Brechin City midfielder Garry Brady is delighted that he pushed his first thoughts of retirement to the back of his mind this summer, although his son Ben is disappointed that his Dad cannot always watch him in action as a result.
Brady, who started his career at Tottenham Hotspur 18 years ago, said: “I left St. Mirren at the end of last season and after not featuring regularly, it crossed my mind for the first time to retire from playing. Before I did anything about it, big Kevin McGowne had got in touch and I was speaking about playing again.
“Kevin is the Assistant Manager to Jim Weir at Glebe Park and I knew him from his time at St. Mirren. People were telling me not to give my playing days up as I would regret it and the view I took was that if my body could take it, I would keep on playing."
Brady added: “Moving part-time for the first time in my career also suited me as full-time training would have been too much after nearly 20 years of playing. That move made things a wee bit easier and whilst you think you can keep playing for ever, you cannot really.”
Brady is already glad to have kept on playing saying: “I am pleased to be at Brechin and, whilst results wise, we have a bit to improve on, it is early days and we will push on throughout the rest of the season.
“We have not played as well as we can yet and could have done better in certain games but I was only one of a number of new players to come in during the summer and it takes time to gel.”
As well as Brady, other players to sign up for Manager Weir and don red and white colours for the first time were Scott Buist, Derek Carcary, David Crawford, Mick Dunlop, Jim Lister, David McClune, Paul McManus, Scott Smith and Graham Weir.
With that level of recruitment, it is no surprise that Brechin are not firing on all cylinders yet according to Brady who said: “There are a lot of new faces and it takes you time to get used to each other and used to the Manager. We were all hoping for a better start and being seven points behind the leaders is not what we hoped for at this stage but we are improving and there is a lot to come.
“We are getting draws just now although we are not playing well so hopefully, when we move up a couple of gears, we will go on a run of wins. I see my role as helping guys like my former St. Mirren team-mate Craig ‘Tiger’ Molloy develop and also help push the side towards promotion. I have never secured a promotion before so it is an exciting prospect for me as well to see us push for that once we gel.”
Brady’s move to part-time football is allowing him to concentrate on his family just now as he explained: “Playing part-time is taking a bit of getting used to as I am training at night time whereas, I have trained during the day throughout the rest of my career.
"I am not working anywhere else at the moment so I have been getting back into the real world as it has been a wee while since I started off down in England.
“It has been good to have a life that has more than football in it now and I have been enjoying spending time with Ben when he comes home from school. He is seven and beginning to show an interest in football now which is quite good as I have been careful not to force it on him.”
After years of going to see his Dad play, the tables are getting turned with Brady senior saying: “St. Mirren was right on our doorstep so he would come and see me there but a combination of his own football and the two hour drive to Brechin means that he does not get to see me play just now. To be honest, he is more annoyed about me not seeing him play than the other way round.”
Life now seems a long way from the glamour of the English Premiership where Brady started at White Hart Lane as he explained: “That all seems a long time ago but I am really fortunate to have started my career where I did. I played and trained with the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann, Teddy Sheringham and Gary Mabbutt.
"I did take it a bit for granted but it was still great at the time although I was a tad homesick after a while.”
The midfielder made nine appearances for Spurs before heading almost home when he signed for Kenny Dalglish at Newcastle United.
It was to prove to be an unsettling time with Brady saying: “Kenny signed me but one or two games later, he was gone. Ruud Gullit came in and he did not stay too long and my memories of that time were that the club went through a lot of Managers and coaches.
“I never really got established at Newcastle and I could have done better I suppose but I also could have done worse and it did not help that someone was always getting sacked there.”
A further nine appearances were made in top flight English football before Brady headed for Norwich City on loan and he then decided to give living down south another go when he joined Portsmouth in 2001 however, that was only to last a season.
Brady returned north to join Dundee and he is glad that he did saying: “It was good to get back home and when you consider all but one season since then has been in the SPL, I cannot grumble.”
Brady’s move to Brechin looked to have set up four intriguing Brady v Brady Angus derby contests in the Second Division this season as younger brother Darren was in the Forfar Athletic squad however, it will not take place after Darren moved to Pollok Juniors.
The elder sibling said: “Darren had suffered a cruciate injury that had kept him out for a year and despite getting over that, he decided to go Junior. I can understand why as he is working as a postman now and if you combined that with going up to Forfar two nights a week for training, it would be hard on his knee.
“It would be a four hour journey which on top of training and walking miles every day would be too much for him. He is happy to be playing at Junior level and it is just one of those things that we never got to face each other competitively.”
The brothers did meet on a few occasions with Brady saying: “When I was at St. Mirren, I played against him a few times in friendlies when he was at Partick Thistle but I am not sure who has the upper hand.”
League leaders Arbroath visit Glebe Park this weekend and Brady is hoping that this is the game where Brechin start showing the potential they have in their locker as he said: “We are at the stage now where we know each other much better and it is time to start producing results but Arbroath are flying high so it will be a tough game. It is a derby game and should be a good one but it will be a tight affair as all the games in this division usually are.
“We can all take points off each other but although I have not played in the SFL much, I know it is like that in all three SFL divisions. I am enjoying it and I reckon I will be enjoying it more soon.”
