Annan Athletic midfielder Steven Sloan has been with the Galabank club every step of the way on its journey in The Scottish Football League that began in 2008 and he remains convinced that they can still take another big step and secure promotion this season.
Sloan was speaking after just a few hours sleep following a disappointing 3-0 midweek defeat from Elgin City that resulted in him returning home at quarter to four in the morning and he said: “We started the game really well but unfortunately, once Elgin scored they took confidence from it and they always looked like winners after it.
“We had a fantastic start to the season with seven wins in our opening eight games but we have dipped since then. We are all trying to figure out why it has happened as it is not as if we have even been playing that badly in games. It is perhaps inconsistency as we have had some great 45 minute displays followed by a disappointing 45 minutes.”
A 60 second spell in the Galabank side’s recent game at Peterhead has summed up their change in fortune with Sloan saying: “We were two goals up at half-time and then just a few minutes into the second half, I had a chance that hit their goalkeeper and then hit the post.
“They broke up the park and got a corner that they scored from. That got their tails up and we lost 3-2. Our last two games have been against sides going for promotion in Alloa and Elgin and we have not been that far away from either of them so there are plenty of reasons to believe that we can turn it around.”
Annan face another promotion chasing side this weekend when Stranraer come calling and Sloan said: “It is our third hard game in a week and they have good strikers, especially Craig Malcolm who needs watching constantly but it is a game we need to get something from. If we don’t, we are looking at climbing a big hill in terms of promotion.
“We might be on a disappointing run but everyone will want to play in a big game like this one. The spirit at Annan remains good and there is good banter among the boys.”
Sloan has been at Galabank long enough to know about the spirit as he has been there from their days in the East of Scotland League under Kenny Brown, after developing his career in the very different places of Dumfries and Melbourne.
The 27-year-old said: “I started my career with Queen of the South and came through the youth ranks there with Willie Gibson, Paul Burns and Scott Robertson. I come from Millhouse Bridge which is near Lockerbie and they were my local team. I signed for them before I had left school.”
Whilst Gibson, Burns and Robertson made a breakthrough at Palmerston, it never happened for Sloan who said: “I think I was there for seven seasons in total from the youth team up and I got on the bench once for the first team under John Connolly. It was disappointing not to feature more and of course, I felt I was not getting the same chance as the others.
“They went on to bigger and better things. It may have happened for me, it may not have happened but it would have been nice to get the chance.”
Sloan added: “Funnily enough, I bumped into Scott on Tuesday night as Partick were travelling up to Ross County and they stopped off at the same hotel we were at on our way to Elgin.”
After not making it in Dumfries, Sloan decided to take a year out to go travelling in Australia and whilst he saw a good bit of the country, he also played a fair amount of football.
“I had been thinking about it for a while and then just decided to go for it,” said Sloan before adding, “I was going to be based in the Melbourne area and through a stroke of luck, I ended up getting digs and a regular game.
“One of my pal’s uncle is Russell Black, who played for Dundee in the mid-80s as well as being a player at Sheffield United and Halifax Town, and he lives out there now. He allowed me to stay with him and I got a trial for a team called South Springdale.”
Sloan continued: “I played well in the trial match and despite getting crocked with a medial ligament injury that put me out for two months, I was given a season long deal. If anyone ever asks me about doing something like that, I would tell them to go for it.”
After his year living down under, Sloan returned to the family farm and football in Scotland as he explained: “I had been training with Annan before I left so I joined them when they were still in the East of Scotland League. Kenny Brown signed me and he was there for my first season before Harry Cairney came back in.”
It was a successful time as Sloan said: “We won the League in Harry’s first season and won a cup as well and we were denied a treble when we lost another Cup Final against Whitehill.”
Sloan was working with his Dad on the farm in the summer of 2008 when he heard the news Annan had been voted into the SFL and he said: “I was really chuffed to hear that news and even though I was on the bench when we played our first ALBA Challenge Cup tie against Clyde, I came on in the second half.”
Sloan was on the pitch when League history was made and he said: “I started when we played Cowdenbeath at Central Park and won 4-1. That was a great day and we have had a few other great days since.”
The midfielder grabbed his first SFL goal in their second home game and that remains the favourite of the ten goals he has scored as he said: “It was a last minute volley from the edge of the box and helped get us a 2-1 win so that was a great way to break that particular duck.”
Last season Sloan scored the winner at the home of football when Queen’s Park were beaten 1-0 in Annan’s first ever National Stadium win although that is not one of his favourites as he said: “Scoring at Hampden was great but it was a dreadful finish as the ball ran all the way down from my knee to shin before getting kicked in.”
Annan almost secured Second Division football at the end of last season as they finished fourth and defeated Alloa Athletic in the Play-Off Semi-Final only to go down 4-3 in aggregate to Albion Rovers in the Play-Off Final.
Sloan said: “I felt that we deserved to beat Alloa despite a couple of scares when they hit the post but we were disappointing in the first leg in Coatbridge. We lost the Play-Off in that first leg when we went down 3-1 and perhaps we were a bit naïve in that game as we kept on attacking at 2-1 down. We got caught out when we should have been playing it as a two legged game.
“We gave it a real go in the second leg but it was not to be.”
Sloan finished by saying: “There is still time for it to happen this season.”
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