The final of our signings so far is Rhys McCabe. Rhys was a youth player for Rangers and scored in the 2011 Youth Cup Final before making the step up to start his professional career with the Ibrox side. From Govan the midfielder headed south and signed a deal with Sheffield Wednesday during which time he spent some time on loan at Portsmouth. On his return to Scotland in 2015 he joined Dunfermline for two years and on leaving the Pars, Rhys’s career took him over the water to Ireland to Sligo Rovers and St Patrick’s. Now 28 years old, he most recently spent a short time at Brechin City. Rhys has also represented Scotland at Under 21 level.
It’s fair to say that football is in his family’s blood with Aunt Shelley Kerr currently managing the Scotland women’s side and Cousin Callum Fordyce a well-known face to Queens Fans. The defender played at Palmerston before moving to his current club Airdrie.
During his time at Dunfermline, Rhys played under manager Allan Johnston who has now brought him to Dumfries and he’s just delighted to be back involved. “It’s been a long time off from football in general so I’ve been chomping at the bit to get back into some kind of routine so I’m delighted to sign and looking forward to the season ahead. It was a case of weighing up my options and I have worked with Allan and Sandy previously at Dunfermline so I know how they like to play. I had been in Ireland previously but I’ve got a wee girl so I came back for family reasons as I wanted to be closer to home”.
Rhys believes signing for Queens still gives him the opportunity to play at a high level “ The standard of the Championship is high and hopefully there will be some exciting games this season with Hearts and others big teams in the league, so I’m looking forward to it being an interesting and competitive league. It’s a tough league, hard to get out of, but it is amazing because anyone can beat anyone. It’s one of those competitive leagues which means that every game is a must win because if you can get a run of games together and few good results it pushes you up the table”.
He sees the ability of being able to put together a run of good results and being consistent as they key to success “That is the foundation – if you can have a consistent season as well as staying injury free squad wise and bring it all together over the course of the 27 games for as long as possible, you give yourself a good chance. Looking from a far last season, Queens started well and then tailed off near the end so I definitely think it’s about consistency. It’s been strange because of covid so it will be interesting to see how all the clubs are going to fair not just ourselves, football has taken a massive hit”.
One of seven signings on Monday, Rhys has a week of pre-season training under his belt “Training has been tough but good. The first few days were ball stuff but there has been fitness work as well, you need to do it as getting your fitness up is part of it. It’s been a long time off, six months for most players, so it’s been a case of dusting off the cobwebs but everyone has been itching to get going and into a routine so everyone is in good spirits and have all been training hard”.
“There’s a lot of new boys, but some of either played against or with each other so being in the dressing room and training it’s been easy to settle in but it will take a bit of time and I’m sure the Gaffer will have other targets that he wants to bring in quickly so they can get their foot in the door and up and running”.
Rhys is hoping his style of play will appeal to the Queens faithful “I’m a centre midfielder so I like to get on the ball and play the attractive style of football that most people want. I know the style that the Gaffer and Sandy like to play – I hope to use my past experience and bring it to the table”.