Honeymoon over for Steven

Steven McDougall cut short his honeymoon to return to the Pars pre season training. He tells us how competition for places has never been greater ..

Steven McDougall returned from his honeymoon five days early to join his team mates for pre season training.

"It is good to be back now with the first two or three days out of the road. Football players do not enjoy pre season but it has to be done. You just deal with it.

Steven got married on 10th June and it turned out to be a team close season re-union:-

"We had four or five of them during the day and then another ten or twelve turned out at night. There was a good turn out from the boys - I wasn't expecting it because there was a lot of them on holiday."

Now the happily married man is looking forward to life in the SPL since he has never played there before:-

"If I get a game! Hopefully I can start more games and be playing better for long periods of time. There's good competition for places up front. I think it makes the boys play better knowing that if they slip up they're out or if they do well they've got to keep it going to stay there.

"I am looking forward to the opening games and getting going. Hopefully we can do ourselves justice and show that a team coming up from the First Division can go well and stay in the league. It is a big challenge but it is a challenge that everybody is looking forward to.

"I have probably played against most of the players who are playing in the Premier League but it's different having to reach a certain level every week.

"The SPL is the highest level possible in Scotland; everybody wants to play there. Some players never make it, others play their full careers there but just to sample it and see where it takes us will be good."

Steven has re-signed on a one year contract but hopes that a good season will take him further.

"You don't worry about contracts just now, you just worry about playing in the games and doing well."