Camelon Juniors captain Jason Walton revels in ‘unbelievable’ Scottish Cup journey after midfielder’s shock collapse comes full circle.

Jason Walton’s Scottish Cup journey this season has been one like no other.

The Camelon Juniors captain led his side to the fourth round for the first time last Saturday after a 2-1 win over SPFL club Edinburgh City - and that feat came three months after the popular football had to be resuscitated before the Mariners’ second preliminary round tie.

Tam Scobbie’s team travelled to South of Scotland outfit Wigtown & Bladnoch on Saturday, 30 August but that clash was abandoned after midfielder Walton collapsed during the pre-match warm-up. After CPR was administered, the 33-year-old was rushed to Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer. In the week that followed, he returned home and then got the nod from his GP that he was in the clear.

And Walton finally got his to make his Scottish Cup bow last weekend, earning a first start in this year’s competition against the Scottish League Two side as his team-mates created more history having already reached the third round without him on the pitch. The Mariners had already sunk big names in Albion Rovers and Johnstone Burgh in the previous two rounds after easing past Wigtown when that tie was eventually played. The footballer amazingly only started physical activity during the last week of September.

Walton revels in Camelon’s cup heroics

Speaking to the Falkirk Herald after the famous result - which came courtesy of second-goals by Ross Kavanagh and Dean Watson - delighted Walton revelled in what was a day to remember forever.

“It’s unbelievable to honest. I can’t really describe how I am feeling at the moment... it is the stuff of dreams really. Complete dreams. It’s nuts. I wanted to play in this round and we wanted to get through and we managed to do that. It’s one thing saying that we wanted to try and get to the big fourth round draw but to actually do it is unbelievable. I can’t really sum it up, it’s been some journey over the past few months and today made it all worth it. It was so, so good. Every moment of it. To win the match the way we did made it that bit more special.”

On the dogged performance, Walton added: “I thought we were honestly excellent in the first half. The way that we stuck together and stayed in our shape against them. The second half was chaos. When they got the equaliser - it is such a natural thing to get deeper and deeper. We let them pop the ball around but to a man we were unbelievable as a unit. It was a proper team effort. Dean (Watson) did so well to stay composure for the winner, I know what I would have done... and it wouldn’t have led to a goal! I was in two minds trying to celebrate afterwards but also having a word at the referee to see how long was left.”

Celtic-daft Walton was hoping for a trip to Parkhead in the fourth round but his Camelon side have instead been handed a home tie against another League Two club. The Mariners will host Elgin City at the Moore Equipment Hire Stadium on the weekend of Saturday. January 17 as they look to create even more history - and you wouldn’t bet against them doing it again.