Dumbarton’s bustling busy midfielder Kevin Nicoll has covered miles and miles on the pitches of the Second Division this season however, he has been travelling even further just to take part in the Sons' promotion push via the Play-Offs.
Nicoll’s work has taken him to the Highlands for the past three months and he has been juggling work and football to play on Saturdays and in midweek against Arbroath in the Play-Off Semi-Final and then Airdrie United in the Final.
The 25-year-old former Stranraer player said: “I have been coming down from Inverness for midweek games by train. On Wednesday for the first leg, I left Inverness at lunchtime, got home for a really quick bite to eat and then out of the door for my football.”
“I was up early for the 7.00 train the next morning and it was the same last week against Arbroath. It is pretty hard going but that’s what you need to do when you are a part-time footballer.”
Nicoll will have more time to relax for Sunday’s meeting at the Excelsior Stadium that his side head into 2-1 in front as he explained, “I am coming back down the road on Friday afternoon so I will be able to relax at home that night and the Saturday night. The kick off on Sunday is an hour later than a normal weekend game so I will be pretty chilled by kick off time.”
The former Stranraer player is not only a bright spark on the pitch as his work as a specialist electrician takes him all over the UK and sometimes even trains, planes and automobiles cannot get him to games as he explained, “My spell up north ironically ends this week but I will be away somewhere again soon. I work for ASDA and I can go anywhere in the UK where they have a presence.”
“They try and keep me close but sometimes I am in places where I simply cannot make training or matches. I think we had 5 midweek games and I missed a couple of them but I was really determined not to miss the Play-Offs and hence the 300 mile round trip.”
Travelling to be in the promotion Play-Offs was not at the forefront of Nicoll’s mind when he signed for Alan Adamson’s side at the beginning of the season as he explained, “To be honest being in the Play-Offs for the First Division was not really discussed when I joined. You always want to finish as high as you can but we went on a great run at the start of this year to get there.”
“Runs like that create a wonderful belief and spirit and that is what Dumbarton have.”
The combative Nicoll’s last club was Stranraer and it could well be a promotion double with the Blues two goals ahead of Albion Rovers after their first leg meeting for a place in the second Division.
Nicoll said, “A Dumbarton and Stranraer double would be great as I still have a few pals playing down there but I also have a soft spot for Albion Rovers as I played a season there back in 2006. I had been at Hamilton for 4 years before that, 2 as a part-timer and 2 as a full-timer after coming through the Pro Youth set up at Clyde.”
Wednesday’s night game was a great advert for SFL football and Nicoll enjoyed being slap bang in the middle of things as he said, “It was an incredible end to end game and it must have been a great game to watch for the fans. It had a bit of everything and I really enjoyed getting stuck into things in midfield.”
“That is the way I play as it is my job to break up our opponents play and let Scott Agnew to set up attacks for us.”
Nicoll also enjoys his role in what Manager Adamson describes as ‘being Tony Wallace’s big brother’ as he guides the youngster through the early stages of his career.
“The boss is always saying I am Tony’s big brother as we play in similar roles and have similar builds. He likes me to nurture him through games but now he has outdone me and has scored twice in the Play-Offs with his goals against Arbroath and Airdrie.”
Nicoll added, “I have only scored once this season so it looks like he will need to show me what to do now.”
“Hopefully we can both score at Airdrie.”
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