Sturrock player; bombing down the wings, and whipping inch-perfect deliveries in for the strikers in the box.

It is how the Scot had developed his legendary status at Home Park in his first stint as boss, where he had led the Greens to two promotions in three seasons, as they clambered from the fourth tier to the second, before he left for Premier League Southampton.

Having returned three and a half years later, the mantra was still the same, with Noone getting sporadic minutes during his first few months at the club, as he continued to bed into life in his new full-time career.

A first-ever professional goal was just around the corner, as he came off the bench to bamboozle Coventry City away from home, with his pacer and fleet-footedness sending goalkeepers and defenders sprawling, before sliding the ball home to claim the winner in a 1-0 victory.

The wide man seemed to be absolutely electric, and despite seeing plenty of promise, Sturrock made the decision to line the wide man to local neighbours Exeter City for the start of the following campaign, before coming back to help a side who were battling promotion in the second tier.

While the Pilgrims were falling on hard times from a financial point of view, they were calling out for something fresh and energetic on the flanks to take the game to the opposition, but try as he might, Noone was stuck on the bench waiting for his chance.

With just three starts in the 09/10 relegation campaign, the speedster could only watch on as the Devon outfit were relegated from the second tier, before getting the chance to thrive while back in League One, where he had nine goal contributions before the turn of the year.

Had they managed to keep hold of Noone for the remainder of the season, there is every chance Argyle would have avoided a second-straight relegation that year, but with the club falling on hard times, it was inevitable that he was heading out the exit door come January.

Craig Noone achieves Premier League dream after Plymouth Argyle departure

Plymouth Argyle’s loss was very much Brighton and Hove Albion’s gain during those dark days at Home Park, with striker Ashley Barnes joining the Seagulls in the summer of 2010 before Noone made the move along the south coast the following January.

A fee of £300,000 was said to have done the deal, which was a profit for Argyle, but everyone knew the winger was worth a whole lot more, but the Greens were hardly in a position to be bartering.

With their new man on the wings, Albion were soon celebrating promotion to the Championship, where Noone got the chance to excel once again, as he continued to run defenders ragged in the second tier, now he was given the opportunity to do so.

Before long, the winger was one of the most sought-after players in the Football League, with Cardiff City reportedly paying £1 million for his services in the summer of 2012.

Lo and behold, Noone repeated the trick with the Bluebirds and earned promotion to the Premier League in his first full season with the club, contributing towards 16 league goals in the process, and earning hero status in the Welsh capital.

With over 150 appearances in the top two tiers for City, and a further 60 matches for Bolton Wanderers, Paul Sturrock’s prediction had come true for Noone, even if the Scot barely gave him any game time himself.

There will be plenty of Argyle fans that will wonder what might have been if their winger was given the chance to impress at a younger age, or even if he stayed during that doomed League One campaign, where the world was crumbling around their feet.

Nevertheless, the Greens gave the Liverpudlian the chance to step up from the part-time game, and he took it with both hands, and lived every footballer’s dream in doing so.