Ready for work on a London building site at 7am and ready for a pint at 6pm, for Curtis Edwards the nearby Emirates Stadium was somewhere he simply passed on the train back home to Teesside.
That was less than three years ago. On Thursday night, the 24-year-old lines up for Swedish side Ostersunds against Arsenal in the Europa League.
In seven days' time he will have 50 of his friends and family inside the Emirates for the return leg.
Such a thought was unimaginable when Edwards was earning £400 per week as a labourer after a string of failed trials following his release by Middlesbrough.