BACK FROM DEAD
Born-again Templeton nearly quit after injury
HAD things turned out differently, David Templeton might well have found himself working on a building site by now. The reality of being tossed on to the football scrapheap hit him like a ton of bricks.
In many ways the forgotten man of Scottish football, Templeton found himself scouring through job adverts — ‘real job’ adverts — after a succession of injury problems saw him released by Rangers last summer.
It was endless. Every time he neared a comeback, some other little niggle would set him back again. But it was a chronic knee problem that plagued him most of all and ultimately led to his departure from Ibrox.
How refreshing it was to see him back in action, making his first start of any description since a League Cup tie for Rangers against Peterhead in August 2015, and inspiring Hamilton to their biggest victory of the season.
For the 61 minutes he was on the pitch, Templeton was excellent.
By that point, Accies were 3-0 up and, on the basis of this performance, can be justifiably confident as they head into Thursday’s Premiership Play-off final first-leg against Dundee United at Tannadice.
‘Mentally, the last couple of years have been horrendous,’ said the 28-year-old, who, ironically, spent a few weeks training with United earlier this season as he sought to find a club.
‘For about 13 months, I didn’t know what the problem was. I was going to retire last summer. I was going to have to get a real job, just like everyone else who has to retire early.
‘Then I went to see Andrew Williams, a specialist in London, who put a camera in my knee and found the problem straight away.
‘The problem was a tear in the deep portion of my medial ligament. It took too long to figure out that’s what the problem was, but I’m glad it’s sorted now.
‘Every time I tried to come back, it felt like I was tearing it all over again. I tried injections, painkillers… you name it, I tried it.
‘I don’t know why it took as long to find it or sort it at Rangers. We tried a lot of different things which didn’t work. I didn’t know what the problem was until I visited Andrew.
‘It should have been sorted sooner and it’s mind-boggling that it wasn’t. Andrew is based in London. I went to see him last August and he said straight away he thought he knew what the issue is and he spotted the tear as soon as the camera went in.
‘I had to sort that and pay for it myself, which wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t care because all I wanted was to get back playing again.
‘Thankfully, it worked because this was the last throw of the dice. Andrew explained I would have no other options if this didn’t work.’
Templeton initially signed a short-term deal at Accies back in March but, so promising has his progress been, that the club have now tied him down on a contract until the end of next season.
‘I am delighted to be here and I want to do everything I possibly can over these next two games to ensure we stay in the Premiership,’ he added.
‘People maybe look at us as a small club and think it would be better to have Dundee United in the top flight, but we don’t care.
‘We feel we have a great chance if we play like this.’
Granted, Accies could hardly have wished for more obliging opponents than Dundee — whose interim manager Neil McCann said he felt ‘embarrassed’ by his side’s performance and hinted that he is unlikely to remain in the post next season despite having led them to survival.
Hamilton scored two goals in two minutes and, from that point, the game was effectively over as a contest.
Rakish Bingham poked home from close range to convert Mikey Devlin’s knockdown header.
A delightful flick from Templeton then allowed Giannis Skondras to thump an absolute peach into the top corner to make it 2-0 on 25 minutes.
A Dougie Imrie penalty, after a clumsy foul by Paul McGowan on Templeton, and an excellent counter-attacking goal finished off by Ali Crawford added some extra gloss to the scoreline in the second half as Accies hit cruise control.
Dundee skipper Darren O’Dea said: ‘We were lucky to be safe going into this game. We were miles off it.
‘It was a reality check that I didn’t need and anyone who has watched us all season didn’t need.
‘There have been far too many of these kind of performances this season. We can be good on our day, as we have shown, but we are far too inconsistent.’