July 15th 2024
WHEN Les Fridge was faced with a training ground goalkeeping dilemma last season, he took the bizarre step of turning to the club’s head of security to fill the breach, writes Graeme Macleod. An injury to Callum Donaldson, Michael MacCallum’s work commitments, Sam Maclean being at university and Calum Antell living in Edinburgh meant that the gaffer was struggling for a stopper to fill the breach on training nights. That is where Stewart McInnes – the club’s one-time under-19s goalkeeper and now head of security and safety at Station Park – stepped in. “Stewart is always telling me about how good he was back in the day so I thought I would give him the chance to put his money where his mouth is,” said Fridge as he took up the story. “I invited him along to help us out at training because he said he was cat-like between the posts, although the boys thought the only cat he resembled was Garfield! “He said he always saw himself running out at Station Park with the number 1 goalkeeper shirt on his back, so as a thank you for helping us out, we decided to help make that dream become a reality, almost. Unfortunately for Stewart, the number 1 shirt is taken by Calum Antell at the moment and I think the 111 squad number is a better reflection of his ability anyway.” Fridge added: “Seriously though, I would like to thank Stewart very much on behalf of the management team and the players for helping us out. I hope he enjoyed coming up to training and getting involved with the boys but for all of our sakes, I just hope he is better at catching rogue spectators on match days than he is cross balls!” Graeme Macleod
