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Former Dundee ace Leighton McIntosh opens up on being a ‘Deefiant’ hero and making a name for himself with a wider audience thanks to a flourishing off-field talent

Leighton McIntosh alongside his artwork.
Leighton McIntosh alongside his artwork.

For Dundee fans, Leighton McIntosh will forever be remembered as one of the “Deefiant” heroes who kept the club in the old First Division against all the odds.

Now, though, the striker is making a name for himself with a wider audience thanks to a flourishing off-field talent.

Like many footballers, McIntosh spent time during lockdown doing a spot of painting around the house.

However, there was certainly no big roller and a bucket of emulsion involved for this 27-year-old.

Instead, he spent hours at his easel, honing a talent for pop art that has seen his work snapped up for good money in galleries around the country.

Now, Scotland’s budding Andy Warhol is determined to brush up on his craft even more while also playing for part-time Cove Rangers after leaving full-time English National League outfit Wrexham in the summer.

McIntosh, who will be in boss Paul Hartley’s squad for today’s televised Betfred Cup tie with Hibs, said: “I’ll maybe think about getting a job further down the line but at the moment I have a few different projects that I do.

McIntosh pictured during 2012/13 season.

“I do a lot of painting and I have been doing that for a while.

“I have some of my paintings in galleries down south. One thing about being at Wrexham was that it was good to connect with galleries there as obviously there are a lot more people, more money, things like that.

“So I have been working with a few galleries and to be fair that’s what I have been concentrating on more, especially during lockdown.

“I was just concentrating on my art. I do things like pop art, nostalgic cartoons, nice and colourful, things like that.”

When asked if his style was similar to the late, great Andy Warhol, McIntosh replied: “Yes, kind of. It was something that was just a hobby and then I started to take it a bit more seriously.

“That down time in lockdown allowed me to put all my energies into something and I put it into that.

“I have been making a fair bit of money off it. My main aim was to try to get into the galleries as it is more exposure.

“They do take a good cut but you are still selling your stuff for a lot more.

“It is something I want to keep progressing with. I did a few exhibitions in Dundee before I went down south and sold a few.

“So I will just try to continue working harder towards bigger things.”

McIntosh played at Dens recently for Cove in a friendly.

More of the footballer’s artwork.

The visit brought back a lot of memories for the player and the rollercoaster season in 2010/11 that included the devastating low of administration and then the incredible high of staying up.

It was McIntosh who scored the goal that ultimately secured Dundee’s First Division survival in Dingwall against Ross County on April 23.

As a teenager, the full extent of the achievement didn’t really sink in until he saw exactly what it meant to some of the senior pros in the side.

McIntosh said: “There was just so much happening in such a short space of time, it was hard to process it especially at that age.

“In my mind, all I wanted to do was just play in the first team. I was in the Dundee youth set-up from Under-11s so I was trying to get into the team.

“So to score was amazing. I had done my hamstring at the start of that game and so I was just trying to run until I couldn’t run any more especially for the manager.

“When you are younger you just put your body on the line at every opportunity. I just took the gamble to press the keeper and that was it.

“I think the importance of what happened started to sink in after the game. We all started celebrating and I saw what it meant to the older pros like Rab Douglas.

McIntosh in action against Dundee United in 2012.

“Looking back on it now I am more aware of the impact it had. I still have fans coming up to me and saying, ‘What about that Deefiant season!’.

“It just sets in more and more.”

After leaving Dundee, McIntosh played for a whole host of clubs in this country including Arbroath, Peterhead, Montrose as well as Airdrie.

He also had a spell abroad with UMF Selfoss in Iceland, a country that made a big impression on the front man.

McIntosh said: “It has been some journey for me since I was at Dundee.

“I have been to a lot of places and played in a lot of different teams.

“It was a great experience in Iceland. That was one thing I always wanted to do in my career was play abroad.

“When the opportunity came, I just took it.

“It was a brilliant time, seeing some amazing sights there and experiencing a different footballing culture.

“The standards in Iceland and the way they treat things is great and it was really refreshing for me.

“We were part-time in name but we were in nearly every day.

“It was a full-time mentality and you can see exactly why their national team is doing so well.

“They do things very professionally there no matter what the standard is.”

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