The 20-year-old who stole the show on Scotland's World Cup return

It was far from a seamless move south, though, with the boy from North Ayrshire discovering football can be a lonely place when injured and away from home.

Then, he rediscovered God.

Brought up a Catholic, Gannon-Doak admits he "strayed away from it" for a while, before "hearing God call me, with an urge to get back into it".

"I just felt God calling me," the 20-year-old revealed in a film for BBC Scotland's A View from the Terrace earlier this year.

"I realised I started to feel a bit better and stronger and started coping better with things, and I just thought, 'Oh, that's not a coincidence'. I think that's the way it happened for me."

With God on his side, Gannon-Doak - who received a Bible from his gran - feels "strong and grounded" but it's something he practices in private.

"I'm praying before games, I read the Bible on my own - I won't really do that in the dressing room because there's a lot of different faiths in football.

"It's also just better to do it in private as you can really focus. A dressing room can be quite chaotic at times, but it's at the root of everything, including my football."

'He's what you want a Scotland player to be'

Though he's "not praying for hat-tricks", many would have been asking the man above for a favour or two as Scotland eyed up their first World Cup win in 36 years.

It was evident early doors against Haiti that if anything was going to happen, Gannon-Doak would be at the heart of it.

Keeping it simple, when he received the ball down the right, he looked to attack. A sight that makes Scotland supporters rejoice, such has been its rarity in recent times.

When McTominay skelped a post, it was on the end of another dazzling Gannon-Doak burst. He set up Che Adams shortly after for a shot that would be parried right in the path of McGinn, who was wheeling away in ecstasy seconds later as Scotland scored their first World Cup goal since 1998.

For 83 minutes, Gannon-Doak was the youngest man to appear at a World Cup for Scotland. That's until his 19-year-old pal Findlay Curtis came on.

The pair play in a care-free manner. They don't carry the years of missed qualifications or even the recent disappointments at the Euros. And it shows.

Gannon-Doak departed with 15 minutes to go against the Haitians. A collective gulp was inhaled.

"He had a cracker tonight," former Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on BBC Sportsound.

"He's what you want a Scotland player to be," added ex-captain Scott Brown on BBC One.

Like few others, Gannon-Doak gets the faithful going. Believing. Hoping.

Like the rest of his generation, we've grown up believing 'it's the hope that kills you', but with this 20-year-old driving the team, it's difficult not to.