Football glory is Stonehouse's David’s goal

Jun 5 2008 by Lesley Brown, Hamilton Advertiser

PUPILS from Stonehouse Primary made their mark at last month’s Davie Cooper Soccer Sevens Tournament held in Hamilton.

The boys’ team were runners-up and all the players turned in excellent performances.

One of the stars of the tournament was Stonehouse Primary’s central midfielder David Ferguson.

The 12-year-old plays regularly for his school and also turns out for Motherwell Pro Youth.

Keen to play professionally in the future, David said he hopes to move on to Motherwell FC and his dream is to appear for the national side.

The youngster, who has lived in Stonehouse all his life, admitted he loves everything about football, both watching and playing, but enjoys most other sports too.

David currently trains three nights a week for Motherwell’s youth team, with whom he has played for a year, but still enjoys a kick-about in the garden.

His mum Margaret, who describes her son as ‘football-daft’, said: “We give David all the encouragement and support we can because as long as he’s happy, we’re happy too.

“He’s never happier than when playing football.”

While fully in support of her son’s ambition, Margaret admitted: “I do think it’s important to have something to fall back on because in football nothing is guaranteed, you can so easily get injured, so we make sure David focuses on school work too.

“Back up plans are important because you just never know.”

Before playing for Motherwell Pro-Youth, David played for Larkhall United’s youth team from the age of 10, and can’t remember a time when football wasn’t part of his life.

Margaret and husband Robert take an interest in the sport, and love watching David play. Younger sister Rachel goes along to support her brother whenever she can but, as Margaret points out: “If she went to see him every time he played, she’d never get the chance to do anything else!”

David, whose idol is Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard, said that even though he spends so much of his time training, he still can’t get enough of the game and doesn’t see himself ever getting bored or giving it up.

When asked what he felt was the key to success in football, David replied: “Practice, just lots of practice.”