Lyall Cameron says the “massive decision” for him to leave Dundee United for Dundee aged 14 saw him fall in love with football again.
The 20-year-old revealed he was unhappy in the Tangerines youth setup and admits he’s not sure how his career would have panned out if he hadn’t made the move.
However, the switch across the road has paid dividends for the Scotland U/21 star.
His breakthrough campaign last year saw the youngster play a key part in Dundee’s Championship title win.
He finished the season as top scorer in all competitions and became the first player ever to win Player, Players’ Player and Young Player of the Year in the same season.
And he credits the coaching of Tony and Steve Murray, the former Celtic and Aberdeen midfielder, at Dundee for putting him on the right track.
“When I was at United I was playing here and there but not getting too much game time. I felt I was playing out of position and I wasn’t really enjoying it,” Cameron told the Up Wi’ The Bonnets podcast.
“At that age, maybe 14, it’s all about enjoying football.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to make, it felt like a huge decision at the time.
“United were probably the bigger academy, probably had the better setup and were in a higher league.
“It was a step down because you went down from playing Celtic and Rangers to teams like Morton and lower teams.
“It wasn’t as good a league but I thought I would play more and made the change.
“I was coached by Tony and Steve Murray at first. They changed everything for me, they made me totally love football again and I owe everything I’ve done to them.
“If that hadn’t happened who knows what I’d be doing now.”
The debut that didn’t happen
In a wide-ranging interview on the Dundee fan podcast, Up Wi’ The Bonnets, Cameron also touched on missing out on his debut for the club in 2019.
James McPake was interim manager following Jim McIntyre’s sacking and gave debuts to Fin Robertson and Josh Mulligan.
Cameron was supposed to be coming on, too. However, Darren O’Dea’s red card in his final Dundee appearance ended that hope.
“I’d been told I’d be getting on – if no one got sent off!” Cameron said.
“I was still at school at the time.
“I think it was the first half, Fin Robertson was making his debut and switched the ball to Daz who took a ropey touch and took the boy out.
“It was almost slow motion and I’m looking at the ref thinking ‘oh no, that’s me not getting on now’.
“I knew early on that my chances were done.”
‘I just had an absolute nightmare’
A couple of sub appearances came the following season in cup matches before a very first start away to Dunfermline.
However, that did not go to plan.
“The night before I was so nervous, I’ve never felt anything like it,” he admitted ahead of the East End Park clash in January 2020.
“My hands were shaking when I was cutting up my tea and I couldn’t sleep. I was so nervous.
“East End Park is a big stadium and it was on the TV, it was a big game.
“I just had an absolute nightmare.
“Still to this day I’ve never watched the game back and I don’t think I will. It probably was the worst game of my life.
“It was a blur. I was giving the ball away and lost all my confidence. We went 1-0 down then Kevin Nisbet took the ball off me, cut in and scored a worldie.
“I just wanted the ground to swallow me up.”
Last season
Fast forward three years with spells at Peterhead and Montrose in between and Cameron was suddenly front and centre of a Dundee promotion push.
“At the start of the season I hoped it would be good but I never expected it would be that good, to win all those things,” he added.
“The most satisfying goal had to be the one against Queen’s Park.
“It didn’t win us the league because Luke (McCowan) scored after but it was a big goal.
“I scored and had two assists that night so it was good to do that in a big game.
“It was frustrating with the (number of) fans because it didn’t appear to be as big a game as it was.
“But I wouldn’t change how that went, it was mental. Such a good way to end.”
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