Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Diamond in the rough
Roy wants to prove himself at Airdrie and progress
Ally Roy is the first to admit his career hasn’t taken him where he hoped, but intends to prove himself with Airdrie.
That can only be good news for fans of the New Broomfield club because the striker feels settled for the first time in a while, and intends to show everybody what he can do.
The 23-year-old, who extended his contract in June, also wants to give something back by coaching kids as part of his R10 Coaching side project.
Roy started his professional career at Hearts in 2014, but quickly found himself loaned out to East Stirling, Stenhousemuir and Dumbarton before a similar deal took him to Ireland and Sligo Rovers and then Derry City.
The pull of home was too strong to resist, and Roy was at Partick Thistle last year before making the move to home-town club Airdrie.
So journeyman Roy reckons he has a point to prove.
“It has been a bit up and down,” he said. “I’ve gone from playing for Hearts, going abroad and playing in the Europa League and stuff, playing for Northern Ireland Under-21s.
“I’ve had some highs and some low points at certain places, not getting the game- time that I wanted, and I just thought the best thing was to come back home to my local team, try and kick on from there, and get back up to where I personally know I should be.
“I think anybody who knows or has played with me would agree. I need to showcase my ability, put the performances on and then who knows what happens.”
Roy added: “Hearts was a bit of a weird one; I went there really young, I was given a chance in the first team probably earlier than I expected, and I didn’t really know how to handle it at the time.
“You just always want it again, and I ended up with a lot of loan spells and did well at times, but one of the things was that I had been at Hearts for so long but didn’t really feel like I was going to get into the team.
“I felt like I deserved an opportunity at times but there were a lot of big players at the time like Stevie Naismith, Kyle Lafferty and guys like that, and you know it’s hard to break through as a striker.
“It’s probably on me a bit, because I always wanted to play games at firstteam level. I could have stayed and been involved in the squad and hopefully get a couple of minutes here and there, but it wasn’t how I wanted to play.”
Roy aims to do well at New Broomfield this coming season and hopes they push for a place in the Championship.
He added: “It’s good for me to be able to play at Airdrie; it’s a good platform, and there is a lot of hype around the team this season, so hopefully we can kick on and do well for ourselves.
“Hopefully we can try and challenge for the title, get promoted, and for myself on a personal note I just want to have a good season, get or create goals, to go by defenders and enjoy playing football again, and just get that buzz.
“If you’re enjoying your football you’re going to play your best, that’s the way I see it, and I feel like if I can do that this season I can definitely showcase how good I can be.
“Hopefully I can show anybody who is watching, my team and the fans at Airdrie, how good I am and just how good I’m going to be for the club.”
On the coaching side, Roy said: “It’s brilliant, I love it. You see football from a different perspective. There are things I can pass on to kids, my knowledge from playing in different countries and at a high level, playing and scoring in Europe.
“If I can help any kid even one per cent and I see them go on and doing well for themselves, getting full-time contracts anywhere, I know I’ve done something right to help.”