Durie Delighted to Return

Last season he set a record by playing every single minute of every Clyde game, but this season has been a different story for Scott Durie.

The right back played in all 36 league games as well as two Scottish Cup matches, two Challenge Cup matches and one League Cup tie in his first season with The Bully Wee but, after picking up an injury at the end of last season, Durie found himself ruled out of the first quarter of this campaign. 

Only now is he back on the training pitch and working himself up to match fitness. After coming on as a substitute against both Formartine and Queen’s Park, Durie spoke to the official website and discussed his frustration at the way his 2015-16 season has started:-

“It has been very frustrating because I had the injury at the end of last season and wanted to sort it over the summer, but given the position the club is in I had to wait for the NHS like everybody else. Then, just as I thought I was about to get my operation, it got delayed for another five weeks which was frustrating as it felt like it was just one thing after another, but hopefully that is it all sorted now. 

“I’m back in full training and I also played with the under-20s over the last two weeks; every bit of game time helps my recovery. Hopefully I can be back in contention to start over the next few weeks. 

“Since I started playing senior football I have never missed a chunk of a season through injury. I have missed odd games here and there when I’ve played elsewhere but never a big chunk so it has been difficult. The last time I started was the last game of the season on the May 2nd, so it has now been about six months which was frustrating.

“Getting back to training was more of a relief than anything else, but even when I got back I knew it would be a good few weeks before I was up to speed with the boys because I had missed four or five months of the season.”

In Durie’s absence, summer signing Chris Mitchell has played on the right hand side of the defence, both at right back and right wing back and the former East Fife man believes that, when he returns to full fitness, the competition between the two players can help both of them produce their best football.

The 23-year-old said: “With Mitch signing in the summer, the gaffer probably hoped I was fit so we would be able to push each other. There’s a lot more competition for places in the squad this year – you could arguably say we’ve got two players for each position and that can only help the team and push you on as a player.”

During his time on the injury table, Durie has gone from flying right back to die hard Clyde fan and has been in the stands cheering on the team in every game this season, as he explained: “I’ve gone to every game this year to support the lads. A lot of my mates have asked me why I was going when I wasn’t playing, but you don’t feel part of it if you’re not there.

“I’m looking forward to getting back and helping the boys on the pitch rather than watching from the stands though.”

From his position in the stands Durie has seen every team in the league. He continued: “In this league, anybody can beat anybody – look at Annan for example. We beat them 4-2 and then they have gone on a wee run and created a wee gap since then. That is all it takes, we just need to go on a wee run and we’ll be right up there. 

“As a team, I think most of the boys would agree, we haven’t played anywhere near as well as we can play but we are still well in the mix. 

“The manager and the squad set out to win every game, no matter who we are playing because we know that on our day, when we play as well as we can, we are capable of beating every team. We also know we can’t go into a game thinking we will definitely win though – we need to be at our best. “

Scott concluded with a look ahead to Saturday’s Ladbrokes League Two match against Montrose at Broadwood:-

“A lot of people thought Montrose would finish near the bottom this season just because they finished there last year, but they have had a good start overall and are sitting second top. It is going to be a tough game on Saturday.”