Stevie Crawford Inducted

7th DAFC Hall of Fame welcomes Stevie Crawford.

Stevie Crawford holds the unique position of having signed five times by Dunfermline Athletic, two of those as consecutive loan deals. Despite his considerable acclaim at higher and international level, Stevie returned again and again to become one of the Club's most influential players spanning a decade of some of the Club's most prosperous times. Speaking at the 7th Hall of Fame event at Forrester Park on Saturday 9th October, Stevie described is as "a great honour to be inducted into the Hall of Fame amongst all those great names like Jock Stein and Sir Alex Ferguson."

He congratulated fellow inductees Ian Westwater, Cammy Fraser and Jackie Sinclair before looking back on his Dunfermline career which he broke into three spells - the good, the bad and the ugly.

"The good was signing on loan in 1999 for Dick Campbell and then signing permanently for Jimmy Calderwood in the year 2000. The bad was signing an S form at 13 only to be released at 17 by Iain Munro. The ugly was the spell under Stephen Kenny after big Leish was sacked. We were relegated to the First Division and the following season still frustrates me to this day that we never competed from day one at Hamilton to try and win promotion back to the SPL.

"In preparing my speech for tonight it was interesting to look at some of the stats from the past. Having made 200+ appearances and scored a few goals, the team I played with in my second spell here finished fourth in the SPL - the Pars highest SPL finish ever. We also made it to the Scottish Cup Final in 2004 losing out 3-1 to Celtic that day.

"It was an honour to play for my country, I was lucky enough to score in a cup final where we went on and won the game. I played for my local club so memories I have from my playing days have been different class.

"I'd like to wish Macca, the players, the board, supporters and everybody connected with the Club all the best for the rest of the season. I think Macca has done a great job as a young manager and it is great to see the Club sitting at the top of the league. I genuinely believe that if suspensions and injuries are kind I am sure that the Club has every chance of winning promotion this year."

After his presentation Stevie spoke exclusively to the website admitting that he had found the night very emotional:-

"Emotional in terms of the family being there as well and what Dunfermline means to me. I think that is part of the reason I never made any put down on paper about my feelings because over the years I felt the way the press put it across was as the Crawford - Brewster show. When you listen to Cammy Fraser's speech it was a team game. Good players want to play as a team; we definitely had that under Calderwood and it is important not to mention individual players.

"Jimmy Calderwood was good at getting that bit extra out of players; he always pushed you to the limit. Jimmy Calderwood was fortunate to have Jimmy Nichol as his assistant. When I was a 17 year old along the road at Raith Rovers, Jimmy Nichol I firmly believe gave me the work ethic to make it as a professional football player. I was blessed with a good touch but Jimmy let me see the other side to my game that if you don't work for the team then you are no good.

"It was difficult to leave Dunfermline but I understood the circumstances at the time; the Club were in financial difficulties. I had just signed a year extension to my contract but I knew it would be beneficial if the Club could move me on."

After spells at Plymouth Argyle, Aberdeen and Dundee United Stevie returned to East End Park but things were not too rosy under Stephen Kenny:-

"It is sometimes hard to take when things are pointed at certain players, rumours that there was unrest in the camp. I was in that dressing room an experienced person who wouldn't have let that happen. What I can say is that the feeling wasn't right going into the season after we had been relegated. That was there for everybody to see; the way we went about our business that year in the First Division wasn't acceptable for the talent we had in the squad.

"Stephen Kenny was a young manager who had done well in Ireland. He went about it in the way he felt was right and as I now find it along the road at East Fife it is very very difficult and you have to go by your beliefs, unfortunately it didn't work for him. The sad thing was that there were fingers pointed at certain experienced players which is no further from the truth."

Stevie said that it was sore to take the news that his contract would not be renewed at the end of the 2007-08 season:-

"I still felt that fitness wise with a good pre season under my belt I still had something to offer. I realised again that financially it might have been a case of wage cuts but not to be offered a contract was hard. I have much respect for Jim McIntyre as manager; he had looked at the overall picture and seen that it was right to move me on. That would free up funds to begin whatever players he felt was right, I think he has done a terrific job under difficult circumstances. Now two years on Macca's getting the best out of the boys."

In April 2008 Stevie took over as Player-Manager of East Fife, by which time he had made 260 appearances for Dunfermline, scoring 82 goals. He had also appeared for Scotland 19 times out of a total of 25, while signed with Dunfermline making him the all-time Club record holder for international appearances.

2010 Hall of Fame Tribute to Jackie Sinclair