It is often said that ‘life is too short for regrets’ so Stirling Albion’s Shaun Dillon sums up his football career differently saying: “If I had known then what I know now, I would have done things differently.”
Dillon is referring to the early days of his career that were spent in the SPL at Kilmarnock and he said: “I spent six and a half years at Rugby Park and I loved it but looking back, I was a daft boy when I was there. If I had known then what I know now, I would trained harder and trained longer but at that age, you do not really appreciate what you have.
“You appreciate it later in life and if I could do things again, I would be the last player off the training pitch every single day. I would have worked harder at things but such is life. I am back playing senior football at Stirling and looking for them and me to have a great end to the season.”
The defender played more than 20 times for the Rugby Park men and enjoyed a loan spell at Morton before leaving the Ayrshire side for Queen of the South in January 2006. He then moved on to Stenhousemuir and Stranraer before dropping out of the senior ranks in 2008 to join top Junior side Irvine Meadow.
Dillon then moved from Ayrshire to Glasgow to play for Pollok and he remains a fan of the Junior game saying: “It was a good standard and a lot of the teams would hold their own in the SFL. Auchinleck Talbot and the Meadow have both shown in the senior Scottish Cup that the game at that level is of a far higher quality than the clubs get credit for.”
After deciding to leave Pollok in the summer, Dillon fancied another crack at life in the senior ranks and he ensured that his name was put forward to then Albion boss Jocky Scott as he looked to build up the club’s playing pool following relegation to the Second Division.
“I reckoned I had a lot of experience compared to some of the other players being looked at by the club,” said Dillon before adding, “I am a talker on the pitch and I went through for a trial match at the same time as Shaun Fagan, who I grew up playing against. We talked the young players that were there all the way through that game and I am sure that helped Jocky decide to sign us.”
Stirling began life as a Second Division club well with Dillon saying: “We won our first three games with a 3-1 success at Deveronvale in The Ramsdens Cup and then against East Fife and Dumbarton in the League. After that, we hit a bit of a slump.
“You can get inconsistencies with any new team especially one with a lot of young players adapting to life in the senioe game and we really only had myself, Shaun, Brian Allison and Marc McCulloch with any experience.”
With the club propping up the table, there was a parting of the ways with their management team with Dillon saying: “It was very sad when Jocky and his assistant John Blackley left the club but I have seen it in football a few times now and you just need to get on with things.
“Players are partly responsible for events like that and what made it worse was that I have hardly kicked a ball since October due to an ankle injury. There was not much I could do to help the cause.”
It looked like Albion missed Dillon as much as he missed them as he explained: “There was a really significant defeat for us against Arbroath as we lost a goal in injury time and that kept us at the foot of the table. We were holding a promotion chasing team and would have taken real confidence from getting a draw against them but losing that goal and in the manner we lost it when two crosses were allowed to come into our box was hard to take.
“Perhaps if we had some more experience on the pitch, things would have been different.”
In fact, Albion have lost three late goals to lose games 1-0 and the implications of that have not been lost on an upward looking Dillon who said: “If we had taken those three points and go on to win our two games in hand, we would be in a Play-Off place and that shows you how fortunes can change in this division.”
The optimism that Dillon shows has come about through the installation of centre back Greig McDonald as interim boss as he explained: “Hopefully, we are going to go and kick on after a great win in Greig’s first game in charge against Stenhousemuir. He has always been captain material and is a real leader and the players have responded well to him coming in."
McDonald’s approach was praised by Dillon who said: “Greig is an old head on young shoulders and has taken to his new role like a duck to water. He has handled the whole good cop/bad cop management techniques like it is second nature to him and the players have responded. He was respected straightaway and you have to give credit to the boys for how they have taken to it as well as these things can unsettle you at a club.”
Seeing how well McDonald has started off has tempted Dillon to consider getting involved in coaching as he explained: “When I was not able to train fully, I was helping Greig, Shaun and Marc take the training and it has whetted my appetite for being involved in coaching more in my career.
“My first job is to get back into the team but it is something I will look into a lot more.”
McDonald’s Stirling suffered five postponements and one abandonment before getting his managerial career off and running with the 2nd January win over The Warriors.
That was not the only sense of frustration Stirling have experienced with Dillon advising: “Including the Scottish Cup, we had seven defeats in a row and that wears you down. We played in a friendly against a Junior side just before New Year. We won that and we looked to build on that against Stenhousemuir.
“We had not played in five weeks and were dying for a game and any kind of positive result. We talked about how at this time of the year results are everything and how they matter more than performances but in fact, the boys put on a great performance.”
Albion are looking for a lift from that game to carry on when they get back to business this Saturday against Albion Rovers with Dillon saying: “To defeat your local neighbours in a derby game and to score a couple of great goals when doing so has given us a huge lift and we need to keep doing that. The win over Stenhousemuir will count for nothing if we go out and lose against Albion Rovers. A win and we pull them closer to us and that has to be our immediate aim.
“We have to be looking to get into the pack of clubs that sit in mid-table as soon as possible. You can go from chasing promotion to fighting relegation in a couple of results but that would be an improvement on where we have been.”
Despite the new found optimism at Stirling, Dillon knows that they cannot relax at Cliftonhill saying: “Albion Rovers are a really, really good side who we were very fortunate to draw with 2-2 at our place. We were two ahead in that game but they gave us a bit of a going over at times in that game. This will be a very tough game but if we play like we did against Stenhousemuir, then we have a chance.
“Win that one and the games in hand and things will be still looking really good here.”
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