Yorker has strike rate target

“Playing men’s football, playing in front of a crowd, being in first team changing rooms and that environment is just brilliant. I just can’t wait for the season to start to be honest.”

It is no surprise for a Yorkshireman to be into his cricket and rugby but having tried both, eighteen year old Gabby McGill has elected to concentrate on his football.

Gabby is delighted with the welcome he has received at Dunfermline, everyone making him very welcome and as he has been handed the Pars number nine shirt for the coming season which suggests that his decision to bail out of cricket has been the right one. He told this website how his football career came about:-

“I started quite late into football to be quite honest. I did other sports so I saw it as a bit of a hobby. I only joined Sunday league at around 12 or 13 and that is when I realised that football was probably the path I wanted to go down.

“At cricket I was more of a bowler than a batsman but a bit of an all rounder really and at rugby I was fly half using the boot to help me there. I enjoyed it and multi sport helped me with my football with balance and how you move.”

Gabby hails from Malton which is a market town situated between Scarborough and York. He joined nearby Pickering Town until he was 15 and then had a couple of seasons at York City before moving to Middlesbrough. He spent a couple of years there before coming north.

“I did my scholarship at Middlesbrough before making the step into professional football I guess. I always played football but it was cricket and rugby that I played at school. I realised that I liked football the best and probably had the biggest chance in it so I went for it.

“I played in the under 18s at Middlesbrough but last year I was a bit half and half with the under 23s. Towards the end of the season it was mostly with the under 23s. I enjoyed playing against older players but I didn’t really want to play under 23s football forever.

“Middlesbrough were a great club but I was probably not going to get the chance to play first team football at the age of 17 or 18. When this chance came along I jumped at it. I know it is a move away from home but that doesn’t really phase me because you are here for a reason.

“Playing men’s football, playing in front of a crowd, being in first team changing rooms and that environment is just brilliant. I just can’t wait for the season to start to be honest.”

Gabby got wind of a possible move in January but that didn’t materialise. He was getting to the stage where he was just wanting to play first team football so luckily for him Dunfermline kept up their interest and he is really buzzing to have signed and desperate to get going. He confessed that he had not visited before he came to sign at East End Park:-

“I knew Jackie McNamara and he spoke very highly about the club and everything that he said is apparent. Everyone is so lovely, it is a great club top to bottom.

“When I came up and signed I had a look around the place, met the chairman and everyone. It was really good, for me I am just going to focus on the next two years and being a striker score goals.”

The Pars new boy described his striking skills as a bit like his cricket, an all rounder:-

“I like the ball at my feet and holding up the ball but I also know the ball can’t come to feet all the time, if it does then defenders are going to know what you are going to do every time. I can go long, stretch the defence because that’s where the goal is behind. If you can get the defenders turned towards their own goal, I think I am quick enough to get away from them.

“I don’t have a bad leap, especially in and around the box I like my headers. Looking at my goals last season everything comes in the six yard box from crosses or snapshots. I don’t really score many screamers but I’d like to add that to my game.”

Having come over 200 miles from home Gabby finds himself sharing accommodation with fellow Yorkshireman Matty Bowman. He continued:-

“It is weird because he lives in Scarborough and I used to play there when I was thirteen. We lost contact and he must have seen that I had signed for Dunfermline when he was thinking about making his move up here. It is now really strange that we are now staying together.

“Everything is going well in the flat, the flat is brilliant, perfectly placed and I don’t mind cooking. It is something to take your mind off after training.”

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