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Hall Of Fame
Moments like the thunderous equaliser against Aberdeen are special one's to us and we will never forget them. For a beautiful 5 or 10 minutes, the belief surged that Dobbies 38th goal launch us to another famous day. Alas , it wasn't to be but can he break our all time goalscoring record in this our centenary season. Let us know if he will fall just short , equal or surpass it ?
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He'll do it, nae fear.
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As long as he stays free from injury, - no problem!
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Really hope so JR. He certainly deserves it.
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If he stays fit then he`ll do it. Ideally if he could do it this Saturday that would be great.
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No pressure on Dobbs then!
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Do you mean this week ?
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Unless you Subscribe to the Times, which I don't, to view the whole article this link is just a bit of a tease Scooby!!Originally Posted by scooby_blue
Reserve
He could do to start by bagging atleast a Double this weekend v Alloa.
Hall Of Fame
Stephen Dobbie, with five hat-tricks in 33 games, is the happiest man in football
Queen of the South striker, aged 36, tells Gregor Robertson about the secrets of his Indian summer in the Scottish game
Gregor Robertson
February 18 2019, 12:01am,*The Times
Dobbie, the much-travelled veteran striker, has found a rich vein of form since making a return to Queen of the South — he is even outscoring Messi and Ronaldo this seasonALAN HARVEY/SNS GROUP
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Is happiness the most underestimated commodity in football? Stephen Dobbie thinks so. Contentment with his lot at a club he loves is the root cause, he believes, of an astonishing number of goals he has scored for Queen of the South this season.
His record stands at 38 goals in 33 games: not even Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi can compete with that. Yes, this is the Scottish Championship, the country’s second tier (and we’ll come to that later), but anyone who saw the 36-year-old’s 25-yard screamer to equalise against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup fifth round eight days ago — one of a growing highlight reel of long-range rockets — would concede that the former Swansea City, Blackpool and Crystal Palace striker is enjoying a quite*remarkable late flourish.
There have been five hat-tricks and two penalty misses. Half of his goals have come in cup competitions but he is no flat-track bully: six of them came in five games against Premiership opposition. In the league he has averaged a goal every 98 minutes. No player south of the border can match that record.
There have been offers to leave for more money from clubs playing on a higher plain. All have been rebuffed. “People keep saying to me, ‘Why aren’t you playing higher?’ I say that I’ve found a club that I love,” he says. “I want to continue to enjoy playing football. I’ve got nothing to prove.”
It is a heartwarming connection to the club that he credits with giving him a “last chance” and providing a springboard to England. After failing to make the grade with Rangers as a teenager, Dobbie showed flashes of his undoubted talent at Hibernian but admits that he lacked professionalism and is in far better shape these days, even in his advanced years.
Queen of the South plucked Dobbie from St Johnstone in January 2007 and consecutive seasons of 20-plus goals earned him a move to Swansea in 2009. “The first time I was here we got to the [2008] Scottish Cup final,” he says. “We were the first Queens team ever to play in Europe. There are pictures of all those players inside [the club’s stadium at Palmerston Park].
“That was a kind of ‘cult-hero team’. Even when we lost the final [against Rangers, 3-2], there was a parade in the town — hero status. To feel that, and then come back and have that feeling again — even more now, because I feel as if I’ve come back to the club a better player — it makes me happy.”
The much-travelled veteran striker is outscoring Messi and Ronaldo this seasonRODDY SCOTT/SNS
South of the border, Dobbie was a scorer of crucial goals rather than a prolific goalscorer. Still, a run of three consecutive Championship play-off final appearances, beginning in 2010, yielded fairytale promotions with Blackpool, while on loan, and Swansea. After defeat by West Ham United in Blackpool’s second and Dobbie’s third final, during another loan spell in 2012, there might have been a fourth appearance the next year. However, his loan agreement with Crystal Palace, whom he had joined from Brighton & Hove Albion in January 2013, came to an end before the London club’s play-off campaign. With a permanent deal already agreed, though, “I was sitting in the stands praying that Kev [Phillips] scored that penalty,” he recalls. “When he did: amazing . . . ”
It was a “whirlwind” spell that very nearly didn’t happen. Having scored only three goals in nine appearances in his first six months at Swansea, the final day of the January 2010 transfer window approached and, with his wife, Susanne, pregnant and three days overdue, Dobbie had packed up his car ready to leave south Wales for a return to Scotland. A call from his agent came with an offer from Blackpool. “We stopped off on the way, and I had a good feeling about it,” Dobbie recalls — and what a ride it was that followed.
Dobbie appreciated the close-knit, family values that Blackpool and Swansea shared. “No one could live far away; all the players’ families knew and socialised with each other and I think you get success from that because you’re in each other’s lives so much,” he says.
The idiosyncratic manager, Ian Holloway, employed methods that raised a few eyebrows, he recalls, but a powerful team spirit was forged. “Blackpool’s training ground is across from the sand dunes and some mornings he would look out, the goals would be blowing all over the place, and he would just say, ‘Nah, we’re not training today,’ and take us to crazy golf, bowling, a snooker hall or something.”
At Swansea, Brendan Rodgers “was the best in terms of tactics and preparation”, he says. “You would turn up on a Monday and you’d already have a sheet about who you were playing the next Saturday.”
Dobbie scored the third goal in Swansea’s 4-2 win against Reading in the 2011 Championship play-off final, and nine appearances in the Premier League followed. “If I had only played one game [in the Premier Legaue] that would have been amazing,” he says, “because to have come from Queen of the South to playing at that level in the space of a few years was unbelievable.”
After a loan to Fleetwood Town in League One and a frustrating season warming the bench for Bolton Wanderers back in the Championship, Dobbie found himself in the summer of 2016 contemplating that word, happiness, again. “I thought, ‘Where could I go to get back enjoying playing?’
“My wife will tell you I’m not the same person at home when I’m not enjoying my football. So to come back to Queens, see how much the fans appreciate me, and how much I love the club, it just felt right.”
A first-half red card for Barry Maguire did not help Queens’ cause on Saturday as they lost 1-0 to Dundee United. But, given Dobbie’s extraordinary strike rate, it is tempting to ask if he has been gifted any lucky charms, or adopted any new superstitions. Well, in recent weeks, the rendition of an S Club 7 song has become an unlikely pre-match ritual.
“Michael Doyle, our defender and one of the biggest characters in our team, was flicking through Spotify in the dressing room before a game and Reach for the Stars came on,” Dobbie says. “He ended up doing a stupid dance; everybody is ‘reaching’, and then I scored. So we said we needed to do that next week. I scored again. Out of the past six games [prior to Saturday], I’ve only not scored in one game, and [Doyle] was injured, so we didn’t have the song.”
Time to broach the point that will no doubt be prominent among English football fans in the comments below the line. Scottish second tier? A tinpot league, right?
“I don’t think people in England realise how hard it is up here,” Dobbie counters. “I would definitely say that in England you get a lot more time on the ball. In Scotland it’s a lot more physical.” Where, then, would he place the standard of the Scottish Championship comparatively in England? “We played Fleetwood [Town] in pre-season and lost 1-0, gave them a good game,” he says. “So maybe League One, bottom of the Sky Bet Championship even.”
Regardless, Dobbie, who has scored 145 goals in 213 appearances for the club where he intends to see out his playing days, has 50 goals in his sights this season. He is still based in Lytham St Annes, in Lancashire, and commutes north of the border to train twice a week, for games, and to help with Queens’ reserve team, with an eye on a future career in management. Otherwise, most evenings he is ferrying his two boys — Jack, 9, and Maxwell, 6 — to football training with Lytham Juniors and, in Maxwell’s case, Liverpool’s academy.
“They come and watch me play every week, and that’s a big thing too,” he says. “They both want to be professional footballers and they’re getting to see the best of me. Why lose that to go somewhere and sit on the bench for a couple of extra quid? It’s not about that.”
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Hall Of Fame
It is frightening to think what his goal tally would be if he had never left but I am so glad he took his opportunity.
Although he didnt get as much game time as he wanted at times those experience have really shaped him as a person and we are reaping the benefits. He turned into a real professional.
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It's also frightening to think what his goal tally would be this season if we had a manager who actually had the confidence in his players to play in a more attacking style. Can Dobbie break the record? Plenty of matches left, I would say it's a stick-on.
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I am inclined to agree with this. My main criticism of Naysmith ( and by the way I do like the man) is that he gives some teams far too much respect . Yes, Dundee United have better players than us technically but we are on our own pitch so lets have a go from the off. This containing policy rarely ever works as the pressing team usually get through us at some point and then the gameplan is out the window. We have the players - on our day- to beat anyone so lets let them off the leash from the start . Far too many times we gave been slow starters and as suggested, sitting in does nothing to get people in the ground . Every team in this league is beatable .
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I read this article the other day, and the bit that stood out for me was where Dobbie placed the standard of the Scottish Championship as compared to England.
“I don’t think people in England realise how hard it is up here,” Dobbie counters. “I would definitely say that in England you get a lot more time on the ball. In Scotland it’s a lot more physical.” Where, then, would he place the standard of the Scottish Championship comparatively in England? “We played Fleetwood [Town] in pre-season and lost 1-0, gave them a good game,” he says. “So maybe League One, bottom of the Sky Bet Championship even.”
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Absolutely bang on JR. Let’s play to our strengths and worry less about other teams.
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Would love for Sir Stephen to get a goal (s) in this game but tbh it is secondary to the fact that we really need three points after 3 consecutive league defeats - come on Queens get right intae them from the start.
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With the right level of application and attitude from the start we should win this game and Dobbie will also get closer to taking the goalscoring record as well. Mon the South.
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