Dale set to become a 'Record Breaker'

All going well and to plan Dale Hilson will this Saturday take part in his 100th competitive game for Forfar Athletic. Some would say that even in this day and age of player movement there is nothing spectacular in that statistic.

However the fact that Dale will complete this milestone in four separate stints with the ‘Loons’ on loan from his parent club Dundee United could well be a first in British footballing history.
The Stirling born forward who celebrated his 21st birthday last month in fact first joined United on a youth form at the start of the 2005/6 campaign.

He began his first spell at Station Park on a temporary transfer five years later making his debut in a 2-1 win in the CIS Cup at Forthbank, Stirling on 31st August, 2010. The following week he made a scoring league debut in a 4-1 home win over Dumbarton. That season he made 31 starting appearances for Dick Campbell’s outfit, coming off the bench on 5 further occasions.

He went back to Tannadice at the end of that season but on New Year’s Day, 2012 he arrived back at Station Park. He went on to make 21 appearances before the season drew to a close.
Dale again went back to United a the start of last season, but in early December he returned to his second footballing ‘home.’ A further 22 starting and 1 substitute appearance followed before that season came to it’s dramatic close in the two legged play-off semi final with the ‘Pars.’

Fast forward to this current campaign and Dale again moved up the road to Forfar in late August making his seasonal debut in the League Cup defeat at Dens Park. Since then despite a three week absence in December through an injury sustained at Ibrox he has racked up 19 appearances, meaning that the visit of Airdrieonians when he is almost certain to be in the Manager’s plans will see him reach his century.

In his time with the club it has to be said that Dale has perhaps not scored as many goals as he would have wished , his tally this season being six, bring his overall number to fifteen.
No doubt this ‘stat’ will have the football anoraks pouring over the record books.

However it is unlikely that any other player has recorded that many appearances for his ‘second’ club while still on the books of another club, in this instance our friends from down the road at Tannadice.