Dorman in the red now (From Campaign Series)

Dorman in the red now

1:10pm Thursday 12th November 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

ST Mirren midfielder Andy Dorman has admitted that he had given up hope of ever pulling on the red shirt of Wales before being called up for Saturday’s clash with Scotland.

Chester-born Dorman became eligible for Wales only last month under the new five-year school rule which means that any British passport holder can play for any home nations side, providing they have been educated for a minimum of five years in that country.

Dorman has been one of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League’s top performers since joining Saints from New England Revolution in January 2008 and he’s excited to finally get the chance to play for what he considers his home country.

“It’s great to be here and be a part of the squad. I’m very excited,” said the 27-year-old.

“It’s great that the rule has finally come in. I lived in Wales for 17 years and I’m delighted to get the call even though I was born in Chester and my parents are English.

“It all happened so quickly and it’s a bit of a shock because I had kind of given up hope of ever playing for Wales.

“It was frustrating in the past watching Wales games on the TV and I’m just enjoying the experience at the moment.”

Dorman is enjoying life north of the border and even though Wales boss John Toshack has not seen him play in the flesh he recently netted his 19th goal for St Mirren.

* Wales have suffered another withdrawal from their squad to face Scotland in Cardiff, with Newport-born defender Chris Gunter the latest to defect.

The 20 year-old Nottingham Forest full-back, who has played in Wales’ last 14 internationals, has a viral infection and is expected to be out of action for a fortnight.

Gunter is the fifth player to withdraw from John Toshack’s original squad, set to face George Burley’s side at Cardiff City’s new stadium.

Craig Bellamy, James Collins, Jack Collison and Simon Davies have pulled out - while Boaz Myhill, Neal Eardley and David Vaughan were not considered because of existing injuries.

Toshack said: “The injury thing seem to follow us around. Recently, they’ve been genuine things; they’ve been bad luck - 99% of them anyway.

“But we can’t keep missing players through injury because we can’t get any continuity.’’

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)