Published: Thursday, 26th November, 2009 8:10am

Shields back and looking for Scottish club

by Ally McRoberts

Comments (0) | Print | Email

GREG Shields is back home and looking for a Scottish club but the former Par's American dream isn't coming to an end just yet.

The 33-year-old, who played in the Match for Mary earlier this month, wants to go on loan but only until the new season with Carolina Railhawks starts up in April.

Shields explained, "I'll go on loan in January, from whenever the window opens until 31st March.

"I've had a few people on the phone but a loan is all it will be and it's just to keep me ticking over.

"I've started training and I like to do the hard stuff by myself, I'm a bit of a weirdo that way!"

Shields left the Pars in the summer after two successful spells at the club and is loving his time in North Carolina - but should it be working this well?

Sending a pale-skinned, ginger Scottish guy who's used to playing in wind, sleet and snow to one of the hottest parts of the US?

Separated from his family by a few thousand miles, his team-mates struggle to work out what he's saying and he's knackered after spending more time in the air than Superman.

Shields said, "I thought it was maybe the right time to leave Dunfermline but then my dad died and that was hard.

"I wondered if I was doing the right thing but it's been brilliant, I should have done it sooner.

"I'm playing right back every game and I'm really enjoying it, it's a new lease of life.

"It's the buzz of going to another club, playing in another country, as sometimes you can stay at a club too long."

Shields wasn't quite so sure after his first game though.

"We play at 7pm because of the heat and the humidity is 98 per cent, so the pace is a lot slower," he explained.

"My first game at home was against Cleveland and after 25 minutes I had a really dry throat and couldn't take any air in.

"I lasted the game but after my shorts were absolutely soaking with sweat, you could wring them out!

"I thought, 'What on earth am I doing here?'."

Carolina did well to finish second in the USL First Division but narrowly lost out to Vancouver, who were seventh, in the play-offs.

As for his team-mates, Shields laughed, "I've had to tone my accent down as most of the other players can't understand a word I'm saying!

"There's about seven or eight nationalities in our squad - South Americans, Africans, Canadians too - I think I'm the only European.

"They're all up at 7am to watch the English games on Sky, that's where they want to play eventually, so everyone keeps asking if I can get them a move!"

It hasn't all been plain sailing, although even the obligatory abuse from opposition fans had a lighter side.

"The Vancouver fans were nuts and were throwing all sorts of stuff at our keeper," he remembered.

"But I couldn't stop laughing when they were shouting things like 'Shields, you suck'.

"It's just totally different from here."

He continued, "It is a lot of travelling - Miami, Rochester, Montreal, Puerto Rico - and since July I've been on something like 30 flights.

"It's a bit different from here, where last season the longest trip was probably two-and-a-half hours to Inverness.

"Over there you can leave Friday morning at 4am, for somewhere like Vancouver, and get there, including time waiting in airports, two flights and a three-hour time change, about 13 hours later."

Crucially, life off the park is good for wife Lorraine and kids Aaron (9), seven-year-old Beth and Isla (4).

"It's a happy place. It's like Florida without Disney," Shields smiled.

"We don't have to learn a new language, the area is really lovely and everything is new - it's like that street in Desperate Housewives!

"It's one of the top five places in the USA to live and it's not been difficult for the children to make friends either.

"There's a house we want to rent and a school we like and the kids thought it was great.

"I wouldn't be going if it wasn't right for them."

But he added, "My wife is adamant that it'll be the remaining two years and then we'll come home.

"That's the plan just now.

"Lorraine wanted to start a college course, in holistic therapy, but that was put off when the American move came up.

"She's been a housewife for 10 years and she's moved around for me but now she wants to do something she will enjoy."

He wasn't the only player to leave for an adventure in another country, although Scott Wilson's season in Australia was cut short by a nasty cruciate knee ligament injury.

And Shields said, "Big Scott has done his knee in so he won't be playing for six months but I think he's going to stay out there anyway and do his coaching badges.

"I've kept in touch with him, and others, through Skype and he's a laid back character so he'll be fine.

"He said he'd send me pictures of life out there but when I got them I didn't know there'd be 350 of them!"