However, all that seems to have changed. An injury in a pre-season friendly against Darlington saw him miss the first few games of the new SPL campaign and he was arguably rushed back to soon. After scoring against Dumbarton in the cup, he picked up another injury a few games later but seemed to have shrugged that off. Sadly, his performances have remained poor and he is now relegated to the bench and the reserves. If yesterday's showing against Rangers' second string is anything to go by, he won't be back in the first team for a while.
Part of the problem may be that Dorman isn't fully fit. However, he only picked up the injury in the final friendly and has had the international break to recover from his latest setback. If he still isn't fit enough, he shouldn't be playing. Perhaps he shouldn't even be training. It would be far better to let him rest for a few weeks and regain full fitness so he can get back to his best. While the reserves are all about regaining fitness, it would seem from yesterday's performance he isn't ready to make that step in his recovery.
Another issue is that he is being played out of position some of the time. Last year he was at his most effective playing in the middle of the park alongside Gary Mason. Dorman's attacking mindset combined perfectly with Mason's holding role and allowed the Englishman/Welshman/American (depending on which paper you read) to make his forward runs. But for much of this season he has been played on the right side of midfield due to our lack of wingers. He clearly hasn't been comfortable there - although was poor in his old role against Rangers reserves. He also played in a more central position against Rangers in the SPL game at the start of October and his most notable contribution was to be replaced by goalscorer Stephen McGinn.
Maybe other teams have sussed his tricks. When you're a complete newcomer to a league and no one knows about you, it takes other teams a while to work out how you tick. Maybe they've worked out how to stop his late runs - but that doesn't explain his poor passing and his sub-standard performances.
Perhaps something happened to Dorman during the summer. There was much speculation over his future, with Bolton and Plymouth supposedly interested in signing him. Maybe he wants to leave and is just going through the motions. A similar decline was seen in Ricky Gillies in 2001. Superb in the SPL, he was poor after we were relegated following interest from other clubs, including Motherwell.
Dorman made no secret of the fact that he only saw Saints as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. I had no problem with that - to win his move he'd have to play well for us and we'd get some transfer money, so everyone would benefit. However, after a bright start he has gone completely off the boil. If he wants to win his dream move, he should be going about things in a better way. His performances in his first six months in Paisley may see him move on at the end of his contract in the summer, but if the start of this season is anything to go by it won't be to the level he deserves. He'll maybe go to a bigger SPL club or someone in League One, rather than a top Championship side or even someone in the Premiership.
Saturday sees Saints take on Dundee United at Tannadice. It was there, in the Scottish Cup in February, that Andy Dorman scored his first Saints goal with a typical run into the box. He also scored there a few weeks later, so let's hope he uses those memories to allow the real Andy Dorman to return. If he does reappear, it will be of benefit to both him and Saints.