East Stirlingshire’s goalkeeper Calum Antell has been on a journey of discovery this season across Scotland and the biggest discovery is that he has handled the step-up from youth football to first team SFL action.
The Welsh youngster is visiting places and teams he had only heard of previously when results were being read out by the likes of James Alexander Gordon but he is enjoying every minute of his loan spell from Hibernian.
Antell said: “I have been on some treks up and down and across Scotland this season and been to places that I had never really heard of before. I have been up to the north of the country to play against Peterhead and Elgin and been down to the south to face Stranraer and Annan.
“And I have enjoyed every journey and every game although we took some heavy defeats earlier in the season.”
The 19-year-old joined The Shire in the summer on a loan deal until January to get competitive games under his belt and he said: “I did not know much about the three divisions of the SFL so when I got the chance to go and play for East Stirling, I was not sure about it. I went and spoke to the Goalkeeping Coach at Easter Road, Scott Thomson, and he told me to take the opportunity.”
Antell can be forgiven for not knowing too much about the three divisions of the IRN-BRU SFL Championship as he has spent more time playing football in Wales and England than he has in Scotland as he explained: “I was with Swansea for a six week trial period when I was playing at Under-15 level. I was not offered anything there so I moved onto Cardiff City for a year and then I spent nearly four years at Swindon Town.
“I got the chance to move to Hibs in the summer of 2010 when they were looking for a new youth goalkeeper and my former coach at Cardiff gave them my phone number. I came up and signed for two years and moved from the youth team to the senior squad last summer.”
Antell played for the Edinburgh side in the second half of a 3-0 win in a pre-season friendly against Berwick Rangers and then played in a 3-1 win against East Fife before getting the chance to join John Coughlin’s squad.
The shot-stopper said: “After my games for Hibs, I played in a friendly game for East Stirling and got the chance to join on loan for six months. I still train with Hibs every day and then train with The Shire on a Thursday night. Alex Connon, who works with us there, is a really good Goalkeeping Coach as well.”
Head Coach, John Coughlin, had to rebuild the Third Division side’s squad over the summer and his youngsters have endured several tough afternoons as they lost 10 games in a row at one stage and have also seen Clyde score seven times against them and Stranraer net half a dozen.
Despite these set-backs, Antell has received regular praise for his performances and he has done it with a smile on his face as he explained: “It is a big step up from youth football to the Third Division and we have had a few bad results along the way. It is hard for a young goalkeeper to take when you lose a few goals but I have had to learn to take it on the chin and move on.
“We have been showing better form over the past couple of months and have secured better results. Last weekend we were seconds away from beating a Stranraer side who are looking for promotion but lost a really unfortunate penalty in injury time. To be honest, we have had some bad luck and do not deserve to be seven points off the side in ninth place.”
One of the reasons that the results for The Shire have improved has been the introduction of new signings such as Antell’s Easter Road team-mate Lewis Horner who has been added to their midfield.
Antell said: “We have a couple of loan players that have helped us get some better results recently and it is great that Lewis is one of them. He is like me in that he needed games in a competitive environment and he scored his first ever senior goal against Stranraer last Saturday. It was a cracking goal and a real special moment for him. He was pretty chuffed in the dressing room afterwards.”
The highlight of Antell’s time at the club came back in October in the Scottish Cup Second Round tie against Highland League Champions Buckie Thistle at Ochilview. Andy Stirling had given the SFL side the lead with a fine solo goal however, Michael Hunter’s own goal levelled things and the game was still deadlocked deep into injury time.
The game exploded in the closing stages when Ryan Frances was sent off following a challenge on Buckie’s Chris Angus and team-mate David Cane followed him to leave The Shire two men down. It took a few minutes for the dust to settle and when it had, the shot-stopper faced Zander Sutherland from 12 yards out in what was going to be the final kick of the game. Sutherland shot to his left and Antell leapt cat-like to beat the ball away to save his side in more ways than one.
He explained: “That was a great penalty to save as not only did it get us a replay, I have been told that financially, it was huge to the club that we got through that round. We went up to Buckie the next week and won the replay.
“We did get beat by East Fife in the next round however, it still feels good to have played a part in getting us there.”
Hibernian officials were there to see Antell’s heroics as they have been several times this season and with his contract up at the end of this season, the goalkeeper is glad they are keeping tabs on him as he explained: “I have had someone watching me for most of my games and that is a good feeling. It will be down to the Manager what happens at the end of the season but coming here in the first place has helped me become a better goalkeeper. When the chance to stay on until the end of the season came about, I was delighted to stay on.”
Antell is hoping that his form does not only lead to an extended stay in Edinburgh but that it also helps him gain further recognition at international level.
He explained: “I have one Under-19 international cap from a game against Malta that ended 1-1. It was a great experience and I would really like to be called up at Under-21 level and I have two years left to do that.”
With the Six Nations Rugby Series now off and running and Scotland playing Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday, the Ebbw Vale youngster was asked if his ball handling skills could have been used at international level with an oval ball in rugby mad Wales and he jokingly replied: “My dad has played rugby all his life but I only played up to school level. I am not tough enough to play rugby every week.”
This weekend sees Antell and his team return to one of the grounds where their inexperience saw them beaten heavily as they face Clyde at a Broadwood ground they lost 7-1 at back in October.
The journey holds no fears with Antell saying: “We are going into this one with a bit more confidence as we have won one and drawn two of our last three games as opposed to the last time we were there when we were in the middle of a long losing run. We need the three points as we want to pull ourselves closer to the teams sitting above us.”
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