As blood spurted from his shattered nose and taunts rained down from the ramshackle terraces, Ross Stewart felt his love of football reignited.
Having been discarded by professional clubs, the striker's confidence wasn't the only thing that took a battering as he turned to the junior game to rescue his fledgling career.
It proved the making of Stewart, who was then a raw and gangly 18-year-old and now, seven years later, is a prolific forward whose barrage of goals for promotion-chasing Sunderland in English League One have thrust him into the Scotland squad.
It's been an unconventional route to prominence for the Ayrshireman, who turned out for local junior clubs Ardeer Thistle and Kilwinning Rangers after several unsuccessful years in the pro youth system with St Mirren, Celtic and latterly Partick Thistle.