It's a measure of the Fulton footballing dynasty that the man who started it all - legendary goalscorer Norrie - could deemed as its lesser light.

That statement is likely to be scoffed at by Junior supporters up and down the country and particularly those who followed Johnstone Burgh, Petershill and Pollok in the 1970's and early 1980's when chunky striker Norrie was at his playing peak.

Yet the man himself, nowadays coming up fast on his 65th birthday, comes across as unassuming to a fault and at his happiest when talking up what son Stevie and grandsons Jay, Dale and Tyler have achieved in the game.

Stevie's somewhat chequered career at Celtic, Bolton, Hearts, Falkirk and Kilmarrnock has been well documented but emerging as talents in their own right are Stirling Albion's Dale, former Falkirk player Tyler and 20-year-old Jay who has recently broken into the Swansea first team.

Norrie was born in Luton and was still a baby when his family moved back up the road to Greenock where he attended St Mungo's Secondary and played for a league-winning school team at Under 13 level.

Leaving school at 15, he turned out for St Mungo's Boys' Guild for a few seasons where he caught the eye of Largs Thistle manager Davie Baxter and was enticed into joining a Barrfields side whose star turn - and Norrie's travelling companion - was Billy Ritchie, later to sign for St Johnstone.

Failing to hold down a regular jersey led to the disillusioned 19-year-old briefly returning to Boys' Guild football prior to then joining Port Glasgow where he recalls good times playing under Willie McFarlane and sharing a dressing room alongside the likes of Joe O'Hagan, Junior Allan, Dennis O'Donnell and Ian Law for the next two years.

His scoring form for the Port led to Senior interest from Queen of the South but manager Harold Davis, formerly of Rangers, was sacked before a contract offer was put on the table.

No such ill luck befell Johnstone Burgh boss Willie Morton who swooped to sign Norrie and Port team-mate O'Hagan in 1972 and the striker came to prominence with a barrowload of goals for a strong Keanie Park side containing Nicol House, Pat Smyth and Stevie Howie that came up just short in the silverware stakes. He recalls: "I played with the Burgh for four years and might have stayed longer but for those great Junior characters Jack McCartney and Tam Young persuading me to throw in my lot with their Petershill team.

"They had to break the Junior transfer record before the Burgh would let me go but Jack always said I more than repaid that fee with the goals I scored for the Peasy over the next four years.

"I loved my time through in Springburn playing for a great club with great supporters and truly outstanding players in George Adams, Dougie Friedman, Gus McLeod, Willie Henderson and not forgetting my close friend, Roddy Gordon, who was tragically killed in a car crash when I was away playing for Junior Scotland in Ireland.

"Looking back I find it astonishing to think that Peasy team won nothing other than the Red Hackle Sectional League Cup in my time there because I remember on more than one occasion feeling we were certainties to win the Scottish Junior Cup, but unfortunately we came a cropper three years on the trot at the quarter-final stage."

McCartney's departure led to that terrific Peasy side breaking up and Norrie headed for the exit gates to be reunited with ex-coach Young who yet again had to break the Junior transfer record to bring the hitman across the city to Pollok.

He made an inauspicious beginning to his 1979 stint on the Southside, firing blanks against East Kilbride Thistle and St Anthony's before the derisory chants of Benburb fans decrying him as a "waste of money" sparked a brilliant five-goal riposte as he rediscovered his shooting boots

Norrie soon established himself as a fans' favourite supplying the cutting edge to Jim Mullaney and Alex McVake's creative skills while backed up by fearsome ball-winners Tommy Carberry and John Towie.

He went on to win every silverware prize with the exception of the West of Scotland Cup and assured himself of Newlandsfield legendary status by netting the only goal of the game to secure Pollok a first ever Scottish Junior Cup success in 1981 with a 1-0 Hampden Park defeat of arch foes Arthurlie.

He went on: "I was lucky enough to win 20 caps for Junior Scotland but for my money Mick Hepburn from that Pollok team along with the Petershill pair of Adams and Henderson are three of the best Juniors I ever played with."

With his playing days coming to an end, Norrie briefly moved into the Lok dugout to assist Young in a player/coach capacity before hanging up the boots to take over as Largs manager for an all-too-brief spell.

He said: "I was running a public house in Greenock back then and Steven's career was just taking off so the demands on my time were just too much to handle, so rather aptly my Junior football days ended at the same club where it all started."