Linlithgow Rose hotshot winger Mark Stowe explains blistering start to season with two goals per game

Stowe was the standout performer in the East of Scotland League last season, bagging 43 goals in his first season with the Prestonfield club. He’s carried his form into the new campaign with 14 goals already from their first seven games.

It’s easy to see why prying eyes were cast on Stowe during the summer, with Rose accepting a five-figure bid for their hot-shot winger, but the 23-year-old opted to stay.

“I really enjoy it at Linlithgow, I have loved every minute. The group of boys, it’s probably the best changing room I have ever been in,” said Stowe who struck a double hat-trick in their 9-0 rout of StCuthbert Wanderers in the Scottish Cup last weekend.

Mark Stowe bagged a double treble for Linlithgow in the Scottish Cup

“Even going to training in times past, I would have dreaded going to training, it sounds bad, but I just didn’t really enjoy it. Going to training I know I am going to have a good laugh; the group of boys is unreal. A lot to do with how I am doing is because I am enjoying my football so much, I just love playing just now.

“There was a bit of interest in me to be fair, but I am enjoying it so much I didn’t want to leave. If I don’t do it with Linlithgow, I do want to move up the levels if possible. I have always wanted to play in the leagues just to test myself more than anything and see where it takes me.”

Given his young age, it would be easy for Stowe to get carried away but he remains grounded – thanks in part to his team-mates comments.

“They have a dig at me now and then again,” continued Stowe, ahead of Rose hosting Jeanfield Swifts in Premier Division action tomorrow.

“One of the times when I scored on Saturday, when the other team was going to take kick-off, the boys were winding me up saying I wasn’t doing well enough as they had heard about a boy scoring nine with Dunipace [David Grant hit nine goals against Wigtwon & Bladnoch last week]. There is the odd comment like that but it’s all good hearted.”

He added: “Our aim of all the boys is to win the league. We had a bit of a shaky start, we should have won the games we didn’t. It’s taken time to gel in the new boys, but everybody knows how each other plays now and we are up to speed.

“There is so much quality in the team, there is so many options, so if you know that you don’t perform one week then you are going to be straight out the next because there is boys chapping on the door, and rightly so, because they are good enough to be playing at this level.”