Now the Scotland Under-21 boss hopes the next generation of tartan talent will thrive at St Mirren Park after a deal was struck that will see the young Scots play their Euro 2013 qualifiers at the home of the Buddies.

Stark will see his squad in action this afternoon when they face their Norwegian counterparts at Greenhill Road as they kick off their preparations for the start of the qualifying campaign next month.

Scotland will play Bulgaria, Austria, Holland and Luxembourg at St Mirren's recently-completed stadium, and former Love Street favourite Stark hopes it will prove home sweet home for his rising stars as they aim for a place at Israel 2013.

He said: "I think it makes sense. It is a terrific stadium. All the venues we have used in my time – Pittodrie, Easter Road, Falkirk, Firhill – we always get well looked after.

"It is something that was put forward as an idea and there was an interest from the clubs. St Mirren have won at the end of the day in terms of the package. It is good for the club and it is good for Scotland."

The match against Norway today gives Stark's babes the chance to shine before Craig Levein's full squad face Denmark at Hampden tonight.

After narrowly seeing his side miss out on a place at this summer's Euro finals following a play-off defeat to Iceland, Stark has high hopes that the future is bright for our national game.

Grant Adam is likely to start in goal today and the Scotland boss hopes the Rangers keeper can use the fairytale success story of brother Charlie as motivation to reach for the stars.

"It can only be a good thing for Grant, having Charlie as his brother," he said.

"There's maybe a bit of rivalry there between Grant and Charlie, to get one over on him. Equally, it's something for him to strive towards seeing Charlie progress the way he has done in the last few years."