Thomson Targets Greater Consistency

Raith Rovers right back Jason Thomson trod a well worn path last year when he became the latest Heart of Midlothian player to join the Kirkcaldy club on loan. Rarely had any of the former loanees made such a significant impact however, as his debut coincided with one of Raith’s finest performances of the season, a 5-0 demolition Morton. Uniquely though, Jason’s loan move eventually paved the way for him to join the club outright in the Summer of 2012.

Whilst his first appearance in a Rovers jersey was memorable due to the size of Raith’s winning margin, Jason recalls that his senior debut for Hearts involved slightly more unusual circumstances,

“There was some sort of flu bug spreading through the club and there were a few players out because of it. One of them happened to be Robbie Neilson so I was asked to step in for him and make my debut when I was 19. I think because I was so young I didn’t really appreciate how big a deal it was so I didn’t get too nervous and I just tried to get on with it as best I could. We were playing Inverness and I thought I did okay actually, I must have done because I won the man of the match award but we lost the game which was pretty disappointing.”

Thomson was still in his teens when Vladimir Romanov arrived at Tynecastle but he remembers the excitement that was generated around the club at the beginning of the 2005-2006 season as Hearts, under George Burley, surged to the top of the league,

“I was training with the first team occasionally but playing with the under 19’s. We were flying at the start of the season under Burley, winning 8 and drawing 2 or something and the fans and probably the players thought that we could maybe keep it going. Romanov wanted to go in another direction though and Burley was sacked. We still did really well but we never looked like recreating the form of that first ten games or so.”

Although the so-called Romanov revolution was allowing players of a higher quality to sign for the Gorgie club, the knock on effect was that there was a far greater quantity of players vying for a first team place,

“You see the situation now and Hearts don’t seem to have a particularly big pool of players, but when I was there they had a first team squad of around 30 boys, so it was always going to be hard to break through. There were a few from my age group who managed it though as Andrew Driver, Lee Wallace and Calum Elliott all got games at the time. These boys have all went onto different things and I suppose Lee has probably done the best with his move to Rangers. At the time it was hard but we all made it to varying degrees, and I really enjoyed it. At the time the club was spending big money on players so it just goes to show the difference in them between then and now.”

With his first team appearances restricted at Tynecastle, Jason eventually opted to go out on loan to gain playing experience, firstly at Livingston in 2006-07 and then Dunfermline in 2011,

“I went out to Livi on loan first. At the time there was a car load of boys that could play in my position so I went there and I was really enjoying it but I hurt my ankle and had to get an operation on it so missed 3 or 4 months of the season. I was fit again for the last few games and then went back to Hearts. After that my next loan move was to Dunfermline in the SPL last season. I’d been told I wouldn’t be featuring too much at Hearts and at that age, 23, 24, you really need to be playing games. I’m glad they were honest with me though and I moved to Dunfermline who were struggling after getting promoted and right from the start it looked like it was going to be a tough ask for them. After I went back I was told I could find myself a new club and ended up coming to Stark’s Park for the last quarter of last season and it went really well. I’m delighted with how it worked out.”

Although leaving Hearts was a wrench he was pragmatic about his move away from the team he grew up supporting,

“I’m a Hearts fan and so are all my family but at the end of the day you’ve got to earn a living for yourself. I really enjoyed my time at the club, they gave me a great platform to play football on, but I knew it was time to move on. I’m at Rovers now though and I’m enjoying it here as well.”

His debut for Raith last season came somewhat out the blue, and the rushed nature of it meant he only had 1 training session with his new team mates before the Saturday. The clubs impressive form after he joined, coupled with his longest run of first team football helped convince him to sign on a permanent basis,

“I got the phone call on the Thursday night to come here on loan and then trained with the boys the next morning. Then I got told by the gaffer that I was going straight into the team the next day and we ended up hammering Morton by five so I certainly didn’t have too much to complain about
Despite his delight at being considered a first choice pick for the first time in his career, Thomson hasn’t been happy with every aspect of how the season has panned out,there. I love the fact that I’ve had a good run of games here, in fact this season is the longest run I’ve had in the nine years or so I’ve been playing. I’ve missed one game this season through suspension but that’s it. It was a really big thing for me to be asked to sign for a club and be told that depending on how well I was playing I’d probably be the first choice right back. It was a great feeling.”

“It’s been a bit frustrating because I think we’ve been inconsistent. Our forms been a bit, win one, draw two, lose one and in this league the key to breaking away looks like consistency. I think any team that’s near the top of the First Division at the moment will have a great chance of winning it if

they can just put a run of wins together. Hopefully there’s been a progression though, we ended up 7th last year and at the moment we’re 5th and there’s a fair few games to go. I know the gaffer didn’t want to set targets in case it put a bit of pressure on us but you can probably say that winning the league will be beyond us. Its not impossible, but a 12 point gap is a lot to make up. We need to finish as high as possible though because you never know what could happen with league reconstruction. Maybe even finishing in the top four could end up giving you something, who knows?”
He admitted however that while the fans may have been content with consolidation on last terms good finish, the players in the dressing room had been aiming a bit higher earlier in the season,

“We spoke about it as a squad and discussed about how last season we had Baird and Davidson and they were obviously big players for Rovers. I only played about nine games with them but from what I saw they looked like two of our better players. Guys like that are hard to replace but we brought in some new faces and started really well. We thought that if we were there or thereabouts around Christmas then you never know, but we went through a sticky patch in December and didn’t pick up too many points. Thing is if we had then we would have been ideally placed to take advantage of Dunfermline and Partick’s recent slip ups but we didn’t manage it. It’s a tough league though, just look at Dumbarton’s recent form, a lot of folk had written them off recently so it shows you cant take anything for granted.”

Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Livingston wasn’t entirely unexpected due to Rovers unenviable recent record against the West Lothian outfit. The defender admitted that the poor run against them had been a topic of discussion,

“A few of the boys were talking about it. I think I played against them once last season and they beat us 4-0. When I was watching them on Saturday I could see that they were a decent team with good movement and they pass the ball well but I cant quite put my finger on why we do so poorly against them. In saying that I think we did not too badly against them at the weekend. We could have sneaked a draw at the end and in the first half especially there were a lot of chances for both teams.”

With Saturday’s victors leapfrogging Rovers into 4th place, and with a few games in hand over the trio of teams above them, Jason thinks Livingston may have a chance of forcing themselves into the title shake up. With his tongue placed firmly in his cheek he also picked out which team he’d prefer not to see lift the trophy come the end of the season,

“They’re a good young team and if they can win their games in hand then then they’ll be right up there challenging. I actually think in footballing terms Livingston might be the best in the league in terms of moving the ball around, but sometimes that’s not enough to win you the title. The three that’s up there at the moment will obviously be the favourites but I hope it isn’t Dunfermline, they’ve got a chance though, but whether they or Morton or Partick can put a run together remains to be seen.”

Rovers may have a poor record against last weeks opponents but the same cannot be said for this weeks visitors, Hamilton Accies, a team that Raith have already beaten on two occasions this season. Some inside information won’t go amiss though,

“We should be confident going into the game since its at home and we’ve a good record at Stark’s this

season. The gaffer has spoke about how important it is to keep that record going and we’ve got a wee help in the fact that Greig Spence, Simon Mensing and Grant Anderson were all at Hamilton recently so they’ll be able to keep us right. We know we’ll certainly need to watch Stevie May since he looked sharp the last time we played each other. You need to have a bit of confidence in yourself though so we’ll definitely be looking for the three points on Saturday.”

To overcome Hamilton for a third time this season Rovers may have to rely on Thomson’s defensive abilities as well as his determination to get forward and support Grant Anderson down the right hand side. It’s a combination that’s been key to unlocking defences and creating chances for the forwards time and time again this season. He may have made his debut due to an outbreak of flu, but his form in a Raith jersey is certainly not to be sneezed at.

Written by Shaughan McGuigan

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