The James Thomas Interview
Saturday, 15th Aug 2015Pars youth player's interview as published in the game, DAFC's match day programme
Tell us a bit about yourself and where you come from?
"I was 18 in April and come from Blackburn in West Lothian. I attended the town's St Kentigern's Academy but in my football career I hope to become as famous as the town's celebrity, Susan Boyle!
"It's a town of 6000 people so everybody knows everybody in Blackburn. You see her all the time. When visitors come to my house, they are sitting there looking out and see her walking passed. They are saying 'there's Susan Boyle' but it is just second nature to us."
You remind everybody that you were Dunfermline's top goalscorer in 2014-2015 but where did you start your football:-
"I was at Livingston before I came to Dunfermline. I played two years at Under 15 and this is now my fourth season at the club. I love it. What more would a young boy want? It's your dream to play football so I am getting to pursue my dreams."
You scored in your first team debut against Peterhead on 27th September 2014. How did that feel?
"You cannot describe that. In your first game playing professional football, seventeen year old in front of a couple of thousand fans and scoring a goal. I didn't even know what to do with myself, I was just running around in circles and the next minute all the boys came and picked me up. I honestly hadn't a clue what was happening.
"It didn't sink in but when I went home all my friends were congratulating me, so it was quite a big thing. It got me more recognised by the fans which is a good thing at a young age. I just have to try and get more game time with the first team this season and score more goals."
You made another first team appearance in the Petrofac Training Cup at Arbroath at the beginning of this season. How did that feel?
"When I came on against Arbroath the young boys hadn't played at all. Because I had been with the first team I missed some of the young boys games. I felt a lot fitter because I had done the pre season but I was really tired even though I was only on for twenty minutes. I felt heavy but gradually the more game time I get the fitter and stronger I will get. It is just the start of the season, you cannot really take much from the appearance. I hope that I can get plenty more opportunities this season, that's my aim."
Tell us about a normal James Thomas week?
"I will start on a Monday. I will get up about ten to seven, shower, breakfast and get a lift from my mum to the train station. I have to get two trains, one from Bathgate to Edinburgh and then Edinburgh to Dunfermline. I train during the day, go home, chill, maybe see some of my friends. Relax, play station or might go and see my girlfriend.
"On a Tuesday we should have a game at night so I have a lazy morning. Wednesday is my day off but I have been working beside my sister. She got me in there as a work placement delivering for Ikea, as part of my college course.
"Thursday is just the same as a Monday but when I come home after training I coach a wee Blackburn United side. They train Tuesday and Thursday but if I have a game on a Tuesday another coach takes them. It is good to show the young boys what I have learned at Dunfermline.
"On a Friday I am up at the same time, out to training and I usually go to my girlfriend's house one Friday night and we chill out. We come to the game on a Saturday and maybe go out to the cinema at night. On the Sunday morning my wee team play so I am out coaching them."
Tell us a little more about this "wee team"?
"They are under sixteens, they aren't much younger than me! They like to take the mick out of the adults that go but because I am just a couple of years older than them they show me a lot of respect. I have a lot of respect for them so I really enjoy it."
As one of the younger squad, do you get allocated jobs to do?
"I do Michael Paton's boots, and his shin pads and I also do Faiss and Sandy Clark's boots as well. I am quite busy when I come back from training. Johnny Galloway and I do the kits for the morning. We pump the balls up, put the cones out, get all the training bibs and equipment ready. When we come back we have to put it all back.
"After every month jobs change and that will be to either do the players lounge, do the dishes, clean the pots, hoover. Then there is the laundry and cleaning the kit for the boys. They just switch around every month. It is all part of being a young boy. I just hope that next year somebody is cleaning my boots and I don't need to do that!"
What is your ambition for this season?
"It is definitely to get a few more appearances and I would really like to start a few games as well instead of just coming on as a sub. Starting would give me more experience of first team football. I want to carry on my goal scoring habit from last season, beat my tally from last season and make sure that I am the top goalscorer this season again.
"A very big task perhaps but I like setting myself goals. If it is hard for me then I will dig down and make sure it happens. I know that I have a lot of work to do."
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