Published: Tuesday, 8th July, 2008 10:32
No longer the six minute man
By David Christie
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Ross Clark
Pic by: Joe Mulgrew
RECENT arrival Ross Clark has more reason than most to fear his Dumbarton debut.
The midfielder joined the club from Alloa on a free transfer last month.
And while he is not going to suffer from stage fright if given the nod in August, the 25-year-old is still haunted by his first ever appearance for the wasps.
Clark had moved from Queen’s Park, but was forced off just six minutes into his debut two years ago in the opening day clash with Cowdenbeath.
Torn ankle ligaments meant a lengthy lay-off and ruined his hopes of a flying start at his new club.
He said: “It was a bad injury and, to put it mildly, it was not exactly the best start to my time at Alloa, injured after six minutes on my debut.
“After that, I just got unlucky with wee niggly injuries so it was a stop-start two years. In hindsight, the move to Alloa wasn’t the best for me, not with either the travelling or the injuries.
“Last year, on the first game I played of the second season, all I was thinking about was just getting through the first six minutes and everything will be fine.
“Then I was okay and never thought about it. But it won’t be playing on my mind at Dumbarton as I am injury free, my ankle is better and I am ready to play my part.”
Clark, an engineer based in East Kilbride, racked up more than 100 appearances for the Spiders before his move north.
The midfielder — who can also play in defence if called upon — cites this as his proudest achievement in the game...so far.
He added: “In truth, I’ve not had many highlights but hopefully winning the league here will be one to savour.
“In the few weeks I’ve been here, it looks as if the club is going places and there is good backroom support.
“There is a wee bit of pressure on the players to suceed, but the boys will thrive on that.
“We don’t want to be in the position the team was least year, we will be fighting for promotion.
“We are hoping to win the league outright otherwise go up through the play-offs.”
After a holiday in Mexico, Clark was straight into training and was soon hit with the detailed training programme he thought he had avoided.
With several familiar faces from his Queen’s Park days also added to the Dumbarton team, he has settled in well and is looking forward to the forthcoming golf outing.
While winning this would be a pleasant result, he has his own personal goals when the season kicks off.
Clark added: “I’m not too bad a golfer but I was planning on keeping it relatively quiet. I play off 18 and I’ve played a game recently to have some practice so I should do ok.
“But on the football pitch, I like going forward, helping out the strikers and getting in amongst the goals. I’ll need to wait and see how many games I get, but if I can make double figures I would be ecstatic as the most I managed was nine goals in one season with Queen’s Park.
“The real goal is to get another season injury free and hopefully start every game. From a selfish point of view, that’s what I want.”
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