Taxi for Mason

"It wasn't an easy decision. I still feel I could go and play now but I had a good think over the summer.

Gary Mason returned to East End Park on Saturday for the first time since quitting playing at the end of last season.

His Dunfermline Athletic career saw him make 330 appearances for the Club and speaking exclusively to the website he said:-

"It feels a bit strange coming back to a club that you have been at for so many years. It brings back a lot of good memories and I am delighted to be back to watch one of the games.

"There were a lot of highs here - getting to a couple of cup finals, progressing every year in the league from sixth to fifth to fourth. Obviously in my second spell here we got promoted which was a massive high. It was great to come back to your old club and to get that is massive because it is not an easy league."

The game that Gary recalled for the greatest buzz was the one at Greenock at the end of April 2011 when Dunfermline clinched promotion:-

"It doesn't come any better than that for me. The atmosphere that day that the fans created I will never forget. There have been highs apart from that, but these things stick in your head."

The highs did come with lows and for the 33 year old there were some contrasting lows. Picking up a yellow card in the 2007 Scottish Cup Semi Final that meant he missed the final against Celtic comes top of those. After picking up a yellow card in the quarter final win over Partick Thistle another in the semi final replay against Hibs put an end to him adding to the cup final appearances he made while at Dunfermline in both the Scottish Cup (2004) and Scottish League Cup (2006). He continued:-

"You have played the majority of the games in that cup campaign but when I got booked that time I knew right away that I was going to miss that cup final. We got the result to get us there but to sit out the final was a nightmare. That's football and you have got to take the good with the bad."

Gary Mason's last day as a Pars player v Kilmarnock, 12th May 2012
when he was an unused substitute

The disastrous match at Easter Road that sealed the Pars SPL relegation in May was the last of Gary's appearances for the Pars. At the end of the season he decided against accepting the new contract offer and on Saturday when he spoke in hospitality everyone could see that he was still certainly lean enough to be credible on the football park.  Gary continued:-

"It wasn't an easy decision. I still feel I could go and play now but I had a good think over the summer. The hardest thing to do is to make that decision to give up football but I have a young family and I had to think of the future. You do not get two or three year contracts any more.

"To be fair the Manager was great, I told him that I was looking at a new career away from football."

That new career was his own black taxi business in Edinburgh. He admits the hours are longer but he is thoroughly enjoying it.

"Memories are good to look back on but for me and my family its about the future. I want to get the business up and running but I am running every day. I have had the chance of a couple of part time opportunities; I am not saying that I am totally retired but when I said no to Dunfermline, that was going to be my decision to quit. If I had been going to sign anywhere it would have been back here. But you just never know. A few months down the line things might change but at this moment in time I am just happy to enjoy going and taking some games in."