The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Brother silenced by whale of a tale
Now Jacko must stifle QOS hitman
Jackson Longridge is having a whale of a time at Dunfermline after finally rendering brother Louis speechless with his madcap plans for the future.
The siblings were interviewed for the recent live TV match against Partick Thistle and Jackson delighted in seeing Louis’ shellshocked reaction when they were asked about life after football.
Jackson spun a yarn about having been so taken by a demonstration by orcas on holiday that he wanted to train killer whales when he hung up his boots.
The 23-year-old was just pulling the interviewer’s leg, but insists it was worth it to flummox his older brother.
He explained: “I did say that, but I don’t really want to swim with orcas, I don’t think I’d be too good at that!
“I did go and see the orca show but it’s not something I’m interested in doing after football. Hopefully I’ll do some sort of coaching role instead.
“I just said that as a joke, but I think people thought I was serious and I’ve been getting messages about me training orcas. I was trying not to laugh because I knew I would have caught my brother off guard. He was looking at me.
“To be fair, I didn’t know where the story was going myself! I just kept saying it, and thought ‘where am I going with this?’. But that’s the first time I’ve seen my brother speechless.
“He usually doesn’t stop talking. In the changing room, you can’t get him to shut up and he’s always got something to come back with as well. When I saw him stutter, I thought ‘I’ve got him here’, and then he was gone. That’s the first time I’ve seen him like that.”
Having silenced his sibling, Longridge’s task this afternoon will be to help keep Stephen Dobbie and Queen of the South quiet.
Dobbie has kicked off the campaign in sensational form, scoring 24 times already in only 16 appearances.
But, having faced the former Rangers and Hibs striker with Livingston last season, the left-back believes he could have the answer to how best to tackle the on-form veteran.
With the Pars seeking to bounce back from last weekend’s penalty-kicks defeat to Alloa Athletic in the Irn-Bru Cup, he added: “I’ll just need to man-mark him!
“He’s a good player. I’ve played against him before and we’ll just need to keep an eye on him and try to stop him from scoring. He’s an experienced player and he’s done it throughout his career. He’s a really good player and a good finisher.
“We’ll just need to figure out a way of stopping him from scoring. I’ll just need to follow him about, I think!
“With Livingston, we had a guy manmarking him. Our tactics were spot-on against him because he couldn’t really get involved in the game.
“Personally, playing against him, you can see he’s an intelligent player. He’s smart and maybe he could be playing at a higher level.
“But he seems to be comfortable where he is. He’s found a place where he’s scoring a lot of goals and getting gametime. He’s a big asset for them.”