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Scottish left-back Andy Dow was signed by Glenn Hoddle on a personal
recommendation from his youth team coach, Graham Rix, who had worked
with the youngster during his time with Dundee. He was just 20-years-old
when he left Scotland for London in a deal worth £250,000 to the
Taysiders, and was quickly thrown into the Premiership fray, making his
debut in a 2-1 defeat at home to Blackburn Rovers on the opening day of
the 1993/94 season. With the calm assurance of player/manager Hoddle
alongside him in defence and the experienced Mal Donaghy playing at the
back of a midfield diamond, Dow had a brief run in the team which took
in single goal victories over both Manchester United and Liverpool.
However, Chelsea's promising start was replaced by a winter of gloom and
Dow was one of the earliest casualties, being replaced by Darren
Barnard in October and not resurfacing in the first team until after
Christmas, his comeback coinciding with a run of three successive
victories which hauled the Blues out of the relegation zone.
It was a
shortlived return, though, and although Chelsea's disappointing league
season was compensated for by an FA Cup run all the way to the final,
for Andy there was no more than a spectator's role on the big day at
Wembley. The signing of Scott Minto pushed Dow further down the pecking
order and luminaries such as Frank Sinclair, Andy Myers and an
out-of-position Gareth Hall were all selected ahead of him during the
1994/95 season. Indeed, Andy's name didn't appear on another Chelsea
team-sheet until December 1995 when he was suddenly recalled for a
league clash with Liverpool. And then he was gone. For all his bustling
efforts he was, in truth, not a top-level player and in March 1996 he
was sold to Hibernian for £125,000, before embarking on a journey
through the Scottish League which took in six different clubs in eight
seasons. (Kelvin Barker).
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