TWENTY-FOUR years ago, back in September 1992, Dumbarton signed a bright young forward in the form of Martin Mooney, writes Adam Thomas.

The 22-year-old was signed from Falkirk and went on to play 248 games for the Sons, scoring 55 goals in the process.

And the Renton man had a look back on his career with the club with The Reporter.

After growing up and living in Renton, the travel each day to Falkirk began to take its toll, coupled with the fact that first-team choices were limited with the Bairns so the move to Boghead made perfect sense.

He said: “Billy Lamont, who was the manager at Dumbarton had been the manager at Falkirk for a small spell, so I’d worked under him, and it was a chance to play first-team football.

“They were part-time but they gave me a little bit of a sweetener, and they gave me a full-time wage if I helped Dick Jackson the groundsman when he needed it.

“But I seemed to be a groundsman in name only, because if you knew Dick you were never allowed to do anything, even at his age.”

And the striker made a flying start to his Dumbarton career. After signing on the Monday, he featured in a friendly on the Tuesday and played away to Dunfermline in the league on the Saturday.

Mooney scored one and set up another for Robert Docherty but still managed to end up on the losing team, with Pars winning 3-2 at East End Park.

After the game he was taken upstairs and presented with the man-of-the-match award, which was rarely given to an away player back in the day.

His Sons career was off to a good start, and that was certainly helped with the different characters in the dressing room.

“There were definitely a few [characters] — Robert Docherty, Jim Meechan. It was never quiet, you always had to be on your guard, but I wasn’t a wallflower myself,” he said.

Move forward a year and boss Lamont had made the surprise move to Alloa, and ex-player Murdo MacLeod joined the club in a player-manager role.

Mooney said: “He was a young manager, and coming in with the career he had, it was the little things like his professionalism that he brought with him.

“He was moving from full-time to a part-time club but everything he did rubbed off on the players and it was two really good seasons.”

More teams were relegated that year in a league reshuffle and the Sons were one of the victims of the restructure, being relegated in 1993-94.

But the club bounced straight back up finishing second under MacLeod, and clinched promotion against Stirling Albion, beating them 2-0 on the last day thanks to goals from Hugh Ward and Charlie Gibson.

Mooney scored 17 goals in the process, helping Dumbarton back up at the first time of asking.

Other highlights for the Renton man in his spell so far at Boghead were against Berwick Rangers in November 1994 when the forward came off the bench with the Sons losing 2-0, scoring once and helping Dumbarton to a 3-2 win over the Black and Gold, and scoring a penalty at Ibrox in January 1994.

Mooney was on a high, and it didn’t go unnoticed as several clubs began to look at the Dumbarton striker, and he held talks with Queen of the South.

He added: “Murdo told me they wanted to speak to me, I spoke to them but I wanted to stay at Dumbarton.

“Murdo wanted me to stay as well. I spoke to their manager, but I was happy where I was.”

But the season after is a year to forget for most Sons fans.

After MacLeod moved to Partick Thistle, his assistant Jim Fallon took over the reins and was unable to prevent the club from suffering two successive relegations.

Mooney said: “We went into free-fall, going up and then having two relegations on the trot it was just habit. The players got used to being beat.

“Several different managers came in and to this day I don’t know why we struggled, because we still had a lot of good players in the championship.

“I’ve been involved in football a long time and they say that winning’s a habit, but the same can be said for losing and unfortunately it was a bad habit that we got into.”

And it was at that point the groundsman in name only decided to look for a part-time job, and became a fireman while with the Sons.

And after seven years with Dumbarton, Mooney felt it was the right time to leave, moving to Stenhousemuir in 1999.

He added: “It was a big wrench to leave them after seven years at the club, I never got to play at the new ground.

“I felt personally that I needed a change, I felt I was getting a bit stale. I went through to Stenhousemuir and had a couple of injuries.

“And I moved my job from the fire station at Dumbarton to Falkirk so I really needed everything on my doorstep as well.”

After his spell at Ochilview Park, Mooney moved to Bo’ness United before having a year out from part-time football, but ended up helping out an amateur team.

He said: “I took a year out, and helped out Falkirk Amateurs.

“We ended up getting through to the Scottish Amateur Cup final, and played St Pats from Dumbarton, and ended up captaining a side in the Scottish Cup final at the age of 35.”

After his year out, he became involved with Junior side Camelon as a player-coach, with spells at Berwick Rangers and Kilsyth in between.

And at his last spell at Camelon, he teamed up with ex-Ayr United and East Fife striker John Sludden.

The pair, with Martin as assistant and John as manager, have taken the reins at East Stirlingshire, who were relegated from the Scottish senior ranks last season, for the first time since 1955.

They now ply their trade in the Lowland League, and for Mooney it is an enjoyable challenge, especially trying to change the mindset of the club.

He added: “It’s a new venture in the league. I knew nothing about it before and had never been involved in it. Every week is an enigma with new teams, so it’s exciting and hopefully we can get promoted.

“It’s probably the first time the club has been in a position where they are favourites to win a lot of matches.

“And I’m not being derogatory to them but finishing in second bottom has been a success for East Stirling. So I think the fans are enjoying it, we scored eight goals a few weeks ago and I don’t think they’ve seen that since 1962.

The forward had many ups and downs at his time at Dumbarton, but did he ever regret not taking that move to Queens, even knowing that two relegations were to follow?

He simply said: “No regrets, I loved every minute.”