Playing for the jersey every game
Saturday, 16th Jun 2018Pars most recent signing is up for Championship challenge with Dunfermline
Former Celtic youth Joe Thomson has joined Dunfermline on a two year deal. Joe signed on Friday and he as delighted to finally sign for the East End Park club:-
“I’ve known about the move for a while and I was starting to get a bit impatient, I just wanted to sign. I’m glad it’s all done now and I’m looking forward to the season.
“I heard about it a few weeks ago but the manager has been on holiday, and so have I, so maybe it took a bit longer than it should have. I’m glad to get it done.”
Joe Thomson started his senior career at Celtic. He has also played on loan at Dumbarton, Livingston and during two spells at Queen of the South. The 21 year old midfielder has been capped for Scotland at every age level from under-15 to under-21 but he knew that it was time to move on from Celtic:-
“That was my contract up at Celtic and I had known for a couple of months. I didn’t get told until the last couple of months that that was going to be me at Celtic, but I’m looking forward to the season ahead with Dunfermline now.
“I’d be lying if I said I was disappointed to be leaving Celtic, because I wasn’t. I didn’t want to go back and be playing youth team football, I wanted to challenge myself. So, it was the right time for me to leave and it was what I wanted.”
His loan spells revealed what football was like away from Celtic although the Paisley born player admitted he was too sure before his first loan at Dumbarton.
“I loved it. I loved looking forward to a Saturday and, as soon as the game was over, I couldn’t wait until the next game. It was brilliant, it was a lot better than playing youth-team football.”
Joe actually scored his first senior goal in a 2–2 draw at home for Dumbarton against Dunfermline Athletic on 29 October 2016. He explained what his ambitions were at Dunfermline:-
“It’s definitely got to be challenging for promotion. It’s a massive club and we would be lying if we didn’t say we would be trying to get promoted.”
Thomson has plenty of experience of the Ladbrokes Championship and believes that next season there could five or six teams thinking they can win promotion.
“It’s going to be a good challenge but that’s what you want, you want to challenge yourself as a player and you want to be playing against good teams. It’s going to be a brilliant league to be involved in next season.”
The new signing could have a role to play against the Pars bogey team of late, Dundee United who will be their opponents on the opening day of the league season. He scored twice in March as Queen of the South registered their first league victory at Tannadice since 1933, in a 3-2 win versus Dundee United.
He also scored against the Pars as a Queens player so he will be looking forward to coming up against Queen of the South as well:-
“Most of the players are still there, there’s only a few of them who have moved on. I couldn’t say a bad word about Queen of the South, I loved my time there, it was brilliant. I just felt as if I needed a new challenge and I’m really looking forward to this one.”
Allan Johnston has shown confidence in his new midfielder giving him a two-year deal, Joe added:-
“He said I was at a good age, being only 21, so hopefully still have my best years in front of me. I’m looking to develop over the next two years and hopefully improve.
“I can’t wait for the games to get started, to be honest. The first couple of weeks, when you’ve not got a game, are probably the hardest but as soon as the games get started you get into the swing of things.”
So what can Pars fans expect from Joe Thomson?
“I’m somebody who gives 100 per cent, hopefully I can chip in with some goals and assists. They can expect someone who is going to play for the jersey in every game and doesn’t want to get beat.”
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