I’d never swap City life to join a bigger team
Damned by the perception you’re only there because it’s always their choice, never yours.
The last resort. The graveyard of those once pros, sent down to the lower league’s salt mines, doomed to the idea that you’re so far gone, you have to actually do a day’s work before you get to play the game.
Rory McAllister laughs because it’s the choice he made, a decade ago this week.
A choice he kept making for the 10 years that followed every time the phone rang, trying to persuade him otherwise.
A choice that may not have earned him the fame and fortune kids grow up craving but ultimately brought him contentment and security, the game’s two most elusive qualities.
He insists there’s not one day of it he regrets.
Any other player with his goals to games ratio could, would, maybe should, have been playing top-flight football all along.
But since the day he and Caley Thistle parted by mutual consent at the end of January 2009, sick of the day-to-day drudge, fed up with the in-one-week, out-the-next uncertainty of life at the other end of the A96 from where he wanted to be, the 30-year-old striker has never enjoyed the game more than he does now.
His 253 goals in 469 appearances for Brechin and Peterhead are the ultimate endorsement of a career well spent, even if most look at it from the outside and think it should have been spent a few rungs up the ladder.
Long since a time-served plumber, though, the three-time PFA Player of the Year in his division is a long way from being misty-eyed and sentimental about the path not travelled.
He shrugs: “Why would I be? I don’t have any regrets.
“My friends probably have more regrets for me, I think. They always wanted me to go full-time again and show what I could do.
“But I’m never going to look back with what-ifs because I’ve had a good career.
“Actually a brilliant career, considering some guys don’t have careers in the game at all.”
Averaging 25 goals a season for 10 years marks McAllister down as one of the finest predators of his generation in the Scottish game. He’s the first to admit, though, that it was a slow burn before the fuse lit. He said: “I signed for Aberdeen full-time when
I was 16, the same day as Andy Considine. But it didn’t really pan out the way I wanted it to and I got released after a season, when I signed for Inverness.
“They’d just got promoted to the SPL for the first time. It was John Robertson who signed me, but I didn’t make my debut until the following season when Craig Brewster was in charge.
“I played more than 60 games for them in the top flight – which for a teenager doesn’t look bad, really – but I just never got a good run, maybe because I didn’t play well enough to stay in the team.
“I played my last game for them as a sub against St Mirren in the December, and then I rolled my ankle the Monday morning after it and did my ligaments.
“By the time I came back from that it was agreed that it was best if I moved on. I wasn’t enjoying football. I wasn’t playing every week, I was away from Aberdeen, so I didn’t think I had a lot to lose by trying part-time.
“I went to Queen of the South for a week’s trial and was offered a deal, but I didn’t fancy it.
“There was talk of Peterhead even back then, but they lost to Queen’s Park in the Scottish Cup with Celtic waiting for the winner, and it meant they didn’t have the money to offer me a deal!
“That’s when I signed for Brechin with Jim Duffy and things just clicked for me as a parttimer. I figured if I did well, I could jump back to full-time, but I ended up getting a job through Brechin with a plumbing company, and again it all just clicked.”
McAllister’s 58 goals in 96 games for Brechin earned him back to back Player of the Year awards from his fellow pros in the third tier, as the Glebe Park side missed out on promotion in the play-offs both years.
Performances like the one he put in to score a double and take Derek McInnes’ St Johnstone to a replay in the Scottish Cup earned him plenty of attention.
He said: “I spoke to the likes of Aberdeen, Motherwell, St Mirren and a couple of teams in England when I was leaving Brechin but it felt like none of it added up for me.
“I thought ‘why do it if it’s not right for you?’. I was loving playing parttime, living at home, I’d just met my wife to be, bought a house – and I was happy.
“I remember speaking to Aberdeen and they wanted me to go on a week-long trial. “I didn’t understand that. They were coming to watch me every week but they wanted to see me in training. “I just said ‘if you want
me, make me an offer’, I told them where to go, basically. That’s why I never ended up back there. ”
A year short of finishing his apprenticeship, McAllister moved to Peterhead and kept pouring on the goals on his nights and weekends, and securing his future by day.
Still the offers came, still they were rejected.
He recalled: “Hartlepool came in when Neale Cooper was manager but Peterhead didn’t want to sell me. Dundee United have made a few approaches over the years as well.
“So the chances to go back fulltime have been there.
“But the money United were offering two years ago, for example, I’m making more than that doing what I’m doing and I just thought, what’s the point?
“Very few guys at my age in fulltime football have the security that I feel right now - and I’ve never had my contract run down at Peterhead either. I’ve always been offered a two-year extension in my last year so I’ve never had to think about it for eight years.
“But I feel for the guys who get to the day their contract runs out and they’re told they’re done, left wondering what’s next. It’s hard.”
It’s easy to wonder if McAllister’s gifts in front of goal could have translated back up the divisions with the wisdom and maturity acquired since his early Caley Thistle days.
He insists, however, that he has no shortage of highlights to look back on when he’s done.
He said: “The three Player of the Year awards from the PFA mean a lot. “Scoring a winning goal at Ibrox for Peterhead when no-one gave us a hope was special, so was scoring five in a game away at Falkirk.
“That was part of the run to get to Hampden to play Rangers in the Challenge Cup Final, in front of 50,000 fans.
“Winning the league with Peterhead was good, getting to the quarters of the Scottish Cup with Brechin was a decent run.
“Maybe more important than any of that for me is that I’ve played with good guys in good teams.
“And I’m part of a club that looks after us really well, I play for a really good manager – I’m more than happy with what I’ve done.
“The game has changed a lot in 10 years, mind.
“I look at young boys now and they’re just a totally different breed to what we were.
“They just cannot take criticism, you can’t be hard on them at all these days.
“I remember when I was young you used to get battered, slaughtered – they’d never get away with that these days.
“I played amongst some pretty hardened senior pros at the time, older guys like Ross Tokely, Stuart Golabek, Barry Wilson, Grant Munro and while you maybe didn’t like all of them you certainly showed them a lot of respect.
“That respect for older pros has disappeared from the game.
“But whatever happens, you have to find your own path. “Do what’s good for you. If you enjoy being a part-time pro, do it. I know now that I prefer it but I had to find out for
myself.” Blair Henderson admits bad adv ice and poor decisions could have cost him a career in football.
The red-hot Edinburgh City st r iker is one of S c o t l a nd ’ s leading marksmen this season with 31 goals to his name so far.
He’s enjoying life as a part- time player as he combines playing with his day job in accountancy.
Henderson grew up at Hibs before moving to Dunfermline but insists he was wrongly advised as a kid. He said: “When I look back, I’d have probably done things differently.
“I was offered a full-time deal at Dunfermline and I decided not to take it.
“There were other things going on and bad decisions cost me.
“Things cou ld have been different but I have to stick by those decisions now.
“A big part of it was based on the opinion of someone else. When agents get involved, it can be difficult.
“I wish I’d made my own decisions and not had an agent there, pushing me into what he thought was best.
“Now, I look after my own affairs along with my dad, who gives me lots of good advice. That’s helped me a lot. I’ve made much better decisions lately.
“I’m a later bloomer. I’m a better player now than I was a few years ago.
“As soon as you get into the men’s game, it ’ s a different story. I had to toughen up.
“At this level, I have now become one of the experienced players.”
Henderson has been a re velat ion for James McDonaugh’s League Two leaders and is attracting interest from clubs like Dundee United.
But the 24-year-old insists it would take a major offer to prise him away from part-time football.
He said: “I work for a firm in Kelso and they are really flexible with me and my football.
“If I’ve got a midweek game, they let me leave early – even though I need to make the time up!
“It’s very difficult to be a footballer and have a day job at the same time. Speak to any par t- time player and they’ll say the same.
“Th e schedul e is s ome t h i n g which has to be looked into, to t r y a nd help the parttime players.
“We went to Inverness in the Cup before Christmas and some boys had to take two half- days – on the Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.
“That’s a full day off work just to get to a game.
“Now, it would be difficult for me to go full- time because I have a good job away from football.
“I ’ m enjoy ing it at Edinburgh City and it’s close to home so I’m not looking at moving on.
“There isn’t much money about in Scottish football any more.
“So if you’re at a part-time club, with a full-time wage away from the game, it’s hard for anyone to come in and make it worth your while – especially with a short-term deal.”