Chalmers and Hughes United

“I remember that as a style of football that would suit me but by the time I went to Inverness I had missed the manager

New signing from Ayr United, Joe Chalmers is delighted to join Dunfermline with flair players and a manager he has always wanted to play for attracting him east. He is up for the relegation battle and convinced that it can be won:-

“I am up for that and when I look at the squad and the players here, I have got total belief that everybody can turn it around. Hopefully that starts straight away. It is an exciting squad with players like Dom Thomas, Graham Dorrans and Steven Lawless, players who can produce magic.

“That is what you need in this league because a lot of teams are pretty similar and there is not much in the games. Guys like that who can produce wee bits of quality, something out of nothing, they are the ones who win you games and make a big difference. I am looking forward to working with them and hopefully I can supply them with service that helps them.”

Talks to make Joe a Par started a couple of weeks ago at the time when Jim Duffy had lost his job and Ayr didn’t have a manager. He revealed that as soon as he started to speak to Dunfermline he made his mind up pretty quickly that was what he wanted to do.:-

“It developed over the last few weeks but I just had to be patient and it is good that the manager at Dunfermline has been willing to wait. Obviously they are trying to get players in as quick as they can but they said that they were willing to wait because I was the player that they wanted.”

Joe is good friends with Dom Thomas, they both attended Trinity High School in Rutherglen and were both at Celtic at the same time, but he didn’t contact him until after the deal was done. After speaking to the staff at Dunfermline the 28 year old was happy with his decision:-

“This is where I wanted to go and even if I had spoken to anyone I had made my mind up that this is where I wanted to come. When I signed for Motherwell Dom and I were in the first team together and that’s where we really became good pals.“

Having moved from Motherwell to Inverness Caley Thistle in July 2017, Joe narrowly missed John Hughes who had been manager at the Caledonian Stadium from December 2013 until the end of season 2015-2016:-

“I always remember playing a game for Motherwell against Inverness when they were flying high. They beat us and some of the football they played that day was brilliant. I remember that as a style of football that would suit me but by the time I went to Inverness I had missed the manager but the assistant was Brian Rice and Scott Kellacher who is still there. They had worked with the manager at Inverness and they told me how much they got on with and rated the manager.”

Joe ‘crossed the bridge’ to play for Ross County for season 2019-2020 before joining Ayr United in October 2020. John Hughes was appointed County manager in December of that year. This time it was an even closer near miss for Joe:-

“After I left Ross County a few months later he got the job. I was gutted about that because you never know it might have worked out a bit different but I am glad eventually to get the chance now.”

At Ayr United Joe has made 14 starts and five appearances as a substitute this season and last season featured 31 times with 28 of those being starts. He described what his role has been of late:-

“The last few years I have played nearly all my football in centre midfield, central but on the left. Whether it is deeper in a two or whether playing slightly more advanced like box to box, I do both of those roles comfortably. That is where the manager wants to get me in on the left side in the middle of the park.

“Probably the one thing that I could do more is having shots at goal but I try with my passing to create chances. One of my real strong points through the years has been corners and free kicks, that is a side of the game that I really enjoy doing. Hopefully I can take some of them.”

Pars favourite Lee Bullen was appointed Ayr United manager on 7th January and Joe will return to Somerset Park in less than two weeks time for the Championship match against his former teammates. He closed:-

“The manager was really only in the door a few weeks but I really enjoyed the couple of weeks that I worked with him. He was disappointed to be losing me because he liked the way I played but he was brilliant and completely understood the reasons why. He and everybody at Ayr just wished me all the best. I enjoyed it there, it was sad to leave but I knew that I had made the right decision.”

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