Throwing a Dundee team-mate “under the bus”, being chased by Jason Cummings down Dens Road and almost signing for Brendan Rodgers at Celtic.
Trevor Carson has plenty of tales to tell from a career that’s taken in 14 clubs from Sunderland, Hartlepool, Motherwell and Dundee United.
Now at Dundee, the 36-year-old has opened up on current life at Dens Park, losing Luke McCowan and plenty more.
“We have done well, we’ve been unbeaten and it’s been a good positive start,” the keeper told Simon Ferry’s Open Goal podcast.
“We had the disappointment of losing Lukey [McCowan] but then had a good performance off the back of that against St Mirren.
“Saturday wasn’t what we wanted but the thing we have created is last season we didn’t lose two games on the bounce.
“We’re disappointed but we won’t dwell on it.”
McCowan replacement?
Since McCowan left for Celtic, Dundee have drawn with St Mirren and lost disappointingly at Ross County on Saturday.
And Carson admits it has been a blow for the squad to lose such an influential member of the dressing-room.
“It is. He’s a great guy and the gaffer called him the social guy, he was the one organised nights out and whatever,” Carson added.
“He was a big character in the dressing-room.
“He was the fines guy but I made sure he transferred that across because we had a night out [after St Mirren game].
“I made sure that was straight in there – I didn’t even congratulate him!
“He’ll be a big miss but we wish him well.”
There may already be someone at Dens Park ready to fill the void left by McCowan, however.
“We have so many good players but the boy Sammy Braybrooke has come up from Leicester and you can see his class in training every day,” Carson revealed.
“He did well against St Mirren but it might take a wee bit of time to adapt to Scottish football.
“But he’s got loads of ability.”
Celtic
Carson also revealed a stroke of bad luck saw him miss out on a life-changing move to Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic.
The Dens goalie recalled that the Hoops were needing a goalkeeper and the Northern Ireland international was impressing for Motherwell.
In came the Hoops and due to replace him at Fir Park was Freddie Woodman on loan from Newcastle.
However, Joe Lewis got injured at Aberdeen the day before the window closed and Woodman instead went to Pittodrie.
Despite the deal being agreed, Stephen Robinson wouldn’t allow his goalkeeper to leave without a replacement.
And it ended up being Dundee’s very own Scott Bain who made the switch on loan before signing permanently in the summer.
Bain is still at Parkhead six years later.
Jason Cummings car chase
Carson then suffered from a blood clot that kept him out for 18 months and he would eventually find his way to the City of Discovery.
Firstly, though, with Tam Courts at United. A coach he had plenty of praise for, despite only playing four times.
And he recalled a funny story just days before a Dundee derby while in a car with Charlie Mulgrew, Marc McNulty doing a drive-by, of sorts, on Dark Blues striker Jason Cummings.
“I remember big Charlie [Mulgrew] did that when we were at United,” Carson said.
“We were driving past Dens, we were playing Dundee at the weekend.
“Dundee at the time met at Dens before going to training.
“Cummings was getting in his car, Charlie winds down the window and it was him and Sparky [Marc McNulty] in the front.
“Sparky winds down the window and shouts ‘you’re f***ing getting it on Saturday!’
“Cummings lost it, mate! Started chasing the car up Dens Road, went mental.
“He knew it was them but he never took it as a laugh.
“You know what Cummings is like. It was brilliant.”
Throwing Dee team-mate ‘under the bus’
Fast forward to Saturday’s defeat to Ross County and Carson’s pet peeve was triggered by Dundee team-mate Curtis Main.
A long bus journey home with a 2-0 reverse to think about saw the disappointment taken to a new level.
Asked by Ferry about his pet peeves, Carson replied: “Everything annoys me and I’m going to throw one of the boys under the bus here.
“But loud eaters…
“I’ll say it here because I’m too scared to say it to his face and I’m hoping he doesn’t watch this.
“But Curtis Main, I sat beside him on the bus back from Dingwall, it was the roughest 20 minutes of my life listening to him eating a pizza.
“If I have a black eye on Saturday at Ibrox, you’ll know why!”
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