IF there's somewhere to keep his feet on the ground, this is it.

Falkirk. A measly slice sandwiched uncomfortably between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a place where inferiority seems obligatory. Ask anyone how to get there and before the directions, there's an automatic "why?" In hindsight it becomes understandable and if it wasn't for Anthony Stokes, an answer would be slow to escape the lips.

At first glance, it's an unlikely destination for a player Liam Brady describes as "one of the brightest Irish prospects in many, many years". The club has never won the championship and last captured the Scottish Cup in 1957. Yet since joining on loan from Arsenal at the beginning of the season, Stokes has netted 11 times, lies in top spot in the Scottish Premier League scoring charts helped by back-to-back hat-tricks, has been young player of the month for the last two months, and has put pressure on Steve Staunton to make him part of the senior international set up.

But as he walks you to the press room at the club's newly-built stadium on the outskirts of town, it becomes obvious just why he chose this place. He begins talking of the convenience of a supermarket near his new home, about how this will be the first Christmas away from his real home back in Dublin and why that's going to make it tough.

The facts swallowed by an impressive season are quickly regurgitated. At 18, and living on his own for the first time, this is a player who is still finding his way not just in football, but in life.

"I was playing with the Dublin [Kennedy Cup] team and Liam Brady, he used to be involved and do a bit of the training with us. After a while he just said he was impressed and would I be interested in a trial at Arsenal and it more or less went from there. Fulham and a few clubs were interested. Liverpool and Manchester United were in too.

And I found it difficult enough, to be honest. There was a stage for about six months where there were offers every day. I'm not exaggerating, my dad [John] would be on the phone for five or six hours a day. Everyone was ringing and saying come over on trials. There was a different team that wanted me over every week and that got to me because I was in third year at the time, coming up to my Junior Cert, and I was trying to concentrate on school.

Obviously I was mad about football but up until the last few months before I finally went away, I was just another kid at home playing on a Saturday morning."

Eventually he chose Arsenal, for the set up but also because Brady would be overseeing the youth programme.

For Stokes, however, the more they tried to make it like home, the more they made him miss it. "I went over when I was just 15 and when you go first, you hear of so many people coming back over having not made it. After all your mates getting so excited, the last thing you want to do is come back having not been good enough. But after a while that wasn't what was getting to me. It's hard to explain, but for the first six months I thought about coming home an awful lot, regardless of what people might think back there and the chance I was passing up. It was hard being there. This will sound stupid but I just missed normal life, like going out with the lads after school and the usual stuff. It sounds like a dream to get to go to a club like Arsenal but that's not it. You miss home. But after the first six months you settle in and I loved it after that. I suppose the parents came over as well.

That was a permanent thing and that helped. I'd imagine they wanted to keep an eye on me but in the end it was about more than that and it made a big difference."

Within a year he had pushed his way past many of the others brought to Highbury from around the world.

Arsene Wenger has always said that as soon as a player shows signs of progression, throw them into the reserves.

From the fish tank into the sea. There was even the very first start for the seniors when he came on for the last couple of minutes of a Carling Cup tie with Sunderland. But that was it and once he'd eaten at the top table, scraps were no longer enough.

"When you make the reserves and can't push on, it is frustrating to an extent.

Obviously I want to play for the first team but if it doesn't happen at Arsenal, I'm sure it will happen somewhere else so I just have to try and keep improving. I just have to keep scoring goals and give the gaffer something to think about. But I needed first team football. I'm 18 now and I know I've three years left at Arsenal but the experience up here has been great. I've been scoring a lot of goals and I don't want to go back into the reserves. So that's why I'd no problem with coming out on loan.

"I'd been training with the first team since we came back for the start of the season and one day Wenger just pulled me aside and said, 'Look, I'm letting four or five of you go out on loan. With the squad I have there aren't going to be opportunities and I think it would be better for you. You want to play up front so go out, play up front and score as many goals as you can'. That was it, more or less. I didn't take it in a bad way because there were six of us that went out on loan this year and that's nearly all the young professionals at Arsenal and if he's saying it to all of us, it can't be bad. I wanted to get out and play first team football and this was it."

Colchester made an offer.

So did Sunderland but when he travelled to the north-east Niall Quinn couldn't promise games every week due to a long list of strikers. If he was going to sit on a bench, he might as well have stayed in London. Then there was Falkirk. There was game time.

There was a promise he would play up front, where he's always thought he could play at his best. There was a silky style of one-touch football that wasn't all that different to Arsenal, albeit at a lower level. And then there were Patrick Cregg and Stephen McDonnell too, friends he knew from the Irish set up. Friends he needed as much as first team football if he was going to make Brady's words come to life.

The call never came. There was one made to Falkirk alright but that was to let him know that he'd be part of the Ireland B squad for the previous night's game against a second-string Scotland. They might have been just as tough as San Marino but to use that as consolation is to miss the point. Alan Lee. Jonathan Douglas. Clinton Morrison.

They were all there for the senior game but after a blitz of goals, the reward for Stokes was a meaningless B outing in Dalymount less than 24 hours after he'd lined out against Hearts. By that stage all he'd ever heard from Staunton were second-hand comments on how he was now progressing, something he hadn't done at Arsenal in his three years there.

"I think he was wrong to say that because I always proved when I played with the Irish team I was doing well. I had some sort of a record, we played under-19 qualifiers for European Championships and I scored in every game. All the first and second phase qualifiers.

I've had a decent record when I was with Arsenal and things went well. I don't know how to put it. Different people have their own opinions. But a lot of the time I was with Arsenal I wasn't playing up front. I was in midfield, and although that's added to my game now, it was out of position so it's hard for anyone to judge me."

But you must have expected a call-up for the San Marino European Championship qualifier given that you'd scored six goals in the two previous games before the squad was announced?

"I think Steve has the right ideas. Despite my situation, I think he's started looking at younger players and he's right because there is so much talent in the country. Given a few years and a bit more experience we could have a great squad. He's been unlucky in some games and some of the performances left a bit to be desired. The Cyprus result was terrible but hopefully bringing in young players will help."

Don't the cases of Lee Carsley and Paul McShane suggest an inconsistency and a naivety though?

"People have to understand it's hard for him. It's his first job and he's going to make mistakes. It's tough and people don't realise that. I think it's unfair sometimes because if you don't get results it all comes down to the manager.

I've had terrible games and the manager gets the blame for the way I played. It should be me."

But was the San Marino game not the ideal time to give you a chance given the opposition and the way you were playing?

"Different people have different opinions."

And yours?

"Well, he'd [Staunton] had some bad results and he wanted to go out and just get a win under his belt. That was important for him so early in the campaign. If he'd gone into that game and not done well he would have got caned for it.

At least if he goes in with players he knows, he'll get a result that was badly needed. It would be hard on him to throw me in and then a bad result comes out of it. Then after people saying I should play, they all turn on him."

Yet you're very confident in everything you do, so you must have been expecting a call up?

"I'd love the opportunity to play for Ireland and I would have given my left arm to play in that game. Hopefully it'll happen in future. I am scoring goals and I think if I keep that up, hopefully I'll get the call up sooner rather than later. I've spoken to him briefly in the past. Not much, but he's been at a few of the games, like the underage Ireland games. But the decision is up to him. I think I'm ready, but I guess I'll have to be patient."

Was the call up to the B team any consolation?

"It was. . . I don't know. I wouldn't say it was pointless, but I had a game the night before so I was never going to really perform to the maximum. I played well enough though and, I guess, to be involved shows that he's showing an interest. He must have some idea of what I'm doing up here. Hopefully Staunton is watching a few games and I still keep scoring a few goals.

Like before the game Pat Devlin [who was in charge of the B team] said, 'You know the way Staunton is looking at this, so go out and make an impact'. For me that was a bit hard because I had a game the night before. Maybe, being honest, I think if you are at a bigger club, you have a better chance. But I just want to be positive about it. I want to represent my country, I'm dying to get my chance."

There were reports that Celtic had a bid of £700,000 rejected and that Arsenal would settle for no less than £1m. There was Celtic chief scout Ray Clarke admitting an interest in the Lucan-bred striker. Then there was Gordon Strachan's refusal to comment amid potential tapping-up accusations.

Stokes supported Celtic as a kid. He scored the goal that helped put them out of the CIS Cup this season. And now with the transfer window set to re-open in January. . .

"I heard something about that tapping up stuff with Strachan but I just try not to get involved. If it's going to happen, it will happen and there's no point in me thinking about it. Obviously Arsenal is my target because Arsenal is my club but there's no point in me going back if I'm not going to be playing and they'd be the first to say that. But the way I look at it is, there are three strikers that Arsene has who are out on loan and we are all scoring goals, so it's not going to happen that the three of us are going to go back and take Henry and Van Persie's places in the team.

One of us might be involved or get in the squad. I'd hope to have a good chance and play for them but you do have to be realistic.

"As well as that there's no point in me going out on loan anywhere else either because I'm comfortable here. I know there is talk about clubs coming in for me but Arsenal have said nothing about that. But if there's something permanent, I would consider it. Of course I would. But that's all the press have been asking, am I going here or there. I'm not bothered. And as far as I'm concerned it's them I'm contracted to and it's up to them."

For now, his feet remain clamped to the earth. But as he gives you a lift back through humble Falkirk in his BMW, you get a glimpse of a future that might not be so grounded.

NORTHERN LIGHTS: THE SPL'S IRISH STARS ANTHONY STOKES (Falkirk) Exploded onto the scene this year. Is top scorer in the SPL and at just 18 has won two Young Player of Month awards.

AIDEN McGEADY (Celtic) The midfielder (right) won Celtic Young Player of the Year last season and looks even better this time around. Won the SPL's Young Player of the Month for August and September and has six assists and three goals.

Martin O'Neill says he has "huge potential".

GARY DEMPSEY (Aberdeen) Now 25, his career looked to have hit the rocks this time last year. Not a favourite with the Aberdeen crowd, he went for trials at Doncaster Rovers.

However, in a remarkable turnaround he has become a regular in midfield as the club climbed to second in the table.

NOEL HUNT (Dundee United) Having won Dunfermline's Young Player of the Year in 2003, his career was disrupted by a knee injury. Sold for just £50,000 in the summer and, at 23, appears to have gotten back on track, scoring eight times already this season.

RICHIE FORAN (Motherwell) The 26-year old is enjoying his best season since his early days at Carlisle. Struggled for goals in the past but has already been on target six times this season.

DARREN O'DEA (Celtic) At 19, made his first league appearance earlier this month, just four days after coming on against Copenhagen in the Champions League. Can play on the left side or in the middle of defence.

TREVOR MOLLOY AND PAUL KEEGAN (Motherwell) Just signed from St. Pat's, striker Molloy (29) and midfielder Keegan (34) are due to make their debuts against Rangers on Tuesday, 2 January.