The son of the former Scottish international midfielder Archie Gemmill, Scot Gemmill followed the tradition set by his father, appearing as he had done for Nottingham Forest and Scotland through the 1990s. A box-to-box midfielder with a good first touch, Gemmill was signed by Walter Smith on transfer deadline day in March 1999 for a cut-price fee of £200,000. If Evertonians feared they had bought a player whose star was on the wane, some of these concerns were allayed when, in one of his early games, at Newcastle, his sizzling 20-yard volley sealed an important victory that helped lift Everton from the relegation mire.

A useful squad player but with a tendency to drift out of games, Gemmill was to be a regular in Walter Smith’s faltering Everton sides at the start of the millennium. After the arrival of David Moyes in 2002 he became increasingly marginalised, not even making a single appearance in the final year of his contract. Gemmill subsequently played for Preston, Leicester City and Oxford United, concluding his career in the Australian A League with the New Zealand Knights.