July 15th 2024
We are delighted to announce that our first new signing of the close season is Conor Gethins. The forward has returned to Station Park on a one-year contract after spending five years at Formartine United. Conor said: "When I left Formartine, coming back to Nairn was always my first choice. "I have been impressed by the progress made by the club over the last few years and I am hungry to help the team improve even more. "There are a lot of fantastic, young players at Nairn and I feel I can bring that bit of extra experience they need to help improve and hopefully unlock more goals. "The management have ambitions to push the team further up the table and I will do everything I can to help us achieve that. "I am looking forward to catching up with some familiar faces at the club and among the supporters and meeting my new teammates at the start of pre-season training. "It feels like I am coming home and I am delighted." Manager Ronnie Sharp said: "After our first game of last season against Threave Rovers, we only scored twice in our remaining four games, so the forward line is an area of the park we felt we needed to improve. "We have a lot of quality attacking players at the club already but we needed that bit more experience in the final third. We are a team which creates a lot of chances in games and hopefully Conor can help us to take those chances whether he is scoring himself or laying them on for others. "I have no doubt that Conor can score goals for us – he has done it everywhere he has been throughout his career. He is hungry to score goals all the time no matter what and he has that instinct required to be a good goal scorer. Hopefully, we can reap the benefits of that throughout the season and it is a mentality which can rub off on some of the other players. "I am delighted we have been able to get him and I am looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the team." Director of Football Graeme Macleod added: "No Nairn County supporter needs me to underline the qualities Conor Gethins brings to the team. "His record speaks for itself and with our other attacking players in their early to mid-20s, we feel Conor can have a great impact on helping them to improve their game too. "He is clearly very knowledgeable about the game and impressed us with what he knows already about the strengths of his new teammates and what he can contribute to the team on and off the park. "There was a real desire and hunger from Conor to get this deal done and we are looking forward to him being a positive and vibrant character around the squad. "I have to thank Formartine United and their secretary Bryan Braidwood for allowing Conor to join us now in time for the start of pre-season training. "Make no mistake, we are not bringing Conor in to give him a last send-off back where he enjoyed some of the best moments of his career. We are bringing him in because we believe he is one of the best forwards in the Highland League. "We are all excited about seeing Conor in a Nairn County shirt again when the season kicks off on July 24th and I hope the fans are too." Conor started his senior career at Ross County in 2001, scoring 10 goals in 60 appearances over four years at Victoria Park. He had short spells at Stirling Albion and Forfar Athletic before returning to his native Ireland, where he spent five years at Finn Harps, winning the League of Ireland Player of the Year award. After a loan spell at Galway United, he returned to Scotland and spent one season at Peterhead before joining us for the first time a decade ago. Over a goals-laden five years at Station Park, Conor netted 173 goals in 178 appearances to make him our second highest goal scorer of all time. He won the Highland League Player of the Year award in 2013 – when he was also the league's top scorer – and in 2014 having been also voted into the Nairn County Team of the Century the same year, joining a host of illustrious names from throughout the club's history, including his new manager. He moved on after five seasons to Formartine United in 2016, where he lifted the Aberdeenshire Cup, Aberdeenshire Shield and Highland League (Morganti) Cup. Image by Cutter Photography.
