Arthurlie new boy Andy Barrowman admits he is loving football once again after being persuaded to come out of retirement. 

The 33-year-old was happily retired when Lie assistant boss Tam McLaughlin chanced his luck with a cheeky phone call at the start of pre-season.

And Barrowman confessed that, despite initially turning McLaughlin down, he was immediately hooked after his first pre-season session.

He said: “To be honest, coming back into football was never on my radar. I never had any desire to come back in. 

“I’m friendly with the management team here, though, so it was just a chance phone call over the summer after Duncan (Sinclair) and Tam got the job. They asked me at the start of the summer and I said no to begin with but I decided to come down for pre-season and get a bit of fitness. I really enjoyed it and got that buzz for the game back.”

The former Birmingham City and Dunfermline forward had not kicked a ball in more than two years but he is raring to go once again after a tough pre-season.

He said: “Strangely enough I actually enjoyed not being able to walk the day after training or a game. It’s a bit weird saying that but I missed that feeling. After I played and scoring in the first pre-season friendly I thought to myself I’ve missed that feeling and that was it.”

Barrowman is fully aware however that he will need to get up to speed quickly as the Lie prepare for life in the new West Region Championship.

He added: “I didn’t know too much about junior football before I joined but I quickly realised that we are one of the teams every other team wants to beat. We’ll need to be able to cope and deal with that pressure.”