For the love of the game

Interesting Times article on ex-Sons loan player Stephen Dobbie, who will appear for Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday 24 May, hoping to upset the Rangers applecart still further this season. He says he has fond (as well as less enticing) memories of his time at Dumbarton -- and might even return one day.

Dobbie is a footballer who lost his way; who went from rubbing shoulders with Barry Ferguson at training, to playing in front of 500 souls for Dumbarton in the Irn-Bru Scottish League third division. Now his stock is rising again, just like Queen of the South, and he is the perfect symbol for the first division side to prove that by upsetting the odds and leading them to their first significant honour in their 89-year history.

“I realised a lot of things about myself when I was at Dumbarton,” Dobbie, who has scored 24 goals in just 51 appearances for Queen of the South since joining them from St Johnstone in January 2007, said. “I went there on loan because I had been out with an injury at St Johnstone and needed games to get fit. Gerry McCabe had just taken over as manager of Dumbarton and he was the assistant manager when I had been at Hibernian.

“I really enjoyed my time at Dumbarton and maybe I’ll go back when I’m older, but I remember going to places like Stenhousemuir on a Wednesday night and thinking, no disrespect to Stenhousemuir, that I should be playing at a higher stage than this. Gerry was also on at me, saying that I should not be at that level.

“It taught me, however, that full-time footballers are lucky. At Dumbarton, I was sharing a dressing-room with part-time guys who turned up for training from their work on a building site. They are doing that for the love of the game and I took it all for granted.
-----------