Arbroath full-back Mark Baxter will be up against some familiar faces when Cowdenbeath visit the League leaders this weekend and having enjoyed three promotion successes with the Blue Brazil, the 26-year-old is well placed to assess the Red Lichties chances of achieving a similar success this time out.
Baxter said: “The Second Division table shows you how well things are going this season. We are the top goalscorers in Great Britain across the top eight divisions and that is not a bad achievement.
“This season was all about consolidation first for Arbroath and then anything above that would be a bonus but with nearly a quarter of the season gone, we are close to knowing that we are a match for any team on their day.
"We went to Brechin City last Saturday and did not play well but came back with a win which is a great sign. To stand tall in a local derby with a lot of our fans in attendance says a lot. You could see in the fans’ faces how much that win meant.”
Baxter’s first promotion success came with a Blue Brazil side that certainly knew their way to goal as well as he explained: “We had Mixu Paatelainen in charge and we scored 81 goals that season and scored four or more times against most of the sides in the division that season.
"This Arbroath side are on a par with that team going forward. Cowdenbeath had Liam Buchanan, Markus and Mikko Paatelainen, Armand One, Pat Clarke and Morgaro Gomis that season so it was quite a special season but Arbroath are like them going forward.”
Mixu Paatelainen had taken Baxter to Central Park from St. Johnstone and it is another Perth man that took him to Gayfield with former McDiarmid Park favourite, Paul Sheerin, recruiting him for his Third Division Champions.
Baxter said: “Paul's career and my own overlapped at St. Johnstone. I had gone there straight from school after being picked up playing for Kinnoul Boys Club. I was there for four seasons and I probably regret not fully taking the chance I had. You do not realise what you have when you are a full-time footballer but I played in some big games for Saints including a tie in the Scottish Cup against Celtic at Parkhead.
“The Manager was always quite a vocal character in the dressing room when I was with him at St. Johnstone and I had always assumed that he would go into management after he finished playing. Mixu was like that as well when he was at Perth, he was a big character about the club, and he is the reason I went to the Third Division when I left McDiarmid. I took the view that I was dropping down to bounce back.”
Dropping down and bouncing back higher would more accurately describe Baxter’s six seasons at the Blue Brazil as he went on a journey of Third Division to Second Division where they stayed for a season before dropping back to the Third Division and then they secured two successive promotions all the way to the First Division before dropping down again.
Baxter said: “Apart from the season we won the Third Division Championship and stayed up in the Second Division, we were always involved in the Play-Offs. It was certainly a good time to be at Cowdenbeath but winning the title and winning the Play-Off game up at Brechin City were the highlights.
“The key to that was probably the Managers with Mixu and Danny Lennon going onto bigger things, Brian Welsh finding his niche coaching younger players and, of course, we had Jimmy Nicholl in the First Division last season.”
One disappointing moment for Baxter and Cowdenbeath came in January 2006 when he was dismissed at his new Gayfield home as Arbroath defeated Cowdenbeath 4-1.
Baxter said, “I was actually sent off for arguing with an Arbroath fan about the ball. He threw the ball in my face and I was none too chuffed so I threw it back at him and the referee sent me off for it. Ian Mauchlen was brought on to provide cover in defence to make up for my absence and he soon joined me in the dressing room as he was sent off as well. We did score a goal all the same when we were down to 9 men.”
It is a case of letting bygones be bygones at Arbroath with Baxter saying, “When I signed for the club, the Chairman John Christison asked me if I had calmed down over the years and I told him that I had and he welcomed me on board.”
“Gavin Swankie scored for Arbroath that day and although we never linked up at St. Johnstone it is good to be playing with him now.”
It was the St Johnstone link that took Baxter north as he explained, “Paul Sheerin and I are both based near Perth and I would bump into him in the town and he would ask me about how things were going. This summer he asked me if I had thought about joining Arbroath and I said I would give it a go. I needed a change of scenery after 6 years at Cowdenbeath and it has been a pretty easy transition.”
“I am still playing at right back and I have settled in with a good bunch of lads. Our scores this season have shown how well we are doing. We have a really good squad with a pretty decent calibre of player and having a guy like Brian Kerr in the midfield shows you the depth we have.”
Baxter of course is a team-mate of Sheerin again and he said, “He is an important player to us and we will miss him if his knee injury that he picked up at Brechin last Saturday keeps him out for a wee while. He is not the fastest player in the squad but he has never been and he has done alright. It must be hard to be a player/ manager but he gets a lot of respect for the way he goes about it. It cannot be easy to hand over a lot of the management of the team on a Saturday afternoon to Stewart Petrie but he does that and that shows you the trust they have between them.”
“Winning the Third Division and winning six games so far in the Second Division would seem to indicate that they are getting the balance right. We have won 5 League games in a row as well and that is not easy in any league.”
Baxter’s old club visit his new club this weekend and the full back is looking to head into the international break on a high saying, “A sixth successive win would be great and would see us go into the break on a high so it would be really nice to win this game for that reason as well. Cowdenbeath are of course second in the table just now and winning would allow us to open up a five point gap on them which would be very welcome.”
“I have spoken to a few of the boys at Cowdenbeath and they will be up for this game just as much as we will be and I would be very surprised if this one finishes goalless.”
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