Dougie Arnott interviewed by Inside Futbol’s Sean Graham
Dougie, are you looking forward to your Testimonial game?
“It has come as something of a shock really as it is 12 years since I played football at Fir Park!
It is great but I finished in the beginning of the 98-99 season and at the beginning of the year they contacted me saying that there was a Testimonial committee formed that Motherwell had given the go ahead for the match to happen, it was a pleasant surprise, pleasantly shocked that it was eventually going to happen so I am really looking forward to it.”
The former players who have already signed up to play in the match, just goes to show you how popular you are still at Fir Park?
“It is a strange feeling really, that this has happened and you are thrust back into the spotlight again and there is a lot of interest in the thing.
The time I played was the 91 cup team and that is in the hearts of a lot of the fans that team and you mention that some of the players are coming back to play in the game, it creates a lot of interest.
Obviously with Tom Boyd getting an Old Firm select you are getting a lot of the old Rangers and Celtic players that used to play coming back, like Ally McCoist, Neil Lennon, you don’t see these games very often so hopefully there will be a lot of interest in it.”
Playing against an Old Firm select, surely you are due a goal?
“I had not a bad record in the past against them and hopefully the ref will be kind to me on the night and give me a penalty!”
What about any goals against the Old Firm that stick out?
“I remember scoring two goals in the replay against Celtic, we won 4-2 that night but just a couple of weeks previous to that we played Rangers at Fir Park and we won 3-0 and I scored two of the goals that night, Rangers were coming to Fir Park to win the league in that game and they left losing 3-0 and that meant that Aberdeen only needed a draw at Ibrox to win the league but big Mark Hateley scored two goals in that game and Rangers won the league but it could have been so much different!
That was quite a game that but we were all playing for our Cup Final places in that game so the team were well up for it!”
Going back to the cup run, it started at Pittodrie with a difficult tie v Aberdeen did it not?
“That’s right we won with a Stevie Kirk goal, Stevie coming off the bench with his first touch, someone tapped a free-kick to him and he let rip from about 30 yards and that was the start of it.
Winning up there in the third round was a great achievement and I think Tom Boyd actually got interviewed after the game and he said that “this could be our year for the cup” and he wasn’t wrong when he said that!
They always say that the Motherwell v Dundee United Cup Final was one of the best ever, what do you remember of it?
“That’s right they still mention it, every time the Cup Final comes round they always show clips of our game with the two McLean’s involved and I think they had lost their mother only a week before so it was very emotional game for them plus to get a final with no Celtic or Rangers in it and still get a full capacity crowd says a lot for both clubs, but it was a great game, going into extra-time and everything and I think it contained everything that you need in a football match and luckily enough we went on and won it! They still talk about it a lot as being one of the best!”
All that seems like a far cry from your amateur and junior days winning a cup final at Hampden?
“I had a lot of good times with Lesmahagow, Pollok Juniors and Motherwell Miners.
I played at Hampden with Motherwell Miners in 1984-85 in the Amateur Cup Final and then I was back at Hampden in the Junior Cup Final a couple of years later and I played in the Senior Cup Final with Motherwell, so I had good memories of them but to play in the at the top level after leaving it so late to get into the game, I enjoyed every minute of it and I appreciated every minute of it.”
Do you think that you had missed your chance to become professional as you came into the game so late?
“Definitely! I was in my mid-twenties before I turned pro and because you thought you had missed it and you get one chance at it, you grab it with everything and you make the most of it, I thought my chance had gone!
I had 10-12 years at Fir Park but I think we had a five year period since Davie Cooper arrived in 89/90 right through to 94 when big Alex (McLeish) arrived and we finished runners-up in the league and were in Europe a few times and of course the Cup win in 91, it was a good five year spell a good five year period, a successful time for Motherwell football club.”
Who was responsible for taking you from Pollok to Motherwell?
“It was Bobby Jenks who is still at the club at the moment!
He went to watch me in two or three games at the start of the season in 86.
We played Hamilton Accies in a friendly and beat them 4-1 and we played Shotts then he took me in and I signed right away, it took me a year or two to get established in the first team but once I was there and learned the game because you think that it is a totally different game going from junior to senior, totally different fitness as well.
Going from part-time to full-time training is a big step but I was working with Bobby Jenks who I think left the club to go to Hearts but then he came back to work with Chris McCart,Chris is now working at Celtic but Bobby is still at Fir Park with the juniors.
The last junior they signed was me and then they just signed one a few months ago and Bobby had mentioned it when the lad signed that the last junior they signed was me.”
It is only right that players such as yourself are granted a Testimonial match, with the years you served at the club and the era you played the game in, you were certainly not making the money that today’s superstars are making?
“You were not making big money in our days, you made a good living but you had to work hard to earn your own living after the football days are finished and I had one or two offers after I left Motherwell but at the end of the day if I wasn’t fit or good enough or if I could still have carried on playing, I would have carried on playing for Motherwell instead of playing for another team.”
You were never offered a chance to play with either of the Old Firm then?
“Not as far as I know!”
What if they had come in before the transfer window shut, would you still be available?
“I will give it a miss! After playing in the Phil O’Donnell game you realise how fit you were in those days but trying to run about on parks like that now, very difficult, but again that was another experience, playing in that game in front of a sell out crowd at Parkhead and all the boys getting together again to pay tribute to Phil.
I was sitting with Phil’s brother on the bus on the way back and he was totally overwhelmed at the response there was from the ex-players turning up and the crowd, but again it was a very sad occasion.”
What was Davie Cooper like to play with?
“The best! On the training park with him everyday, you would learn things from him everyday, unbelieveable skill and composure.
It is not until you are training with these guys every day that you realise just how good they ar,e but he was a very special player, the best player that I have ever played with.”
There will there also be a hint of sadness along with the excitement as two of the club’s favourite sons (Davie Cooper and Phil O’Donnell) are no longer with us?
“The thirteen boys that won the Cup, eleven of us and two subs, formed a bond because of the special time that we had and to be missing two of them already, it will be quite emotional and it is a sad thing that the boys are no longer with us.”
(Not long after I spoke to Dougie, I learned of the tragic death of another of Dougie’s former team-mates Jamie Dolan. Jamie was a very popular member of the Fir Park team and was a brave midfielder who played alongside the likes of Paul Lambert and Billy Davies in Motherwell’s great side of 1994-1996. Jamie also played for Dundee United, Dunfermline, Livingston, Forfar and Partick Thistle in a career that spanned over 15 years and saw him make 306 appearances, almost 200 of them with the Fir Park club. The thoughts of Dougie and all at Fir Park will be with Jamie and indeed the thoughts of everyone in Scottish football are with the Dolan family as this difficult time for them, they are not alone in their time of grief and unfortunately this sadness has clouded the Fir Park fans once too often in recent times.)
“It was a year ago that my father passed away and he had watched me all my days right through the kids football, amateur, junior right up to the senior and it is just a sad, sad day that he will not be here to see this final game!
I have got three brothers and when I phoned them to say that I had been granted this testimonial coming up, the first thing they mentioned was they just wished that dad was here to see it. It will be emotional for my family as well with my father not being there but as you say, he will have the best seat in the house.”
At least you and the fans at Fir Park will have something to look forward to on September 11th?
“I will make the most of it!
We are going to have a golf day on the Wednesday, the game on the Thursday and a dinner on the Friday. It’s going to be a three day thing and I really am going to savour every minute of it and enjoy it as I thought it was never going to happen, but again the club have a European game and Celtic the weekend after my Testimonial, so there will be a good buzz about the place and it is going to be quite a week or two leading up to it.
It is good that the fans and players have Europe again, so that they can experience it again as we did when we played Borussia Dortmund who had eight or nine internationals in their team and then coming back to Fir Park to play against them, it was great for the fans to see .”
What was it like to play against Dortmund?
“Going over there, we used to travel a lot with the fans and it was like a carnival atmosphere, it doesn’t happen very often this, Motherwell getting into Europe, and I think you should make the most of it when you are over there. We were playing against guys who were some of the biggest names in Europe in the Borussia Dortmund team at that time, it was a great experience and that kind of thing will be good for the boys now as there is a lot of young boys in the team and it will be good for them to get a good bit of experience in the European scene.”
Away from the football you are now a publician, do you get the regulars asking to hear your tales from famous matches you’ve played in?
“I actually got my pub in 96 a couple of years before I finished playing with Motherwell. I have had the one pub in Carluke for 12 years and the other one in Wishaw for the last three years. I went into the pub game because I wanted to step away from the game altogether and it was a busy enough time running pubs without playing football as well.
Both pubs are mixed with Celtic and Rangers fans and they are a good bunch of lads who mix well with each other, but it gets brought up again the amount of goals that I have scored against both clubs’, I think they remember them well!”
What about coaching, have you ever considered that as an option?
“When I first finished I had a few teams come in for me but again it doesn’t matter what level of football you are playing at, junior, senior, coaching whatever, it is 100% commitment and I have done it all my days and I have run two businesses and it is hard enough running the businesses and I know how much commitment there is involved in that, I decided just to walk away and enjoy my golf and spending more time with my family”.
There have been many highlights at Fir Park but what was the highlight for you of your Motherwell days?
“Oh definitely walking up to lift the Scottish Cup, you get reminded of it everyday, it is 17 years since it happened but it just seemed like yesterday and to all of the fans who enjoyed winning the cup that year, such happy memories, you realise what it means to the Motherwell fans at the time and hopefully we’ll do it again and they will not need to wait as long
I didn’t have the greatest of games in the final, it was possibly me who gave the ball away as I tried to give it to Phil O’Donnell, but it was too hard and it ran through to the keeper, who punted it down the park for Darren Jackson to score and take the match to extra-time, but that just added to the excitement didn’t it?
It is funny, a lot of the fans remember the semi-final win over Celtic but that would have meant nothing if we did not go on and win the Scottish Cup, it was a great game, I got Man of the Match and scored two in that game and they got us to the final and that was probably one of my best games for Motherwell, but the most important one was winning the cup because that would have meant nothing if we did not go on and won it!
Great achievement to get to a Cup Final but then everything went for us on the night ;( in the semi-final), every time you see Colin O’Neill all he talks about is his wonder strike from 40 yards, but again very happy memories!”
Get along to Fir Park for what will be an emotional but enjoyable evening!
Dougie Arnott-The Hammer of the Old Firm
Motherwell Select v Old Firm Select
Thursday September 11th kick-off 7.45, Fir Park Stadium, Motherwell
Ticket prices £10 and £5 for concessions
For more information you can log on to the web-site
