Conor's love for football became apparent at that moment, and less then 10 years on childhood dreams of playing professional football have become a reality for the 16-year-old, who has signed a contract to join Aberdeen Football Club.
The youngster signed on the dotted line for the Scottish Premier League side earlier this month, when he was offered the step-up from the youth academy by Scotland legend, and now Director of Football at Aberdeen, Willie Miller.
Supported by the Berwickshire Sports Development Unit, Conor has been training with the Aberdeen youth academy for the last two years, making up to four trips every week to train in Edinburgh and Glasgow. But all that has paid off, and the former Berwickshire High School student has now moved up to Aberdeen to fullfill his new full-time contract with the club.
The Berwickshire Sports Development Unit supported Conor's progression to professional footballer by helping with expenses, such as funding a lot of his travelling costs.
"He was training twice a week in Edinburgh and twice a week in Glasgow so the travelling expenses from the Sports Development Unit really helped out," Conor's dad Tom Devaney explained.
And Conor's family are delighted with the latest development in his career. Tom said: "He's always wanted to be a professional footballer so we're really pleased.
"When he was seven he went missing, we found him at the football - he'd sneaked in to watch Berwick Rangers, so we took him every week after that!
"We went up to Aberdeen with him when he was offered the contract and they went through his signing on fee and wages. We went to one of their home games and were wined and dined up there, it's a great club. They really do give youths a chance."
The Dons have signed nine youth players on full-time contracts for the new season and the youngsters will automatically go into the Aberdeen FC Under-19 squad. Aberdeen youth coach Neil Cooper said that this was their chance to progress to the next level: "The scouts and the coaches have been working hard with these players to get them to the level where they are deemed good enough to be offered a full-time contract," he said. "This is the start of their path in the journey to get into the first team."
A number of the players, including Conor, have progressed from the Under-17 squad to sign full-time contracts.
"Moving up from the 17s to 19s is a big transition, but these players have a lot of potential," Cooper added.
Playing down signing for the Dons, who's first team finished fourth last season in the Scottish Premier League, Conor described the move as "alright", before conceding: "It's actually really good. It's been a bit of an adjustment moving up here but I'm really happy to be here. It's been good meeting all the team mates and getting into training."
And Conor is just about getting used to the vigorous training regime at the Premier League outfit. "We train every day, the first week was tiring but I'm getting used to it now, it's going well," he said.
The central midfielder's sights have now shifted a gear with dreams of one day turning out for his beloved Celtic. But for now the 16-year-old's feet are firmly on the ground at Aberdeen.