Nile Ranger, the one-time wunderkind who fell from grace, was back at center stage on Saturday night after helping Kettering stun neighbors and rivals Northampton in round one of the FA Cup.

The 33-year-old former Newcastle striker rose highest to head a winner as the seventh-tier Poppies came from behind to beat their League One rivals and defy a 79-place gulf in the pyramid.

Ranger, who was once in the Premier League with the Magpies and has also played for the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Blackpool, last year claimed he would be as good as Erling Haaland if he played his cards right in his career.

But a number of off-field issues have distracted from his football and he is now lining up for Kettering, though grabbed headlines for the right reasons on Saturday.

The achievement was a far cry from previous arrests and other off-field problems that he has struggled with away from football.

Having featured for the likes of Crystal Palace and Southampton in his youth career, Ranger joined the Newcastle Academy and went on to play 62 times for the club, including 26 times in the Premier League.

Elsewhere, he has also struggled with a lack of discipline and saw the dream of a professional contract at Southampton ended when he stole a significant amount of kit from the club and was subsequently kicked out.

Meanwhile, when he was at Newcastle, Ranger developed a gambling addiction that got out of hand, before interventions from chairman Mike Ashley and then-managing director Derek Llambias, along with his mother.

A Connor Johnson own goal had put Northampton in front in Saturday's game, but Luca Miller leveled before Ranger sent the 1,500 traveling fans wild. 'This is so special,' said Ranger, a former £10,000-a-week prodigy at St James's Park.

Ranger said: 'I'm trying to be humble. I've gone down a level to show I'm hungry and that I can still do it.'