Blair Alston: Why going part-time with Stenhousemuir after 15 years as a full-time footballer is ideal for me
After 15 years in the full-time ranks, ex-Falkirk star Blair Alston has been explaining the family reasons why he decided to go part-time this summer after penning a two-year deal with League One Stenhousemuir.
“At the moment I’m studying to be a financial adviser,” midfielder Alston, 32, who has previously played for Falkirk (in two spells), St Johnstone, Hamilton Accies, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle, told the Falkirk Herald. “So I’m doing a lot of work from home and then I’m hoping to go down a pathway that involves that.
"It probably got to the point where I felt like I'd had a good career and I’d played full-time for long enough where realistically I wasn’t going to make enough money from this to retire afterwards, it was never going to be like that.
"I had to start looking at life after football and getting serious about that.
"I’ve got a wee boy who’s three – Nathan – with my wife Nicole. With my family situation I thought: ‘Let’s get life after football organised’ as opposed to just thinking about myself for the last 15 years as a full-time player.
"Nicole has seen it all and I always think it’s harder for people close to you.
"When you’re in it, you’re in it. But your family and friends have to deal with the ups and downs almost more than you do.
"Nicole has been through the wringer but she’s happy that it’s all sorted now.”
Although Alston scored all three goals for Partick over two legs in May’s Scottish Premiership play-off semi-final loss to Raith Rovers – the Kirkcaldy side won 4-3 on penalties after a 3-3 aggregate draw – he wasn’t happy at missing a high percentage of the Maryhill team’s fixtures last term and was released before Stenny manager Gary Naysmith pounced to sign him.
"Last year I was disappointed because I felt I never played as many games as I could have,” Alston said.
"You get to an age where you just want to be playing games all the time.
"The full-time opportunities that were around for me this summer I don’t think were going to be financially right or giving me the most playing time I could guarantee myself.
"You can never guarantee yourself a place in the starting line-up but you want to give yourself the best opportunity to play as much as possible and then enjoy playing again. That’s what the hope is for this year anyway.
"I went back to League One earlier in my career with Falkirk (four years ago) and it’s difficult. It’s one of those leagues that is so competitive that it’s hard to stand out no matter how good you are as a player.
"I’m certainly not coming back with the mindset that it’s going to be easy and stroll around. I’m coming here to try and make an impact, help the team this year and I feel like I’m capable of doing well.
"But I know it’s not going to be just a case of turning up and scoring goals.
"I missed all of pre-season so it’s up to me to get myself match sharpness again and try and set a marker down this year. The benefit for me this year is that the financial stuff is all done in my own time from home. It can be quite monotonous as I’m reading a book lots of the time.
"So I can do as much or as little of that as I want and I just benefit depending on how much I can put into it.
"I’ve got a good routine where I’m pretty much doing that every day throughout the week and then we train Tuesday and Thursday nights which allows me time to go to the gym and keep me topped up away from football.”
Alston, who played the last seven minutes as a substitute in Stenny’s 2-0 league loss at Kelty Hearts last weekend, is likely to be a sub again at Alloa Athletic this Saturday as he isn’t fully match fit.