July 15th 2024
MIDFIELDER Alan Pollock has put pen to paper on a new three-year contract with Nairn County, writes Graeme Macleod. The 25-year-old has agreed a deal until the summer of 2019 and he insisted it was an easy decision to extend his stay at Station Park, despite having other options. He said: "There was interest from other teams including clubs from a higher level, like Elgin City. I am happy here though and I get on with everyone, so it was the right decision for me to stay." "I enjoy it at Nairn and a lot of my good friends are here, like Bobo (Martin MacDonald) and RD (Robbie Duncanson). I knew these guys before I came to Nairn but I was not as good mates with them then as I am now. Even the likes of Easter (Gregg Main) and Toshy (Wayne Mackintosh), the rest of the Nairn-based players and all of the guys from Inverness are good friends of mine now and I get on with everyone in the squad here, so it was an easy decision to stay at the club." Pollock has played most of his football in a wing back role recently but is hoping to be pushed further forward in the future after discussions with manager, Les Fridge during his contract negotiations. He revealed: "That was another thing I spoke about with Les because I want to get the best out of myself for me and the team. We both agreed that would be further up the park and hopefully we will see that coming into play over the next few months." "I am 25 now and I will be 28 when the contract runs out, so I am looking to spend the best years of my career here. We already have a good squad at the club and with a couple of additions, we can do very well." "We are fifth in the league at the moment and I do not think that is too bad, considering our form has been up and down so far this season. If we bring in another couple of additions, we could really push on from here." "If you look at the squad we have now, you would say it is a good squad and we just need a bit of something extra to take us to the next level. Maybe one or two changes in the summer to freshen things up will spark something off for us going forward." Fridge brought Pollock to the club in January 2014 and after a goal-scoring debut at Keith, the midfielder has gone in to bag a total of 12 goals in 77 appearances for the club. The manager added: "I am delighted to have Alan signed up again. He is a quality player and with his contract being up in the summer, he attracted a lot of interest." "He has done really well since he came to us. He is an exciting player on the ball and came in as a central midfield player but has played more in an attacking role for us, be it wide or sometimes through the middle." Pollock's decision to stay at Station Park is a ringing endorsement of the work being done to move the club forward and proves that the right people and structure are in place to elevate Nairn County into the title-challenging elite over the coming seasons. Fridge said: "The fact that Alan wants to stay, has agreed to stay and has signed a three-year contract speaks for itself." "He is a quality player and he is always looking to be direct and on the attack when he gets on the ball. He is a good player to watch and he brings an awful lot to the team, not only scoring goals – which he has done a lot more of this season – but with assists and helping the team in other ways." The boss confirmed that a role further up the park for Pollock is something that he is looking at as he aims to find the right blend to get the best out of his squad. He stated: "Alan played in the wing back role last season and did very well. My job is to try to get the best out of players and I think there are a couple of other positions that I can look at for Alan to have him playing in a more attacking role. That is something I will have to think about." The manager hopes that Pollock is the first of several players who will pledge their futures to the club over the coming weeks and months with work well underway to tie up County's other stars. He revealed: " have been speaking to all of the players who are out of contract in the summer for the last two or three months. These things are never quite as straight forward as you might think they would be. We have been in discussions with these players because it is something I do not like leaving but sometimes players want to leave it and see what is happening elsewhere or how things go for them with us and address their position at the end of the season. That is their prerogative but it is certainly something that myself and the club in general have been working on for a while." Graeme Macleod
