AS Mick Smith and Billy Horner put the Hartlepool United youth team through their paces on a summer's morning in August 1999, their session was briefly interrupted. Chief scout Tommy Miller wanted a word with a young, fresh-faced teenager named Adam Boyd.

"Adam get your gear, we're off," Miller said. "The manager wants you to travel with the rest of the squad, so forget training.

"You've got 30 minutes to get your stuff and meet the first-team squad."

So Boyd, with hardly any time for the call-up to sink in, quickly made his way to the changing room at Houghall College, Peterlee, picked up his belongings before being driven to his Hartlepool home by Miller.

After a quick change, a nervous Boyd made the journey to Wynyard services, in the passenger seat of Miller's car, where they met up with manager Chris Turner, his assistant Colin West and the rest of the party.

As the car pulled up alongside the team coach there was no one around; everyone had taken their seats for the long trip west to Shrewsbury for the Third Division match.

"I walked on to the bus and plonked myself on the first empty seat I could find," recalled Boyd. "I hardly said a word all the way down and when I did speak it was when I was spoken to.

"The lads on the coach were great.

"But as I was the young lad, the apprentice, I was made to make all the cups of tea and coffee for the whole journey."

While the older, more experienced pros in the Gary Strodder, Paul Stephenson and Gary Jones mould sat around a table playing the latest hand of cards, and magazines and newspapers were exchanged between Micky Barron, Tommy Miller and the rest, Boyd chose to sit alone.

Despite being just 16, Turner had selected him to travel with the seniors for the first time and that contrived to hand him the biggest confidence-booster of his burgeoning career.

He didn't even sit on the bench at Gay Meadow, but knew his time would come.

That steely confidence, that can come across as a shyness at times, is something he has never been short of.

Even in his earlier days at Grange Primary School he was ahead of his time.

As a talented seven-year-old, Boyd was asked, incredibly, to play for the school's Year Six side by his headmaster Brian Cross.

And he hardly missed a game in his remaining four years at Grange, even though he tended to hone his skills in the garden with his fanatical Pool-loving father, Terry, rather than with his friends.

"My dad was one of those who loved their son to play football," says Boyd. "I used to love kicking the ball around with my dad in the garden, in the street, or on the school field in my Puma Maradona boots."

Boyd has spoken to Mr Cross since signing professional terms and his former teacher has been to Victoria Park in the past to watch his old pupil star on the football pitch instead of the classroom.

That has also been the case with senior headmaster at Manor School of Technology, Alan White - who also taught Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper and former Magpies striker Paul Kitson at Easington Comprehensive.

"He rang me an hour ago," says Boyd, relaxing in his armchair watching Sky Sports news ahead of today's massive Division Two play-off semi-final first-leg with Bristol City. "He was great for that school when I was there and he still is now."

As well as enjoying his time playing for the school and town teams, it was his five years with Sunday side Hartlepool St Francis, under the watchful eye of Dennis Brown, that brought his game to a new level.

Led by Boyd's goals, St Francis scooped trophy after trophy in the respected Teesside Junior Alliance league, despite having to battle with teams well known for developing young talent, like Cleveland Juniors and Marton Boys.

And all those evenings spent at the town's Rossmere Sports Centre and at the Rift House Rec were rewarded when Middlesbrough called him to go for a trial.

Failure to convince Boro, during the Bryan Robson days, to take a gamble proved to be Pool's gain and there was no hesitation by his part as he signed terms at his hometown club, where he had spent many a Saturday afternoon watching league football.

The fans have taken to Boyd - the 12 goals in ten starts that have booked Pool's place in the play-offs this season will have gone a long way to receiving that respect. But it has not always been plain sailing.

His 25 goals in only 16 games for the youth team as an attacking midfielder - after being scouted by Malcolm Allison, who alerted Arsenal - ensured it was only a matter of time before Boyd was rewarded for his achievements and Turner handed him a three-year professional contract in the summer of 1999.

And tonight he will get to show how far he has come since then when Bristol City arrive in the North-East in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

"It will be a further chance for me to prove to people what I can do," says Boyd, the scorer of 23 goals in 34 starts for Pool.

"I'm confident in my ability and I believe I can play at a higher level. I want to do that and I want to help Hartlepool United get in the First Division - that would be fantastic."

When Neale Cooper took over at Pool last summer he took time to evaluate his squad.

After taking advice from assistant Martin Scott he arrived at the same conclusion about Boyd as his predecessors - 'gifted but needs to get his attitude right'.

After running out of patience with the player, Cooper allowed Boyd to move on loan to Boston earlier in the campaign and only a disagreement over a transfer fee stopped the striker from moving to York Street on a permanent basis.

"I would have been off," said Boyd.

"There's no doubt about that. The manager was willing to let me go for free, it was just the chairman who wanted money for me."

Suggestions are it was a five-figure fee being demanded by chairman Ken Hodroft. Boston were in no position to agree a deal and Boyd returned to Pool - 9lbs overweight.

"I worked hard to get myself fit," says Boyd. "Now I'm loving my football and I'm pleased that I'm finally getting a good run."

Teams in the First Division have cast an eye over Boyd since he hit form and it has already led to suggestions that he may follow Jon Stead's route to the Premiership.

Since Stead left Huddersfield for Blackburn in January in a £1m-plus deal he has forced his way into the England Under-21s and scored the goals that have kept Rovers in the top flight.

The last player to leave Pool in a big-money move was Tommy Miller in a £750,000 switch to Ipswich. Could Boyd become the club's first seven-figure sale?

"I don't know about that," said Boyd. But Cooper is in no doubt about the player's ability. "We have seen Jon Stead make his mark in the Premiership and Adam definitely has a chance," said the Scot.

"He has so much natural ability. When you work hard on top of that, who knows where you can go?"

The First Division with Pool would be a decent start.

Read more about Hartlepool here.