Dom Thomas Interview

DT:- “Going forward I want to be a big part of the team and help the team and the club as much as possible.”

Above: Welcome Dom Thomas 10th July 2020

After signing on a two year Dom Thomas said that it was great to be back at East End Park. After playing eight matches with Dunfermline between January and March while on loan from Kilmarnock, he was delighted to now make the move from Rugby Park..

“Obviously I got a taste for it here from January until the shutdown which was unfortunate but it is great to be back at a club that I really enjoyed my time. I am just glad to get it done on a permanent basis.”

Above: Welcome Dom Thomas 10th January 2020

Dom has signed on a two year deal and he feels that is good for both him and the club:-

“I want to hit the ground running but it is always good to have that security which the club and Ross (McArthur) have given me so it is time to repay them.”

It has taken Dom a while to become a fully fledged Dunfermline player. He explained the previous interest:-

“I got close to signing last season but there was a change of manager at Kilmarnock and he wanted me to stay. We tried to get a loan around about August but that never happened and eventually the loan happened in January.

“When I was younger at Motherwell John Potter had expressed an interest in bringing me here but when Motherwell offered me a new deal I stayed there. That would be four or five years ago but eventually we have got it done. You could say that I was destined to join Dunfermline and hopefully it is for a good reason.”

He won three, drew three and lost two of the eight games while on his loan spell at Dunfermline until the lockdown brought an end to everything. The break he felt came at the wrong time for him and the club:-

“I think we were a couple of points off the play offs. We had started to pick up right results, we had beaten Dundee and Dundee United at home. We had shown that we could go and mix it with the bigger teams.

“It was great to get a feel of how the club and the fans were. I look back with great memories and look forward to making some new ones and hopefully go one step further.”

There is no doubt that Dom is a playmaker and crowd pleaser with entertaining the fans high up on his priority list. He continued:-

“That is what the fans want at the end of the day. They want to come and enjoy the match and get a good result. The Dunfermline fans were great with me so I’m looking forward to getting back out there when the season eventually starts. I want to put on a show for them, give them the results they want and hopefully bring in as many fans as we can.”

Even though the 24 year old midfielder enjoyed his time at Kilmarnock Dom felt that it was time to leave:-

“It was another great club but I just felt that the time was right for me to move on in my career and go and try and be a big part of something. In the short spell I was here I felt a big part of the squad. It helps you are on the park on a Saturday.

“Going forward I want to be a big part of the team and help the team and the club as much as possible.”

Dom takes confidence from Dunfermline’s progress last season where they were left within just a few points off the play offs.

“You just never know in football what would have been. Personally I think we would have got into the play offs and again this year the aim will be to get as high up the table as possible. Hopefully we can make the play offs, and even better than that get ourselves back into the Premiership where I think Dunfermline as a club deserves to be.”

It will be a slightly different squad next season from the one he was part of in 2019-2020 season at East End Park but is is philosophical about that:-

“In football players move on, people come and go but we still have real good players. In the last week we have signed a couple of great signings. It is exciting times for me to be part of that and for the fans to see that. I think the manager and Ross are building a good squad to go ahead and challenge this year. As I said we can maybe go one better. Things got cut short last year but we want to get as far up that table as possible.”

Just how well he got on with Stevie Crawford and his coaching staff was one of the major factors contributing to his decision to his return.

“The way he wanted to play suited me, the way he coached and managed I felt brought me on as a player. Working alongside Greg Shields and Jason Dair, I really enjoyed the training and it was really helping my game.

“As a footballer you want to get better as a player in every way you can. Go on and get good results and have good memories of playing in your career. I think this is the right place for me to do that.”

Dom is already a stage ahead of his new team mates having already started pre season training at Kilmarnock. He is three or four weeks into that and admits to feeling good and fit. A downside to the resumption of training there has been the coronavirus testing:-

“We were tested twice a week and it was one of the weirdest tests that I have ever had to do. Testing is not nice at all but needs to be done.

“I can’t wait for the new season and I think everybody is the same. Fans and players have missed their football and so it will be great to get it back even if it is behind closed doors. If it is, it will be weird because the fans are a massive part of any club and especially here. I have seen that for myself but if that’s what we need to do then we just need to get our minds on that and carry out the task.

“For me it is all about getting the games started and putting on show for the fans. Hopefully the fans are glad to have me back and we can kick on from where we were last season.”

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