New Queen of the South goalie feared being left on football scrapheap

New Queens keeper Ross Stewart has revealed how he feared being left on the football scrapheap after suffering a wake-up call with no club.

He has returned to Palmerston for a second spell following a brief loan deal.

Stewart said: “I am delighted to be back permanently this time and cannot wait to get back playing. My last time was cut short by Covid.

“I came here on loan from Livingston then football was shut down, I then went on loan to Hearts and did well there and managed to get a two-year permanent deal.

“So that was three years altogether there at Hearts, but last season was a bit of an adjustment for me, as I left Hearts and never had a club for the first half of the season.

“I was still training with clubs and I managed to get in at Partick Thistle in January, so I did a bit of work with my father-in-law on a building site and was doing a bit of labouring for him. Then I was doing a bit of coaching as well - whatever I could lay my hands on to be honest.

“A little bit of reality kicked in with seeing how quickly football can be taken away from you and how you should appreciate every day.

“I am 29 now and you have to appreciate it. It is young for a keeper and although you look at Craig Gordon and he is still going.

“I got to train with him at Hearts for a while and he still moves about like a 20-year-old. He is a great professional - someone I watched day in, day out, and took as much I could off him.”

Now Stewart is ready to establish himself as Doonhamers’ number one this term and he added: “At the first conversation myself and manager Peter Murphy had and he said I was 29 now and been at some clubs and game and I got the call and I need to be number one and back enjoying my football.

“That was one of the main reasons I came here, how they sold the club to me and the conversation I had with the gaffer and his number two Colin McMenamin and Jon Connolly, the keeper coach, and they all kind of had the same mindset as me and they talk and think about football in the same way as me.

“From the minute you come in to this club the set-up is unbelievable with a training ground
at Hamilton, the gym – the infrastructure is brilliant. It is a club I am excited to be at.”

Stewart knows he is one of the more experienced players at the club and said: “I don’t mind it, I don’t think about being old and just take it every day as I have been doing, and I know I have to be a bigger voice. I don’t mind that role.

“I’ve been around a lot of older players like Craig Gordon who have an older role.

“We have a young squad just now but a very new squad and they are going to have to talk a lot.

“The aim has got to be winning games of football first and foremost.

“It is a fresh start and new team altogether –but this club should be in the Championship as it is a very good club. When we get more boys in then I am sure that we will go behind closed doors and will talk about our ambitions.”