Gregg Wylde has said that signing for Dumbarton was a “no brainer” and believes his Sons teammates have enough about them to avoid the drop.
The former Rangers man left Lowland League high-fliers East Kilbride to sign for the Sons, playing as a trialist in Saturday’s 6-2 defeat to Falkirk with the paperwork on a deal not yet completed.
And after becoming a key player for Kilby, 30-year-old Wylde believes he arrives at Dumbarton as a wise head on young shoulders.
He exclusively told the Lennox: “It was important for me to get back into league football. I’m 30 now and I’ve learnt a lot in my time – especially going down south when I left Scotland for a few years.
“I learnt a lot not just in football, but about myself as a man. Sometimes you need to go backwards to go forward.”
Wylde has vast experience having played for the Ibrox side before moving to Bolton, then enjoying spells at Aberdeen and St Mirren.
He also starred for Plymouth Argyll, Livingston and Clyde.
He said:“Starting the season at East Kilbride my aim was to get in a team going for a league. I played every minute of every game, captained the team and played really well.
“The manager Chris Aitken was fantastic and always said he wouldn’t stand in anyone’s way if they wanted to move on.
“Our last game was Cumbernauld Colts at Broadwood. He spoke to a few boys who were moving on, but I wasn’t one of them. I had a contract and I wanted to stay at East Kilbride.
“He phoned me on Boxing Day and said Dumbarton were interested. He said he wouldn’t stop me if I wanted to go.
“I said I’d take a couple of days to think about it, I spoke to my wife and my family. The opportunity for me to move up was a no brainer when I spoke to the manager here.”
Defeat at the Falkirk Stadium leaves the Sons with just one league win in their last 13, as bottom of the table East Fife visit the Rock for a crunch relegation battle on Saturday, however Wylde believes Stevie Farrell’s side have enough to drag themselves clear of danger.
He said: “Dumbarton are such a good club. We know where we are in the table, but we’ll get results. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think the club had the potential to do well in the league. We played Dumbarton in pre-season and they were very good.
“The Falkirk result is a hard one to take. But we need to move on and dust ourselves down ahead of a big game next week against East Fife.
“We’ve got a good group of players here and I firmly believe we’ll be fine.”
Meanwhile, boss Farrell was pleased to secure his first addition of the January window.
He said: “Gregg came in and did okay. I thought he was a positive. He’s been playing well at East Kilbride.
“I thought he was very comfortable on the ball and played really good balls into good areas.
“He’ll just get better too. He’s only trained once with us.
“He’ll be a good addition.”
