It would be fair to describe Stenhousemuir goalkeeper Callum Reidford’s career as having had a few ups and downs. However, a bit like the Warriors, brighter days lie ahead if Reidford and his team-mates can build on their recent solid performances that has seen only one goal conceded in 2013.
The Ochilview side will be tested at the home of Second Division leaders Queen of the South this weekend and Reidford said: “My season has had a few highs and lows already, as it started off well and then injury kept me out for a while. When I came back, I was inconsistent and so were the team but I have been playing behind a more settled defence recently.
“That has led to better form and three clean sheets in a row.”
Stenhousemuir started the season off looking like promotion Play-Off contenders but a lengthy injury list in the autumn hit them hard and they dropped off the pace with Reidford saying: “We had a bad run with people missing right through the spine of the team. I was out, Ross McMillan and Scott Buist were missing from defence, Eric Paton was out from our midfield and John Gemmell could not play up front. They all had lengthy spells out of the team.
“Things are settling now and we are getting better results. When we have everyone available, we have a lot of quality in our squad but the issue is that we do not have a great deal of quantity. We could do with a wee break in the second half of the season with less injuries happening.”
The impact of having quality available was seen last Saturday when Gemmell returned after nearly three months out due to an ankle injury and scored a fabulous goal in a 1-0 success over fellow Play-Off chasers Arbroath.
Reidford was pleased to see the summer signing from Albion Rovers back as he explained: “Big John came back and he came back with a bang. He scored a great winning goal and was his usual boisterous self about it afterwards.
“He does what he does very well and he has such a good shot that he will hit the ball from anywhere towards the goal.”
The Scotland Under-21 game with Greece this week which ended in a 1-1 draw had Reidford and Stenhousemuir fans taking an extra interest as one of their players from this season was involved albeit on the substitute’s bench.
Reidford explained: “Robbie Thomson came in for me on loan from Celtic when I was out injured. I was surprised when he was involved with Scotland but not because of any lack of ability. It came as a bit of surprise as he was thinking a goalkeeper from England was coming up for the Under-21 side.
“Robbie must be a good goalkeeper to have come this far through the Celtic youth system and he also showed during his spell with us that he has a lot of potential to do well in a first team environment.”
Reidford also had a loan spell at Dundee when he was a young keeper and he played four times for the Dark Blues whilst he was still on the books of Rangers.
Looking back on his career, it is something that Reidford wished he had done more of as he explained: “I came through the youth programme at Rangers and despite a host of great memories, I sometimes wonder if that was the best thing for me. It may have been better for me to get games elsewhere and built my career up that way.
“I learnt a lot there but when you consider I had Stefan Klos, Ronald Wattereus and Allan McGregor ahead of me, I was not going to play that often. The time I had at Dundee was my only taste of first team action until I left Rangers aged 21.”
Another shot-stopper at Ibrox at that time was Queen of the South’s Lee Robinson and the duo of former Ibrox kids will be in opposite goals this weekend when the Warriors travel down to face the Second Division leaders.
“Lee has all the attributes required to be a top class goalkeeper,” said Reidford before adding, “And it is good to see him settled at Palmerston. Of course, like most goalkeepers, he is a bit daft which helps.”
Reidford left Rangers for an unproductive spell at Dunfermline Athletic before heading to Clyde to get his stalling career started and he said: “I went to Broadwood as John Brown was the Manager there and I knew him from Rangers. It was certainly not about money, as I was on a very low wage there, but I needed games to put on my CV.
“At Dunfermline, where I was for one season, I was second choice to Paul Gallacher and I was never going to get playing ahead of him. Not playing there put me back a bit so I went to Clyde to get games.”
Reidford continued: “It was a good move for me in lots of ways as I played a lot and I got experience, although it was a disappointing season for Clyde. We had underperformed in the first half of the season and then tried to put that right in the January Transfer Window when money that had not been available suddenly became available.
“Adam Strachan came in as did William Kinniburgh and Aleksandrs Gramovics and if guys like that had been there at the start of the season, we would not have been near relegation. As it was, Clyde went down and they have never recovered to get a place in the Second Division.”
Reidford’s form despite Clyde’s poor season had impressed and he got a move to a higher level as he explained: “I moved on to Stirling Albion and playing in the First Division after they had been promoted as Second Division Champions. We had a slow start and then had a decent run which included a draw with Queen of the South, a 2-0 win at Raith Rovers, a draw with Dundee and a win over Partick Thistle.”
Bad luck hit Reidford’s team again as he said: “Injuries killed us after that as we never had a settled team with my boss at Stenhousemuir, Martyn Corrigan, missing as a player for a long time as was Ross Forsyth. Scott Buist, who is with me again at Stenhousemuir, also had a long spell out and Jonny Brown, who is now at Brechin, was another who was absent. That is a complete back four there.
“I never seemed to have the same defence and then come February, I missed two months after breaking my jaw against Raith Rovers. I came back for the last few games but by that time, our chances of staying up had gone.”
Life in the Second Division was not any kinder with Reidford saying: “Stirling went about things the same way Clyde had in that budgets were slashed for the new division and then everyone tried to rectify the position come January. We started playing a lot better in the New Year but the damage had been done by then. Again, I was left wondering why budgets had been done the way they were.”
Whilst the spells at Clyde and Stirling Albion had been frustrating results wise, they had been good in other ways with Reidford saying: “Because of where we were in the table, teams fancied their chances against us so they would come and have a go. As a result, I would make seven or eight saves in a game and that helped my profile.
“The only down side was that I had missed a good bit of the start of the season due to a cartilage problem in a knee. I was cursing my luck as that was two longish injuries in the space of six months when you would have been unfortunate to get both of them in your entire career.”
It is a case of onwards and upwards at Stenhousemuir with Reidford adding: “Despite being in seventh place, we have the promotion Play-Offs in sight as we are only three points off fourth. We had been playing good football but drawing games for a while when we should have been winning.
“We were not scoring the goals we deserved and hopefully, having John available again will help with that. If our squad can stay injury free and we go on a run of three or four wins then we will be in with a real shout.”
The Warriors squad has also been enhanced with the addition of the very experienced David Rowson from Partick Thistle after a short loan spell and Reidford said: “David brings experience to the side and is also very good at breaking things up for opposing teams. He played at a good level for a number of years and he is a very calming figure. Having someone of that stature can only help us.”
As for doing something that no-one else has done and win at Palmerston in the Second Division, Reidford said: “Queen of the South are deserved leaders and they have done as well as a full-time side in this division should be doing. Alloa have also been very good this season but I am confident that we can get closer to them both in the table.
“I missed the 2-2 game with Queens at their place through injury earlier this season and Robbie played in goal. We will go down there with nothing to fear as we have a good record in terms of raising our game in big matches this season.”
Reidford added: “We defeated Kilmarnock in The Scottish Communities League Cup to end their defence as holders and also ran Falkirk and Inverness Caledonian Thistle close in cup ties. It is our record against teams in the bottom half of the table this season that has cost us not the ones in the top half.
“Hopefully, it is all about moving up the way from here.”
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