Colts star Winter: Goal milestone could be a nice way to bow out

Cumbernauld Colts frontman Sean Winter hit a 100-goal milestone in the Lowland League then admitted retirement is starting to cross his mind – even if he doesn’t intend to hang up his boots.

At 34, the former Stranraer and East Kilbride hit man says his body, family and work commitments will have the biggest say in his future, with football quite a bit further down the pecking order than it was 10 years ago.

Kids Rhys, 8, and one-year-old Isla are obviously a huge factor in Sean’s life, but he also now has more responsibility at work.

Winter admits he missed football during lockdown, so he’s not eager to walk away, but says he’ll assess it at the end of this season.

He said:“i wanted to come to Cumbernauld and try to continue to play as well as I know I can.

“I’m still not anywhere near as fit as I need to be, but at my age it’s getting harder and harder to try and keep myself in shape.

“I’ve got a boy at eight and a wee girl who’s just over a year old. I’m working full-time, and it’s hard to find the time to do your own stuff in between training.

“The main thing for me is that I wanted to get back playing, every week, get myself back scoring goals and doing what I enjoy doing.

“I’ve done that, it’s only November and I’ve got over 10 goals when we’re sitting third-or fourth-bottom of the league, so personally it’s going okay – but I would trade that for the team to do a bit better as well.”

Winter recently hit 100 goals in the Lowland League, a tally accrued during his spells at EK and Colts.

He started the season with 89 goals for East Kilbride, and notched his 11th with Colts in a 4-1 home defeat to Caledonian Braves.

And on reaching the milestone, he added:“when I joined Cumbernauld I always had it in the back of my mind, but that’s just a personal thing, the main thing is the team.

“But I knew I had 11 goals to get there, and now that I have it’s a good wee personal achievement – 100 goals at this level is decent.

“I had kept it to myself, and never really said much about it, but I got my goal and I thought‘this is a good wee achievement’.

“If this is my last year, then at least I’ve had a decent wee achievement to bow out on.

“We’ll see what happens. I can’t say whether or not I would retire at the end of the season, but there’s just that many things going on now that football has fell down the pecking order of priorities in my life.”

On Friday night Winter added to his goal tally when he climbed off the bench to score an extra-time winner from the penalty spot in their South Challenge Cup third round win over Tynecastle. Colts ran out 4-3 winners and the thrilling clash at Broadwood ended 3-3 after 90 minutes.

The ties in the fourth round, which have yet to be drawn, will be played in February 2022.

Goal-getter Colts’winter, left, has hit 100 goals during his time in the Lowland League