Love Your Club: Graeme Smith – Peterhead
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Graeme Smith has been a mainstay in the Peterhead line-up since arriving from St Mirren in November 2012.
We caught up with the Blue Toon ‘keeper to find out what he loves about the Aberdeenshire club.
Why do you love Peterhead?
The club has been absolutely fantastic to me. I’ve never missed a game since I signed; I’ve been here over two and a half years and think I’ve played around 150 games in a row. There’s a great bunch of boys, we’ve got great support and it’s a really nice place with friendly people. It’s a combination of a lot of things and I can’t think of a negative thing about the club.
What’s the vibe like in the dressing room?
I’m pretty quiet and keep myself to myself. In my opinion, as a footballer it doesn’t matter whether you are playing in front of 50 people at East Stirling or 50,000 at Parkhead, you need to do the same things in order to have a good game.
I’m probably able to deal with it more as I’m longer in the tooth! But don’t get me wrong the butterflies are always there, as I think if you’re not nervous then you don’t care. I’m either as high as a kite at 5 o’clock on a Saturday if we’ve won or lower than a snakes belly if it’s not gone well.
When it’s good it’s really good but when it’s tough it’s very tough, but that’s why we love football.
Describe the fans and what they mean to the club
At Peterhead we are a close knit community club, so we do a lot of things in schools and initiatives to bring fans in and help the new generation of fans.
It’s a small town with a small population, but the club’s done fantastically well getting promoted two seasons ago and the fans were able to see us go to Ibrox and win in the league which is obviously great for them.
Obviously it’s a great distance when we travel to places like Stranraer, so a lot of the fans share the team bus with the players.
The higher up the league you go you probably wouldn’t get that, but I think it’s great. It’s better that the players can interact with the fans and get to know them on a first name basis.
Can you name a Peterhead backroom hero?
The list is probably endless. There’s Jock the kitman and Stan the groundsman, the physios and all the people upstairs that make the dinners. They put a lot of effort into what actually happens on a Saturday.
It’s like any football club, the people behind the scenes are the most important and they are the unsung heroes.
What’s the best thing about being a Peterhead footballer?
It’s been my dream since I was five or six years old when I was playing in the streets with my older brother.
And it’s been fantastic, not just to become a professional, but this is my 17th pre-season which makes me feel a bit old, but it’s all I ever want to do until my body tells me otherwise.
You train and put the hard work in and sacrifice a lot, like nights out with your friends, but when you win a game or a championship it’s just priceless.
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