You moved to Southampton pretty soon after that. How did that come about?
I was playing for the Gippsland Falcons and the VIS at the time, but I was noticed by one of the many scouts who were at the World Youth Championships. A few teams were interested but Southampton were the only team that put in a concrete offer.

One of the other teams looking at me was Celtic and it’s funny to think how things might have turned out if I had gone there then. It might not have worked out. Myself and my father went over after the tournament in early December to train for a couple of days and they had a really impressive set-up.

It’s a big decision about where to go. You’re 16 years old, you’re leaving all your friends and family and uprooting your life. Even something like the schooling is different. All these things are big parts of moving overseas but even to this day I feel like I made the right decision and went to the right club.

I really enjoyed every single minute of it. They had the academy where all the boys lived together, there was a nice couple who looked after all of us, we had chefs who would cook for us. We didn’t need to lift a finger, we just had to play football. We were treated very well. There were two or three Australians at the club and that made it easier for me to settle in.

Your current boss Gordon Strachan let you go at Southampton, didn’t he?
I spent three or four years at Southampton under three different managers. I’d just got my Premier League debut under Stuart Gray who was in charge before Gordon and everything was looking on the up.

I got some good reviews in the local press as well so it was promising. So it was hard for me when Stuart left, I felt a huge disappointment. It was as if all that hard work had gone to waste and I would have to start from square one. It was difficult at that age to stamp your authority in the team and I wasn’t able to do that when Gordon was in charge.

The team wasn’t doing so well and he bought in a lot of experience to steady the team. And he was successful at Southampton.

To this day I don’t regret anything that happened and in a sense Gordon was right as it helped me grow up a lot more and it made me a stronger person. It gave me a better attitude too.

Did Gordon say anything about the fact he’d let you go when you signed for Celtic?
Not really. There were no hard feelings between us and I always made an effort to say hello to him when our teams were playing against each other in Scotland. I’d always say hello and it showed that I wasn’t holding any grudges.

It was disappointing at the time but there were no hard feelings. It’s part of football. The only difficult part for me was trying to find another club that would give you the chance to play and establish yourself.

Thankfully after a couple of stop-starts with Bournemouth and Wimbledon, I found that with Motherwell under Terry Butcher.

There were stories that you didn’t hit it off right away with Terry – you got a couple of hairdryer treatments. But he was the boss who really gave you your break, wasn’t he?
Yeah, I first met Terry after the U20 tournament when I went to trial with Motherwell. Of course I remember him with the bloody head band as an England legend but the man himself is so down to earth. It’s strange because you saw this guy who was a bit of a legend but he was just so level-headed and honest.

You kind of expect a trial to go for maybe two weeks before a decision is made, but after two days of training Terry turned around and said we want to sign you until the end of the season. And that just gave me the confidence that I needed at the time and from then on in I went from strength to strength.

I owe a lot to Terry Butcher for saving my career and seeing something in me as a player. That’s all I needed – just to get first team football on a regular basis and show people what I could do. I always believed that I was good enough but it was just getting that bit of luck.

As for the hairdryer treatment, I got a couple, but to be fair Terry was always fantastic with me. If he thought you weren’t working hard he would certainly let you know in no uncertain terms.

At Motherwell you scored a couple of goals that you will always be remembered for – two that beat Celtic on the last day of the season to hand the title to rival Rangers. That must have been awkward considering you’re a Celtic fan and you now play for them…
Thankfully, now that I play for Celtic that seems to have gone away. I think that everyone is just trying to forget about it and put it in the past, especially Celtic supporters.

I think you could say that I’ve had to win a few over after that and thankfully I’ve had a good start with the club that’s helped that situation. At the time I was gutted as I’m a Celtic fan.

It was a strange feeling because the first goal I’d scored was such a great goal. But I turned around and thought “Oh my God, what have I done here. Why am I celebrating? Everyone is going to kill me.”

But before I had time to think about it, I gone up their end and scored again. And then I thought, “Oh God, I’m not even going to get out of this stadium alive.” Everyone was in such shock at the end of the game about what had happened.

But despite my Dad being a Celtic fan my family were very proud of me because it was such a big occasion for me to turn it on. It was probably the start of bigger and better things for me and bought me to people’s attention a bit more. After that there was an eye on me a bit more.

When it was clear you were going to leave Motherwell, Rangers made bid for you which fell through. You said at the time that you were going to find it hard to “get over” it – did that cause any trouble for you after you then went to Celtic?
I’ve always been honest in what I say and maybe sometimes too much. I stated that I wanted to leave Motherwell and upset a lot of people at that time but I thought it was time for me to move on and take the next step in my career.

I didn’t expect that to be either Celtic or Rangers but when one or the other comes calling, you don’t want to turn it down. And at the time, Celtic weren’t interested – or at least I wasn’t aware they were – and I was thinking about winning trophies, playing in Europe and turning out for a club that has 40-50,000 fans at their games every match. When you put it in those terms there’s not much of a decision to be made.

But if you put the two in front of me I would always pick Celtic because that’s the team I support. But I always said that whoever I play for I will give 100 percent, and after Motherwell knocked back Rangers bid I was disappointed but I went out that Saturday and scored the winner for my team.

Even among Celtic fans, there were a lot of people who didn’t want the club to sign you. That’s got to be hard going to a new club knowing that?
I’m quite a confident young person and stuff like that I put on the back burner and don’t listen to. I didn’t need to read any forums to know that was going to be the attitude of some people.

Understandably they love their club and they can say what they want and hate me as much as they want to but I was paid by Motherwell to do a job and I didn’t owe anyone else anything when I played for them. I was only trying to make a name for myself and unfortunately for Celtic they got the brunt of that.

Obviously I knew that from day one at the club I had to do a little bit more to prove myself than other new signings might have to. But that spurs you on to work even harder and I think that happened.

I’ve had people question whether I’m a Celtic fan and saying that I’ve just said that because I’ve signed for them. But I know and my family know that I’m a fan and growing up a Celtic supporter has made me appreciate playing for the club a lot more.

I hope the fans now can see that I always give 100 percent and I always play for the jersey. People have asked me what’s my next step and would I want to play in the Premier League but at the moment, if I could stay here for the rest of my career and be successful then I’d be happy to do that.

What’s it like coming from Motherwell to a big club like Celtic?
I think I’ve adapted to the game here pretty well. But playing for Celtic is completely different to playing for Motherwell, no disrespect to my old team.

There’s a lot more pressure to perform and they pay a lot more money for players. And week-in, week-out you’re playing against teams that want to play well and beat you. If you play for the either of the Old Firm teams, it’s the one that other teams highlight as the one they want to do well in.

I’d been warned that as a Celtic player people were going to be playing hard and in your face not wanting to give you an inch. And that’s been true.

But I’ve found since first playing in Scotland that the quality has improved substantially and you can see that in the way that Scotland as a national team are performing now. There are some exceptional young players coming through and that’s thanks to the strength of the SPL and the buying power of some of the clubs as the game gets bigger.