On Saturday at 1pm we will be unveiling a wood carving statue of three club legends. The statue will be located just outside the entrance to the QoS Arena and will honour the achievements of club legends, Allan Ball, Billy Houliston and Stephen Dobbie. 

 

Allan Ball played more games for Queen of the South than any other player in the club’s history. In a career at QoS lasting from the early 60s to the early 80s, Ball played in goal for QoS’ first team on 819 occasions (731 games were league and cup, the rest were challenge games and testimonials). As well as being a key member of the promotion-winning team of 1981, 'Bally' also enjoyed many great personal moments in a career with QoS that continued well beyond the day he hung up his gloves. He served as an Honorary Director of the club from December 2001 right up to his death in July 2018.

 

Billy Houliston is the only Queen of the South player to have gained full international recognition with Scotland. As well as his three full caps he was capped nine times in all at different levels for Scotland scoring eight goals. A rampaging centre forward, Houliston was never on a losing international side. Billy went on to become a director of the club in 1957 and served up to 1994, spending almost 37 years on the Board, including a spell as Chairman in the early 1960's. His son Keith, would also go on to serve the club as both a player and a Director.

 

Stephen Dobbie is synonymous with the modern era of Queen of the South. First joining the club in January 2007, he scored 55 goals in his first two and a half years before his exploits earned a move to English Championship side Swansea City. Over the next 9 years he four times reached the English Championship playoff final, earning promotion with three different clubs (Blackpool, Swansea City and Crystal Palace) and playing in the English Premiership. Fulfilling a vow he made on his departure in 2009, 'Dobs' returned to the club in 2016 to finish his playing career here. Players making such promises is not that unusual, actually doing so is much rarer. He was appointed Club Captain by Gary Naysmith in 2018. In just over 3 years he has added a further 99 club goals to his total and stands as the 2nd highest scorer in club history with 154. He also broke a club single season scoring record which had stood for over 80 years when, at the age of 36, he struck 43 times last season, and did so despite missing almost two months of the season with hamstring injuries!