He made his debut against Bristol City in 1979 coming on as a substitute for young winger Mark Heeley and made one further appearance that season a couple of weeks later against Manchester City which would have been the first time I saw him play.
The following season he only managed a further appearance from the bench against Norwich City and, this being the campaign when we played 70 competitive games, he must have been wondering whether he had a future at the club.
It wasn't until November 1980 that he finally started a game, at home to Brighton which we won 2-0 with Little Mac scoring the second of the game.It was also his second in consecutive home games after coming off the bench to score against Norwich City 10 days earlier.
All told McDermott managed 26 appearances that season, including off the bench, and scored five goals. Only Frank Stapleton (14), Brian Talbot and Alan Sunderland (7 each) netted for league goals.
One though did come in the 2-0 over Aston Villa on the day they were crowned champions, Pele did a lap of honour and 57,000 + filled our Highbury.
He started the 1981/82 as a first choice wearing the number 9 in the first half dozen league games but this was a team struggling; they managed just four in those games and Little Mac scored none of them. He was to start just three more league games, scoring one goal against Everton but he fell off the radar as the season progressed and made just a single sub appearance in the last two thirds of the season; that in the 1-3 home reverse against that lot from up the road.
He did better in the UEFA Cup campaign, starting three of the four games, coming on as sub in the disaster in Winterslag. He scored a crucial goal as well, away to Panathinaikos, to set us on the way to a 2-0 win in Athens.
1982/83 saw Terry Neill spend big on Lee Chapman and Tony Woodcock which saw McDermott slip further down the pecking list. In the first half of the season he made just two appearances off the bench in the league and scored both times. He didn't return to the first team until the middle of April, after a short spell on loan at Fulham, when he began a run of seven consecutive games, scoring another two goals in a team that was struggling for consistency.
Those seven games saw us LWLWLWL but with the big money signings injured, as was Alan Sunderland, McDemott was left to partner the likes of John Hawley and Vladimir Petrovic as we struggled big time. Crowds dropped, the Manchester United game attracted 23,602, and it was left to the experienced Brain Talbot to shoulder the goal scoring burden with five in that mini run.
The following season saw Charlie Nicholas arrive meaning we had four strong strikers (Woodcock, Sunderland, Chapman (ha ha) and Charlie) and McDermott must have been wondering just what he needed to do to get a game. yet he started the season in fine form, scoring on the first day of the season against Luton but after just four games was dropped to facilitate the return of Alan Sunderland and he was back to his usual role of bit part player.
He managed just one more goal that season at Villa Park when we won 6-2 on the day Woodcock got five but Neill was sacked in December and under Don Howe made just three more appearances, his last against Notts County at Highbury.
During his five years on the fringes of the Arsenal team he managed 44 starts coming on as a sub 28 times. He scored 13 goals in that time.
Never the best player in the world but possessing some skill and pace McDermott perhaps suffered from his light build but he always gave 100% during difficult days for the club and I for one was happy to see him do a good job with Reading.
History was always against him. He was too late to be part of the Brady/Stapleton/O'Leary/Rix generation that came up through the ranks and coloured our expectations of Arsenal youngsters. He was part of the Davis/Meade/Whyte/Vaeseen group who all struggled to make an impact at the Arsenal; it took Paul Davis five or six years before he could really feel he belonged to the club
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