DESPITE a playing career boasting two Wembley finals, five promotions and goals in the Premier League, one coach believes fortune played a major role in his new career.

As a player, Scott Green earned a reputation as a versatile and committed professional, making his name with Bolton Wanderers before spells with Wigan Athletic and Wrexham.

While with the Trotters, he featured in both the Coca-Cola Cup and Division One play-off finals in the 1994-5 season, as Bruce Rioch's team lost to Liverpool before beating Reading to climb to the top flight.

Thirty-one of his 591 senior appearances came against the likes of Alan Shearer and Dennis Bergkamp and in the same team as former Yeovil striker John McGinlay, before he sought pastures new at Wigan. Green headed for North Wales in 2003 but hung up his boots two years later.

The 42-year-old now finds himself at Huish Park, responsible for developing Yeovil Town's next generation of stars. Although now at home in his role, Green revealed he had to be patient and work hard for his break in coaching.

He said: "It was definitely something I wanted to get into because I felt I had all the right tools to do it. Even when I was playing I was taking my son's team at an early age. I felt that when the time was right I would have to step on to a different ladder and that was what I chose to do. It was a very slow process to get into full-time football again.

"I had a spell when I was not involved. I went into the non-League scene at Ashton United, which was a part-time job and then I went to Preston North End, doing similar to what I do here. I was a part-time coach with an age group.

"It is about being in the right place at the right time, I suppose. It is very similar to being a player and what you need is an opportunity to show people what you are capable of doing. That is my mentality, I would not ask friends for jobs and I like to earn everything on merit.

"When you look back and you think about the things you could potentially do when you are out of work you think 'I have been in an industry 20 years, why should I look elsewhere?' That was what kept me going.

"Football was what I knew, football was what I had been involved in since the age of seven, so why should I have gone into a different industry? That spurred me on to stick in it.

"I was in the right place at the right time for this role at Yeovil. I went on my UEFA A Licence with (former coach) Mo Hopkins and he had only known me two weeks, but saw the type of person I was and thought that me being an ex-player was the sort of person he wanted to bring to Yeovil Town."

Green described his playing career's successes as a "massive personal compliment".

"The high points are scoring in the Premier League (against Spurs, Chelsea and Blackburn) and I was lucky enough to have five promotions, so whatever club I went to we were successful," he said.

"It is a massive compliment for me when I look at it to think that whatever club I have been at I have achieved success. You sometimes wonder is it me and do I add that something else? I think I can do, whether it is the banter on the pitch or camaraderie in the dressing room, I think I added that."

Even though his playing days are long behind him, Green - who still features for Bolton's masters indoor team - said his next goal is to produce a first XI star at Huish Park.

The coach will soon be recommending candidates for the club's second set of youth graduates, after Rhys Baggridge, Rob Clowes and Lewis Clarke all earned deals last summer following two-year scholarships.

"The ultimate would be to see them out on the first team pitch, but as the youth team coach and head of youth I can only push them so far before they get taken away from me," said Green. "If you put it down as far as a job, I think have done what I have to do by putting them over that line in the first place but then the next year you have to do the same or better again."

YEOVIL Town are looking for households to home scholars. Those interested in accommodating either individuals or a pair should call Scott Green on 01935 847880.