July 15th 2024
NAIRN County can confirm the addition of Marc MacDonald to the squad. The versatile player came through the youth ranks at Station Park, debuting as a 16-year-old against Forres Mechanics on March 1st 2003. After a total of 26 appearances, he moved on to Nairn St Ninian, where he won the 2011 Elginshire Cup before spending the 2012/13 season at Strathspey Thistle. He returned to St Ninian for three seasons and is now back where his career begun having agreed a deal with Nairn County until the end of the season. The 29-year-old said: "I had all intentions of taking a step back from football this season due to work and I aslso had quite a bad knee injury at the end of last season. But after speaking to a few of the boys and then having a conversation with Ronnie (Sharp, manager), I felt it was an opportunity I could not turn down." "My experience at Nairn first time round was not the best – I did not play very much and I would like the chance to prove that I am good enough to wear the Nairn County shirt and play in front of the great fans we have at the club." He added: "I have not played yet as I have been working hard in training and in the gym to recover from my knee injury and bring my fitness levels back to where they should be. It has been a tough few months but I feel everything is going in the right direction and hopefully I will get the shout from the manager soon." "I think the squad has a lot of talent and a good mix of youth and experience. When everyone is fully fit, we can really get a starting team nailed down and hopefully bring some consistency to our play and put some results together." Manager Ronnie Sharp said: "We have allowed Marc to train with us with a view to signing for a few months now. He has been working his way back from a serious injury and is starting to make real progress." "Ideally, we would have liked him to regain his fitness and then feature for us as a trialist. Unfortunately, we were really light on experience through injuries and holidays a few weeks ago, so we had to draft him into the match day squad ahead of schedule and name him on the bench. As it transpired, we did not need to use him, although it meant that his three trialist appearances were used up." "We felt that was really unfair on Marc as he would have been well within his rights to refuse to come along to sit on the bench before he was fully fit, so we have agreed to get him signed up until the end of the season to give him a proper chance to prove himself." "He can play in a number of positions and is the sort of player we think can fit in well with the way we want the team to play. Obviously, I have worked with him the past so I know what he is all about and he is a good communicator on the park – that is something we have been lacking." Graeme Macleod
