Rory McAllister makes a habit of gifting any awards he receives during his football career to his mother. By now, it is quite the collection.
McAllister, who has been named the League One player of the month for October, has shown little sign of slowing down this season.
Winning these awards is no strange experience to McAllister. He has collected such accolades in March 2014, February 2016 and August 2018 and was also the first player to reach a century of goals after the formation of the SPFL in 2013.
Those individual prizes, as well as the numerous match-balls for bagging hat-tricks, are put away for safe-keeping.
“She keeps it all in the house: the player of the year awards, the match-balls, the player of the months,” said McAllister. “It’s like a wee shrine. Mum keeps them all so I’ll be giving her this one as well.
“It’ll be good for my kids to see when they grow up as well. They’re a bit young just now but it’ll be good when they’re older to realise dad was maybe alright.
“Hopefully I can get a few more accolades and in doing that, it means the team is doing well.”
McAllister has 12 goals in all competitions, six of which came last month, and his form has been a big factor in Cove sitting just a point off the top of the division.
He has enjoyed an extended run in the first-team this season, something which had perhaps been missing in his early days at the Balmoral Stadium.
“If you look back at the last couple of years at Cove, I’d not really been a regular,” added McAllister. “Now I’ve got a run of games I’m doing what I do best and score goals.”
The next target for the 34-year-old is to hit the 300 mark which, according to the football stats website transfermarkt, he is 23 away from.
“I know roughly how many I’ve got but I’m not 100 per cent sure,” he added. “I’m closing in on 300 now and that’s the next aim.
“It would be good to get there – it’d be a fine way to go out – and hopefully if I keep going the way I’m going this season maybe I can get there.”
McAllister will be part of the Cove side which takes on his former club Peterhead this weekend, where he became synonymous with topping the goalscoring charts before moving to the Aberdeen side in January last year.
As he has got older he has adapted his game and has a well-known figure to use as inspiration.
“I’m not the same player I was six or seven years ago but I’m finding my best form again,” he said. “Play in a good team, you’ll get chances and score goals. Look at Ronaldo; it’s not the same level obviously but he’s adapted his game.
“You’ve got to conserve your energy a bit more and maybe save it for when you’ve got the ball. You learn all the time and you get a bit wiser as you get older.”
Cove find themselves third in a congested division, with just two points separating the top four in League One.
All signs point to the title race going to the wire and Cove are looking to put themselves in a position to challenge.
“You need to string a few results together in this league to establish yourself near the top,” said McAllister. “It’s at the turn of the year you need to do it so hopefully we can go on a run until then.
“This is the time of the year where you get your base level of points in and establish yourself near the top of the league. You can put a marker down to the other teams.”