Back to the Highlands.. not before Formartine
Lawson gets boss role after return to roots
“Now I’m managing in it. I’ve already had a few texts asking if I can match my dad’s feats – so we’ll see.
“When I was eight and nine years old those Huntly boys were my heroes. I’d watch them every Saturday.
“I remember signing for Celtic and sitting in the changing room.
“They’d all be talking about going to Celtic Park every week.
“And I’d be, ‘ Well I went to Christie Park every week!’
“But watching Huntly meant the same to me as watching Celtic did for them.
“I would never change that. It has stood me in good stead for my professional career as well as my management career now.”
Lawson was the classic rainbow chaser at a big club as a kid.
He believed the pot of football gold was just around every corner but found it further out of reach the closer he got.
Training every day under Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan with Henrik Larsson, Shunsuke Nakamura and Stan Petrov, life was good.
But one start and three appearances off the bench by the age of 23 eventually made him realise he was playing at it, not living it.
He said: “I was chasing the dream. I snuck onto the bench a couple of times under O’Neill.
“After that I was in and around the first team, training with them every day, part of Gordon Strachan’s squad.
“I was clinging on to the hope of making it. But ultimately I wasn’t good enough to play in that team.
“I wouldn’t change anything in the sense that I was fortunate enough to still have a good career.
“My only regret is that I had a chance to go on loan at Morton when I was 18 or 19 – but turned it down.
“It was only when I eventually went out on loan to St Johnstone when I was 22 that I really felt like a footballer.
“I was preparing for a game on a Saturday afternoon instead of playing on a Tuesday afternoon in front of no-one at Airdrie in an Under-20s game. That’s the biggest thing in the game. I’ve tried to say that to boys down the years since. Go out and play real football.
“It doesn’t matter what level, you’ll still learn more from it.
“My granda always used to drum it into me. No matter what profession you’re in, you want to learn with the best.
“And I believe I did that, I learned at the best club in the country. You speak to boys who are mad Celtic fans and they’ll tell you their hero is Henrik.
“I can tell them I trained with him every day.
“That’s something I wouldn’t change but I would have done other things slightly differently.
“We’re all brilliant in hindsight though, eh?”
Lawson’s new job is al l about foresight though.
Admitted to the Highland League eight years ago, Formartine United – based in Pitmedden on Aberdeen’s periphery – have invested heavily under chairman Atholl Cadger.
But by Lawson’s own admission, despite finishing second in the league twice in the past five years, he feels they’ve underachieved.
Before he took the job he wanted assurances there was still ambition to be a senior side at the club’s core.
He has heard all the rumours since the play-offs kicked in that the Highland League sides were in their comfort zone and didn’t want the hassle of a national profile.
But as a player for six years with Ross County, he has seen the benefits of a side prepared to do the graft to get to the top from humble beginnings.
He said: “I joined County in the third tier – the old Second Division – and got all the way up to the Premier League with them.
“So I’ve seen a club do it the hard way from the Highland League up.
“Look at them now. They’re a mainstay in the top f light. No one would have believed that 15 years ago.
“The way they’ve restructured the leagues now, it’s there to be done.
“It’s a conversation I had with the chairman, whether they’re ambitious enough to go for promotion and get into the league – and he is.
“That was important to me. I’ve heard all the accusations.
“They’ve been thrown at a couple of the Highland League teams recently