Strathspey Thistle goalkeeper Steve Martin put his football before family last Saturday but was left wishing he had stayed with new baby Keira after an 11-0 thumping by Brora Rangers.
Martin and wife, Yvonne, celebrated the birth of their first child last Tuesday and the goalkeeper had planned to spend the weekend at home.
But Martin, a former Brora player, received a flurry of text messages from team-mates asking him to play and Yvonne decided her husband would be better employed between the Strathspey sticks.
Martin said: “I had told our manager Brian Grant I wouldn’t be available for selection. Some of the boys had been texting me saying I had to play at Brora as a couple of my fellow Strathspey players had also been team-mates of mine when I was at Dudgeon Park.
“I still said no but then Yvonne said she would get her mother over so I could go to the football.
“In some ways I wish I had stuck to my guns as no one likes to be on the wrong end of an 11-0 thumping in a game. We went to Brora with hope and ambition but in reality we were never expected to take anything from last Saturday’s game.
“Apart from the first goal I don’t really think there was much I could have done about the rest.
“I did make a couple of saves but they scored from the rebounds.
“I also saved a Zander Sutherland penalty.
“We play Brora again at home in a couple of weeks and I’m sure we’ll put up a much better display.”
Martin, who works from home as a quality assurance officer for Westminster Council, went on to reveal a little bit about working for an employer based almost 600 miles away.
He said: “My job is all done from home on my computer, although I do sometimes go into our office at Dingwall.
“We outsource to loads of different companies but one in particular, which I kind of oversee, is to deal with people who make complaints about getting parking tickets, applying for parking permits and the like.
“My role is to make sure these contractors do exactly what they are supposed to be doing.”