He broke out of Wandsworth and has never looked back. Now he savours freedom and has rewarded his new employers with a string of displays which may yet get them out of jail after failing to win any major honours last season.
Paid to repel intruders, Jonathon Gould has done the job so successfully for Celtic that the goalkeeper has become a crucial member of the Premier Division's meanest defence. The Englishman whose father manages Wales has not only become a probable in Scotland's World Cup squad but a larger-than-life hero to Celtic fans waiting for their team's first league championship in 10 years.
A decade ago he was a frustrated teenager, working in a bank in London, yearning for a career in a game in which his father, Bobby, had attained distinction.
After taking A-levels, Gould joined the bank in his home town of Bristol and moved after a couple of years to what he believed would be a heady life in the City.
"It turned out to be Wandsworth High Street. Not entirely the glam life depicted in the movies and on the telly," he said. "It was stifling and I had to get out. I bolted and became a hydraulics engineer back in Bristol. But I was desperate to be a pro footballer and that is why I became a goalkeeper."
His father was manager of Wimbledon when the Crazy Gang beat Liverpool to win the FA Cup in 1988 and it was the intoxicaton of that experience that hardened his ambition.
Tomorrow's Old Firm showdown at Ibrox gives Celtic a chance to virtually eliminate their fiercest rivals from contention, as victory would give them a six-point lead with four matches remaining.
Considering he was 22 before he played in goal as a professional, Gould, now 29, has done exceptionally well. It seems typical of his character that he should flout convention. His journey even included 18 months in New Zealand playing semi-professional football.
"I realised I wouldn't make it as an outfield player," said Gould, "so I decided to go in goal. My first brush with the professional game was at Derby County where Arthur Cox allowed me to stay six months to learn at the feet of the master, Peter Shilton.
"That was invaluable. But I also had four years at Coventry City with Steve Ogrizovic. With him it was a case of working on technique day in, day out. I was fortunate in having the physique and the hands for the job, but learning quickly that eliminating errors is the most important aspect of this position is the key to the whole thing. I could hardly have had better tutors."
Gould had an unhappy 18 months at Bradford, where it quickly became clear that the manager, Chris Kamara, had no time for him. Having been in the Premiership with Coventry, the First and Second Division with Bradford and a spell in the Third Division at Halifax, Gould had played in all of the English divisions.
It was when Stewart Kerr was injured at the start of this season that Celtic's need for a back-up goalkeeper became evident. Jock Brown, the club's general manager, checked Gould's suitability with his brother Craig Brown, the Scotland coach, and Celtic's assistant manager Murdo MacLeod.
Gould qualifies for Scotland through his grandmother and Brown and MacLeod had worked with the goalkeeper at international get-togethers.
"Murdo and Craig gave me the nod and that was it," said Gould, who impressed so quickly that he soon became the first choice. "I had an idea that Celtic were a big club but, until you walk into this place, you can't realise that it's awesome.
"They've been playing good football here for over a century and, no matter how the personnel changes, that basic adherence to the old policy doesn't change.
"We have a great chance of winning the league and we go into this Rangers game full of confidence. Despite losing to Rangers in the Scottish Cup last Sunday, we know we outplayed them for an hour. We can do that again and the goals will come. There is a lot of conviction around here."
